Well we have come to the end of our stay with Dave, Stacey, Caleb and Grace in Medicine Hat.
A bus collects us at 2.00pm today (Thursday) and takes us to Calgary Airport.


Lilian goes home to Ireland but my next stop is Albania. Weather still balmy here. They get a warm wind called "The Chinook" which can lift the temperature considerably so although we are in late October in Canada we are still in our T shirts!


In the meantime here are some of the latest pictures of (mainly) Caleb. (Grace doesn't do much yet!)

Took Caleb to the pool the other day. He really loved it. Here are some of the pictures. He especiallyenjoyed the water coming out of the pelican! In the end he didn't want to come home but we had been there for about four hours!

Local elections here in Medicine Hat for the Mayor and Council. 19% turnout which makes us in Ireland seem like voting fanatics! Weather still superb, clear blue autumn skies and warm breezes. Thought that I would devote this post to mainly pictures of our amazing Grace, who is as quiet and sleepy as Caleb is noisy and very wide awake!

Rapid change of seasons now that we are in Medicine Hat and over a thousand miles north of Los Angeles. We are well into the "Fall" as they say here, or as we say, "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!" It a beautiful time of year here with lovely warm dry weather and we are out and about a lot.
Really good to see Dave and Stacey and Caleb again and of course Grace is a wee dote.
We went out to Troy and Pamela's house and played on their trampoline. Troy and Pamela have loaned us their jeep again and so that's great for getting around in. Driving up here is a lot less frantic and stressful than L.A., although the fuel is more expensive. I'm paying nearly 45p a litre up here, absolutely scandalous!









Thought I would just post some pictures of Caleb this time as I am told they are worth a thousand words each!

Oh, and a pic of one of his friends, (Troy and Pamela's daughter, Seija) on a trampoline!

Mystery Solved! He's alive and well and driving a bus in Los Angeles!

This blog is running late. We've come to the end of our time in California and have headed up north now to Canada. Stayed overnight in Calgary and headed down the next morning to see Dave, Stace, Caleb and now Grace. These are a couple of pictures of our last few days in California. That was the "Holiday" section of the Sabbatical and it was a great couple of weeks just chillin' out in the warm sunshine of Southern California. Some lifestyle down here and September seems a great time to visit.

And the animals that don't make it end up where?

Would seriously consider this as a holiday location, especially with the dollar as weak as it is. Great clean beaches, good restaurants and warm sunshine every day. Once you get out of Los Angeles the pace of life slows away down and it's very pleasant indeed. Really enjoyed our time together here.

We've done a lot of walking and some cycling and lost some of the weight we put on in the earlier stages of the trip. Next post will be from Canada.

LOOK OUT! IT'S A GREAT WHITE!
Gotta watch out, these guys get you in the shallow water!
Here we are in the hotel pool in Santa Barbara, California.
Having a great time here relaxing and sight seeing. Santa Barbara is basking in clear blue skies and a very pleasant 75 degrees!

A few days ago we went out whale watching and came across a school of enormous blue whales, the largest creatures on earth! To give you some idea of the size of these things, their tongue weighs more than an African Elephant and their heart is the size of a small Volkswagen! We followed four of them for an hour or so in a high speed boat, they were cruising at about 15 - 20 knots. I hadn't realised that you could smell whales, but when they "blow" there is a distinctive fishy smell. (Now there's a business, giant breath mints for whales!)

We also had schools of dolphins, hundreds of them, jumping and diving around in front of the boat.

This is a big seafood region, which suits me well, this is me with my plate of linguine and clams at the harbour restaurant.