Nobody believes me when I say that the 80 days thing is a coincidence. But it is.
We leave the day after Isabel's last exam and return the day before the first full day of school. 80 days.
Actually from take off to touch down at Winnipeg International is 79 days and 20 hours, but door to door from our house... precisely 80 days.

And a bit about the backstory. In 1993 after three years in veterinary practice Lorraine and I quit our jobs and backpacked around the world for eight months, doing everything from living in a cave in Greece (a very nice cave mind you) to camel trekking across the Rajastani desert to celebrating Christmas in Hong Kong to island hopping in Thailand to volcano climbing in Indonesia to living with a family in Samoa to... well, the list does go on and on. Everyone said, "Wow, that was the trip of a lifetime!" To which we responded, "Nooo! It can't be the only time we do that! It just can't be." We swore we would do something similar again when we had kids. It's 22 years later. Isabel is 13. Alexander is 10.
It's time.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Dim The Lights

It's time for a slideshow. Make some popcorn, pour yourself a drink and dim the lights. If you're the type who likes to fall asleep during slideshows, then move to the end of the couch and curl up with an afghan (I mean the crocheted blanket, but if you prefer the hound or the person, be my guest).
These are our favorite pictures, many of which have appeared in the blog, but some of which have not. The music is Philip Glass. Don't let that frighten you, he was in an unusually melodic mood.

Around The World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FaDLEAU3mQ

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

The Carbon

We've been back almost three months and the blog has been... um... resting. No no, not dead, just... resting. I have shaken it awake today to tell you about carbon. Back in the spring Isabel did her science fair project on the carbon emissions traveling around the world would generate. She looked at the differences between the modes of transportation we used and at the most reliable and cost effective way to offset those emissions.

Today we finally got around to purchasing the offset. Isabel's research showed that Britain's "Cool Earth" (www.coolearth.org) was one of the best reputed organisations in this field. Their strategy of involving local communities in the Amazon in the preservation of otherwise soon to be logged rain-forest was far more effective than planting trees (too may die). Our 60 tonnes of emissions could be effectively offset by paying to preserve a quarter acre. To be safe we preserved a half acre.  

I imagine that my more cynical friends will be groaning at the political correctness of it all, but I hasten to remind them that the term "politically correct" contains the word "correct". I don't care about the political, but I do care about the correct. So there.

(Incidentally, I now also have a less politically correct blog at vetography.blogspot.com.)