What I did on my summer vacation

[The Wizard of BC]

Bobbie and I have returned from our business/vacation trip to Scotland.

I thought I would share some of the adventures we had and photos we took.

The first thing you should know and understand if you wish to go to Scotland is to check and double-check with your airlines to insure you have not overloaded you bags.
We first packed everything we though we would need, and wanted, for the trip and then discovered that we had overpacked by about 40 pounds.
So late the night before we were due to begin the trip we spent about three hours frantically re-packing and paring down our bags to fit within the Charter flights weight restriction. I'm afriad to say that I was forced to pack and unpack so many times that I left some important stuff behind like my Charcoal Argyle Jacket and shirts to go with my dressier outfits.

Then On Wed. the 17th of June we loaded our bags into a taxi for the short ride downtown to the bus station for the three hour ferry ride to the airport.

Vancouver International Airport has just undergone a major upgrade in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. One of the sculpture pieces in the airport is this magnificent piece.



It is called "The Jade Canoe". It is a bronze done by First Nations artist Bill Reid. I thought I would let you all see this with Bobbie standing next to it for scale as it is on all the Canadian 5 dollar bills.

On the way to our gate we were met with this view of a river running down the length of the terminal.




The river led bubbling and rolling over rocks and glass salmon to this enormous aquarium.




The aquarium is full of local saltwater fish, anemones, and starfish from our local waters.



And what to our surprise but two divers in the tank feeding all the fish.
The divers were hand feeding all the anemones with cut up squid and the starfish with clams and mussels.





Then there is this wonderful piece.



It is called "Raven meets Fog Woman" and tells the story of how raven stole fish from a Woman who in turn created Fog so that Raven would become lost and had to return the fish.

Then it was onto the plane for an 8 1/2 hour flight direct to Glasgow.


More to come.