We are HOME!

The temperature in Abu Dhabi was 36 degrees the afternoon we left. Our only hope was that there was no snow in Edmonton when we arrived! We spent our last afternoon in the United Arab Emirates in very high style. First we had lunch at the Royal Meridien Hotel with 2 gentlemen from Takreer Oil Company (Khalil, the Project Manager and Fami, the Construction Manager). They represent the owner of the plant Les was working on. Both were very sad to see Les leave the Emirates, they appreciated his expertise and dedication in trying to bring safety initiatives to the project.

After lunch we drove around Abu Dhabi, making as many visual memories as we could and then...went to the Emirates Palace Hotel for coffee. What an experience that was! It is a most incredibly beautiful facility. Gold plated light fixtures, door knobs, and walls, crystal chandeliers, marble every where. Such opulence! We had coffee in the beautiful lounge area. Mine was the "Emirate Palace Cappuccino" - the foam of the coffee was covered with gold flakes, 2 creamy chocolate truffles beside and served on a silver service. Les' espresso was served equally ornately. We wandered around and oohed and awed for quite a while. It is a huge hotel with lovely furnishings and architecture.

Just after midnight on Friday, April 13th we boarded our flight for the first leg of our long journey home. We did have a few moments of craziness at the Lufthansa desk when we checked in our luggage. They do not have the same luggage allowance as Air Canada does! Our 5 suitcases and 1 box were within our limit with Air Canada (7 bags between us). Unfortunately Lufthansa allows only 2 bags per person and took all of the bags down their ramp before telling us that. Two of our bags could have been carry on luggage but they were gone before we could take them with us! When they tried to charge Les $250.00 PER BAG for the 2 we were over he did have a small, quiet argument with the Lufthansa people. After a BIT of a discussion with a manager we were allowed to take all of our bags without having to pay the excess baggage fee!!!

We flew from Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt with a stop in Bahrain, Bahrain. Then from Frankfurt to Toronto where we had to pick up our bags and go through customs. I was a bit worried about this. First would all 6 bags make it this far with us and second, would they open any of these bags that took me forever to pack??? All was good! The bags all came off the luggage carousel in good shape and we walked through customs without a hitch! YEAH!!! We loaded the bags on the next carousel and waited for our flight to Edmonton. Happily, all 6 bags arrived with us in Edmonton too. All in all we had a very uneventful trip home. It was a long process and certainly not as great as my flight on Air Qatar to Abu Dhabi but it was comfortable. I didn't want to live on this airplane for ever as I did on the Air Qatar airplane!!

Sarah was NOT at the airport to meet us though! No one was there - were we even missed?? Sarah did arrive about the time our luggage came off the carousel so we weren't left to find our own way home!

It was great to be back in Canada and in Edmonton. As we all know, it's nice to go away and experience other cultures, climates, and people but it is FABULOUS to come home. We are so very lucky to live in this great country and it's always good to be reminded of that.

And so again, I thank God and Les for the opportunity to experience all that I did this last 2 1/2 months. It was a time in my life that I'll never forget. The sights that we've seen, the cultures that we've experienced and most importantly the people that we've met (and the one's that Les knew and I luckily got to meet!!) and become friends with. May they always be in our lives. Thanks to all of you who kept in touch with us while we were away, and for all of the comments about our blog - I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we did living them!