Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I'm back in the States and happy to be home. On my drive back from the airport, I called Hubby to see what plans had been made for dinner...I hadn't eaten since 8:00 AM and was hungry! Since we're eating out tomorrow night with family, he suggested we just stay in for the night. He would "scrounge something up" for dinner, as he said on the phone. I was a little nervous for what that meant but decided to pass fast food by on the way home. When I walked through the door, he had a lasagna in the oven and was making a Caesar salad and garlic bread to go with. Do I have a great Hubby or what?!

Thursday was a pretty lazy day for me, which is a new concept. I walked to Tim Horton's for breakfast and decided I am definitely a potential diabetes candidate. I've get to get this sugar addiction under control! Right after I eat this chocolate-dipped glazed donut, of course, followed by this hot chocolate. Oops...is that a maple-dipped glazed donut under there? Well, just this once...

Friday meant a noon departure back home. We dodged thunderstorms throughout the Midwest and finally made it to Tulsa to clear Customs. They were waiting for us and spent just a few minutes before rushing off to greet two other airplanes. It helps when we're prepared so they have nothing to annoy them. What a busy airport! Even with clearing Customs and getting fuel, we were airborne just twenty minutes later. The guys at Tulsa BizJet are crazy fast! Two hours, fifteen minutes later and we were landing at Mesa-Gateway to drop off some passengers.

What a great week. I came home so happy and fulfilled and content. I really get a lot out of flying, I tell ya. And it's slightly more addictive than donuts.

Mesa -- Salina, Kansas -- Montreal, Quebec -- Halifax, Nova Scotia --

Hamilton, Ontario -- Tulsa, Oklahoma -- Mesa

Halifax to Hamilton

Golly, work is fun.

We left Halifax yesterday and kissed the pouring rain goodbye forever! What a wet mess. I always watch them fuel the airplane, too, so I got soaked for that twenty minutes. They finished just in time for my passengers to arrive. I loaded bags in the rain, loaded the passengers, and we were on our way to sunnier skies!

It was a two-hour flight to Hamilton, which is just south of Toronto, and we were back on Eastern time. After getting the passengers' bags loaded in the car and sending them on their way, I helped button up the airplane for its two-day wait on the ramp at Jetport. Then we hopped in our awaiting Soccer Mom minivan to Hamilton. After a delicious lunch at an Indian buffet, we stopped at Walmart so I could get some of my favorite candy in the world...Reese's Bites. They don't sell them in the States any more, and I must say it's a highlight of my northern trips. I'm always worried I'm going to arrive to them not being available any more, but they have new packaging now...that's promising. Maybe it means they aren't just emptying the Hershey vaults into Canada but actually still making them, too! Oh, happy day! These things are addictive, but I only get them when I'm in Canada. So I'm relatively safe.

I walked to a restaurant for dinner last night, then came home to watch the Oklahoma City - Memphis NBA basketball game on television. I really hope OKC goes all the way for how hard they've worked and how far they've come in the past few years!

I have today off. It's not warm enough to really do much outside, but I plan to walk around and explore some Canadian stores. Their malls are so...interesting. And it always makes for some great people-watching! Maybe grab a donut and hot chocolate at Tim Horton's for a late breakfast? Hamilton is always one of my favorite stops!

Cruisin' to Canada

We thought this day would never come...that I'm back at work! It feels wonderful as I write this from my hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It's reassuring to know I really do have a job, and it really is to fly a really cool airplane. I love visiting the Great North, but more so in the spring than the dead of winter. This trip has been great so far.

It began yesterday with a 7:00 AM departure from Willy-Gateway Airport, where we had some maintenance done over the weekend. We headed east but needed to stop for some fuel in Salina, Kansas before being on our way to Montreal. Boss #2 even served us some in-flight goodies from his Sprouts stash. Because he is so awesome, I munched on grapes, string cheese, Pink Lady apples, sweet potato chips, and sesame seed crackers. You certainly don't get service like that on airliners! Granted, it was a little backwards in that he brought it up to us instead of me serving them. I won't complain.

Something happened for the first time ever...we were met by an actual PERSON employed by Canadian Customs. Usually, a simple phone call is made and an entry number is received before we go on our merry way. In Montreal, however, we had two Customs ladies waiting for us! We got to answer a lot of privacy-invading questions and even show our passports. It was fun. We do this every time we come back to the States, but I have never experienced it on the Canadian side. When she asked if we had more than $10,000 in Canadian money on board, my three passengers just burst out laughing. Luckily, she had a sense of humor, too.

We left Montreal this morning and landed in soggy Halifax in Nova Scotia. My job provides the opportunity to see parts of the world that probably would have been previously overlooked by me. I don't know that I would have put Halifax on my list of must-see places, but it's incredible! Not so much today...their twenty-third day of rain in a row. Other than sneaking out for a bite for dinner tonight, I've been relaxing in my hotel room with a good book. And HGTV. And I feel an early night coming on...I'm beat!

Headed back west tomorrow to one of my favorite stops in Ontario. I really do love Canada. And all of the neat language accents that come with such a northern visit.

Good night from the Atlantic Time Zone...four hours ahead of Phoenix at home. Wow!