#MicroblogMondays: There's no place like home...!

We are home! We arrived last Wednesday, exactly four weeks and 4,965 km (about 3,000 miles) after we left, and after driving 2,152 km of that total distance (1,337 miles) over three days, 8-9 hours each day, along the northern shore of Lake Superior (including stops to eat, use the bathroom & check out the scenery).  It's a trip that I couldn't imagine taking if we had had children, or if we had still been working. Certainly not over four whole weeks -- which is why we've always flown to see my parents previously over the past 31 years. For a good part of our careers, we only HAD 3-4 weeks of vacation a year (we started with 2; 5 weeks kicked in once we both crossed the 20-year service mark).

Overall, it was a good trip, and I am glad we did it. There were moments of exhaustion and frustration, there were mosquitos and there was bad weather -- but there were also good times with my extended family, a meeting with my recently-discovered fourth cousin from Scotland (how cool is that??), fun with the Little Princesses when we (finally) got to my parents' home, fresh vegetables to gorge on from my dad's garden.

Some of the drive home was monotonous (rocks, trees, lakes, and more rocks, trees and lakes...), through very isolated terrain where towns (nevermind Tim Hortons outlets, lol) were far & few between -- one sign warned us that this would be the last gas station for 185 km!! (about 115 miles) -- and, at times, it was difficult to tune in a radio station.  There was a lot of roadwork, which slowed us down a bit.

But overall, the roads were pretty good. And there were some very pretty, even spectacular, sights along the way, particularly the long stretch between Thunder Bay & Sault Ste. Marie, along the northern shore of Lake Superior. Not for the first time, I marvelled at what an amazing -- and VAST -- country we live in!! and at the hardiness of the pioneers who carved out these communities in even greater isolation than exists today.

Still, as wonderful as it was to have such a great holiday and spend so much time with my family, it was good to come home to our condo and our new furniture, and start getting back into our usual routines. Including, I hope, blogging (& blog reading & commenting) more regularly again...!

People have asked me if we'd do it again. I would. But probably not for a while again. ;)  And definitely NOT in the wintertime!!

Have you had a good summer? (Or -- for Mali's benefit, lol ;) -- winter?) 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.