Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving isn't the huge deal that Thanksgiving is in the US, but it's still a day of family gatherings and food, lots of food. I like the Canadian date better. It spreads out the holidays a bit more, and besides, wasn't Thanksgiving supposed to coincide with the end of the harvest? The Canadian date (which happens to be Columbus Day in the US) is much closer than the American date.

In any case, Farley and I ventured up to our ancestral lands last week to spend Thanksgiving with the family in Saskatoon. I got this great shot of the moon over Lynden, just before I crossed the border into Canada.

Megan and Caroline flew up to Edmonton on Friday, and drove to Saskatoon with Pete and Marian and Tom and Devin. The only ones missing were Sarah and Alvin, but I guess we can give them a pass. Lusaka to Saskatoon travel is neither cheap nor convenient.

Here's Marian and Caroline just before tucking into the turkey dinner with all the trimmings that Mom prepared. She's slowed down over the years, but she can sure put together one hell of a feast.

Tom and Dev on the couch at Grandma's.

Mom and Megan.

Martha and Allan and Megan.

Without internet or even a cell phone, Martha is an analog (except for her big screen HDTV and satellite setup) gal in a digital world.

Here's Farley getting (and giving) some love from Katrina. He was a big hit with everyone, except possibly with Lucy, Martha's little white mutt. Within about 30 seconds of arriving at Martha's, Farley had managed to vacuum up the entire contents of Lucy's open-feeding dish of dog food. Later in the trip, he managed to eat a half-dozen buns and more off Martha's counter. Like the rest of us, he was well-fed while in Saskatoon.

An extra added bonus on this trip was my Mom's brother Pete's 80th birthday celebration. I got to see a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins I don't normally see.

Here's a shot of Mom with her sister Susie and their baby brother Corney.

Here's the birthday boy himself, with his friend Celeste. There must be good genes on my Mom's side of the family. She has two brothers and a sister over 80.

The weather in Saskatoon was strange. It was cold and windy when I arrived last Tuesday, breaking a nice spell of Indian Summer. Then on Thursday, the snow came. It was odd because the leaves on the trees hadn't even turned brown yet. I wish I would have got a picture of the green leaves that fell off the trees on to the freshly fallen snow. A bit of cognitive dissonance, I'd say.

This shot was taken in Hinton on Monday. Mostly the roads were in pretty good shape, but as I approached the mountains on the way home, there was a stretch of snowy, icy conditions. I had left Edmonton shortly after 6AM to get a good start on the 800 mile drive back to Seattle, but when I got to Hinton the road was closed due to a major wreck. 3-1/2 hours later I was on the way again, but my early start didn't do much good when it took me 7 hours to do the normally 3-1/2 hour drive to Jasper.
Another reason for the slow pace was a herd of mountain sheep, licking the salt off the road. There were oblivious to the cars, but Farley wasn't oblivious to them.

As well as being a good sea dog, Farley proved to be a good car dog, and a great companion on the road.

It was a great trip!