Vancouver (with a brief stop in London first) 

We began our journey to North America with an early morning taxi ride to Izmir, an important city mid-way up the West Coast of Turkey.  Our flight to London was at noon, on Turkish Cypriot Airlines, and thankfully, was uneventful.  Other than our telling Ron & Natalie, with whom we were staying, that the arrival time was scheduled 2 hours later than it in fact was.  As it happened, they thought to make a phone check, and discovered that the scheduled arrival time had already passed, but the plane was late, so it all sorted out in the end.  

Our London stop was only for 2 days, but as luck would have it, the middle day corresponded to the first day of the London Boat Show.  Such a shame - we felt we HAD to go.  We've been to many boat shows in our life times, but never the London one, so this was a special treat for us.  It was really like being in a candy store, especially after having lived for over 2 years in the relative wasteland of new boat stuff that is Turkey.  We were mostly disciplined, but did manage to find a few things that we had wanted to add to our equipment list. 

Then on to Vancouver - a long flight, but on Air Canada's Business Class, using the last of our hard-earned United airline points, it was very tolerable.  

We had a superb visit with John & Rosalie in their newly renovated (phase 3) house in West Vancouver.  They have created a beautiful home, elegantly decorated, and worthy of AD status.  Among the wonderful features is a showplace wine cellar which not incidentally is filled with their truly excellent wine collection.  It was the beginning of the recovery of our wine taste buds which had deteriorated badly since we'd left France and Spain 3 years before.  Food wasn't too shabby either.  

Enthusiastic and generous hosts, J&R held a small party for us, inviting many of the close friends that we'd not seen since our last trip "home" in mid-2002.  Everyone brought fantastic hors d'oeuvres, and more wine and booze than we could consume.  After it was all over, I believe John & Ro ended up on the plus side with respect to wine.  Not a bad strategy for growing one's cellar ...

A second highlight of our visit was an overnight trip to Barb & Harry's Whistler home, also the subject of recent renovation.  The original house had been quite wonderful, but the new layout and decor are spectacular.  It was bitterly cold the first night, and we were reminded of why we live in more southerly climes.  However, the next day the snow which had haunted us since our arrival in Vancouver promptly turned to rain.  Warmer, but not nearly so pretty.  

A superb dinner at La Regalade, a country French restaurant in West Vancouver, finished off our Vancouver visit with a flourish.

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Victoria

We took BC Ferries to Victoria on Vancouver Island, where we visited at the family residence of Garry's sister, Daphne, and her husband Lynn.  They have a great new home in Saanich, about halfway between downtown Victoria and the town of Sydney, where the mainland ferry arrives.  Garry's mum, Dea, having just turned 90, also now lives permanently with Daph & Lynn.  Temporarily, so does Daph's son Reid and Reid's baby son Jadyn.  This works remarkably well for all, but we think mostly for "Grandma" Daph.  Daph's daughter, Alexandra and her husband Sean, Lynn's daughter Britta, her partner and their baby daughter Jalyn, and Lynn's other daughter Fiona, were all frequent visitors during our stay.  This was definitely a family visit!  Most of the time we spent just being with family, but one special highlight was a trip to Butchart Gardens, which while spectacular in the summer, is equally intriguing in the winter months.  

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Up-Island

In the middle of our time with Daph and Lynn, we borrowed Daph's car and traveled up-island to see friends Ian & Steph Smith in their new home near Nanaimo, and Brenda and John Bavin, with son Brody, at their home in Comox.  Ian & Steph designed their home while they lived in San Francisco, and they supervised the building once they finally left California to return to BC.  It turned out beautifully, and not least because of Ian's real expertise in woodworking.  He's crafted tables, railings, bureaus, and other objets d'art, that really make their place unique.  They have a home theatre to die for.  The only problem is that the chairs are so comfortable that it's easy to doze off in the middle of the show.  John & Brenda moved to Comox from Vancouver years ago, and John has created a very successful business building high-class houses in the area.  John was an integral part of the finishing of Freja II, and it was great to catch up with them - we had

not seen them since Brody was a tyke. 

An extra bonus of our travels up the Island was the discovery of the extent to which BC wines have improved.  All the time we were living in Vancouver, BC wine was moderately priced, and moderately drinkable.  Now, many wineries are producing very good to excellent vintages, and some have been winning international awards.  Regretfully, the prices have escalated to match, but we managed to test a few anyway.  

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Montreal 

Around the beginning of February, we headed back east to Montreal to visit Ann's parents and sister.  In their mid-80's, Walt & Shirl are doing well, having recently moved from Ste Jovite, their home of 25 years, back to an apartment in "the city".  A family party at sister Carol & husband Harry's home gave us a chance to see many relatives, including Carols' kids, Erin & Adam, Shirley's sisters, Mary and Barb, Barb's kids and grandkids, plus a few assorted other cousins.  It snowed on most days we were there, but we had some good walks, some great smoked meat sandwiches, and a chance to buy and install a new computer for Shirl & Walt.  We also made a special visit to Ann's childhood friend, Joey Bronstetter and her husband Angus MacPhail.  Having not seen them for quite a while, it was a great trip down memory lane for all.

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Calgary

A quick stop in Calgary enabled us to see Ann's brother Tom, his wife Kathy, and their two boys, Paul and Scott.  Tom is significantly taller than Ann, and Paul, at 16, has recently crept past Tom in height.  Wow, it's not often that Ann feels short!  The boys play in a number of different sports all year round, and we all trooped to one of the local rinks to see them each play hockey.  They didn't win, but both teams acquitted themselves pretty well.

We also spent a short time with Dale and Graham Clarke, friends who we've known for eons, and key members of the Y'Quem Society.  Though we didn't crack any of that fine wine, Graham did bring out a couple of pretty special vintages.  They too have a new home theatre, and their chairs are also too comfortable!

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San Francisco

After Calgary, we had a brief stop in Vancouver for a superb Valentine's Day lunch with John & Rosalie, Barb & Harry, and Jim & Laurie Dryburgh.  Then it was on to San Francisco, though we discovered upon checking in for our evening flight to SF that it had been changed to noon that day, and we'd missed it.  Evidently they had left a message on some phone somewhere about it, and that was it.  Amazing.  So we had an extra night in a sleazy hotel in Richmond before getting up at the crack of dawn the next day.  The good news was that we didn't have to pay anything extra - although that was not initially a foregone conclusion!

Greg & Bev were patiently waiting when we finally arrived at SFO - and more than anything else, that arrival seemed like coming home.  Our visit with the two of them was superb, if too short.  We had many chores to take care of while there, including dental, medical and shopping marathons.  With our late arrival, and finding out that our last day there was President's Day, we had to condense the must-dos into a shorter time.  Bev was so kind to lend us her car, so that we could run around the Bay Area, though we did try to keep her mileage down to a dull roar.  Even so, we spent only a fraction of our time with them, and we felt badly as a result.  

Packing was an interesting challenge - in Victoria we had bought 3 (cheap) large wheeled duffel bags to add to our one older one (also cheap).  We had made many of our trip purchases while in SF, and so decided a complete re-pack was in order.  So we laid the bags and the goodies all over Greg & Bev's living room floor.  Ann, the packing queen, then proceeded to stuff.  Miraculously, it all went in - when all was done, we had 4 bags, 3 at the maximum weight (32 kg), plus 2 backpacks and a shoulder purse.  Luckily, most of our international flights allowed this much, though lugging them through airports was less than fun.  Needless to say, although they lasted the trip, they were definitely trashed by the time we got back to Turkey.

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London 

Last stop on the tour - same as the first - London.  Ron & Natalie met us again in the big yellow van, and this time we had a proper visit.  We did a number of touristy things, like visiting Greenwich, and straddling the Prime Meridian.  We went for a morning walk in the country, complete with a pub lunch to wrap it up.  One night Ron led us to one of those tiny unknown restaurants that are his specialty, where we had excellent Indian food.  We also visited Hampton House, an terrific castle/museum not far from Ron & Natalie's home in Ham.  Turns out that you're not allowed to take pictures inside, which we didn't know, so immediately after the last pic below, a very self-righteous matron came storming up to Ann explaining in no uncertain terms that photos were forbidden.  Gracious she was not.

We also "helped" Ron & Natalie decide on a new TV.  While we were certain that they should buy a complete home theatre system (all our friends seemed to have one), they seemed a bit reluctant.  Can't understand it - it's so easy to spend other people's money!

The flight back to Izmir in Turkey was fine, other than the extra £150 we had to give Turkish Cypriot Airlines for the privilege of carrying our 110 KG of luggage.  Pricey, but not nearly as expensive as shipping it all to Turkey, and having to pay customs agents to get it in "duty free"!

Our pre-arranged taxi met us in Izmir, and we were back in Marmaris by about 2 am.  Toucan Tango was just fine, and we fell gratefully into our own bed, ready to begin the unpacking on the morrow.