Our Vancouver Visit: Family Dinner

After our recent travels by bus to Southampton and Canterbury and by train to Paris and Brussels, we'd almost forgotten about the hassles of travelling by plane, but today's long journey out to Gatwick airport (about 55 kilometres south of our flat), the long wait at the airport, and the dry plane air soon reminded us of that! Nevertheless, air travel is still remarkable, if you really think about it, and just like our recent sighting of Saturn through a Belgian telescope, seeing the earth from a plane always feels a bit surreal.

The landscape finally began to look familiar as we began our descent to Vancouver International Airport:

After the oddness of filling in that we are "visitors to Canada" rather than "residents of Canada" on our landing card, Bob was very quick to settle back into the comfort of his parents' home:

Bob's sister (Susan), her boyfriend (Dave), and son (Toby) soon arrived for a family dinner, kindly prepared by Dianne and Bruce: steak and mashed potatoes (one of our favourites)!

We enjoyed our dinner

and then Bruce, Bob, and Dave went downstairs to watch hockey (oh, how Bob's missed his hockey--and being around people who care about hockey at all) while Toby played the keyboard for Dianne, Susan, and me.

It wasn't long after that Bob and I were both asleep, oddly enough in our own bed with our own bedside tables, lamp, and clock, since Dianne and Bruce are kindly storing them (and a whole lot more of our belongings) at their house!