Where have we been?

Sorry for the month + off - we were out and about for three weeks of good old fashoined vacation. There is lot's to say so get comfortable...

Our Vacation!
After Jessica finished a quick t.v. spot on Global Saturday morning (think way back to August 30th - what you wern't watching at 7:30 am????) we loaded up the car with enough gear to outfit a family of 9 and headed out into the world for 3 weeks of 'not work'.

Paul's goal was to cram in as much fishing as possible and Jessica's goal was to read as many books as possible. It all worked out in the end even though Paul did far more fishing then actuall catching we had a good time and got to see lots of friends (and a few family)and try out the new infrared camera. --> This is in Fish Creek Park near Jessica's mom's place.

After a stop in the Calgary area to see Jessica's mom & grandmother, and Fish on the Bow River & Elbow River with Paul's friend Ian (thanks to Ian's mom for letting us camp at the ranch!) we stayed a couple of nights in Dinosaur Provincial Park, zipped down to Medicine Hat (Thank Lana for letting us stay at your house (and meet your new boy - Jeff -ooooooo), visit Jessica's other grandparents and what not, we spent a few days on the road to Lethbridge.

One of our stops was Red Rock Coulee.

We also tried o stay in the hotel in Mannyberries- but we couldn't find anyone there so we ended up camping here...

These people purchased the train station after it had been abandoned... it turned out the couple used to be a geologist & teacher.... sound familiar? We picked this route - the 'Red Coat Trail' because it has a HUGE number of ghost towns & great photo opp's!

We had a great (although short) visit with Kelli & Jeff in Lethbridge (thanks Kell for giving up your bed) before heading off into the wild for a few days of nothing but fishing for Paul & reading for Jessica.

We also stopped in Longview, visited the Bar U Ranch, Bow Valley Provincial Park & stopped by Calgary for more fishing on the Bow River.

Vacation Stats!
8 Ghost towns visited
14 nights camping
2 nights in hotels

Paul's Final Tally:
14 days fishing
4 fish in the net & let go
12 fish on the line
7 rivers fished
20 flies lost.

Jessica's Final Tally:
10 books read
no books lost.

Sad News

On an unfortunate note when we returned home, after greeting the cats we checked the phone messages to receive some sad news. Paul's Grandmother (Oma), who has been the center of the extended Glombick clan for years has suffered a severe stroke. She has survived and is awake but doesn't seem to really understand what is going on around her. She doesn't seem troubled or anxious. One of the nurses at the hospital last night (Kim) was amazing, knew who needed a hug, knew who needed to have things explained to them in more detail, knew who needed a joke, knew how to get Oma's ring off without cutting it off and most importantly (to me) knew what to say when there just isn't anything you can say. Thanks Kim.

These photo's are from a month ago when Jessica spent a day on the farm picking raspberries (the best day of the year so far for raspberries according to Oma - lucky us, that it was our turn to pick!).



Segway news
Lastly, an update for those of you who are wondering what is up with the segway battle...
Well, Paul had to send a second letter to minister of transportation after it was the minister CLEARLY didn't read the first and sent us a generic PFO. After the second letter we got a slightly (?) better response... they want more information on Pauls condition before making a decision (although some of the question they asked were questionable --- example: what will you do in the winter? as if the fact that Paul won't be using it for 4 or so months a year is reason enough to refuse our request) we are still moving forward and plan to keep pressing for Paul to receive an exemption at the least. On another note, on our vacation, the kind folks at the Bar U Ranch had no problem with Paul using the Segway in the park- thanks to them Paul was able to explore most of the park and enjoy a great day taking pictures in a really cool setting. Not everyone thinks Segways are evil tools of death and destruction!

Jess & Paul