January 3, 2013 (Return to Eagle View RV Resort, Fort McDowell, AZ)

We’re back!  We were up and at the airport before 6:00 a.m. this morning to catch the 7:00 flight to Calgary with connecting flight to Phoenix.  It was a very cool, frosty morning in Victoria…they even had to de-ice the plane before we could take off.  Why, oh why, I booked a Thursday flight that had to go through Calgary rather than a direct flight to Phoenix on Friday, I’ll never know…but I did and I have made a “note to self”…never do that again!  The connecting flight was a little tight especially since we were 20 minutes late taking off from Victoria and the international departures terminal was on the other side of the airport.  It wouldn't have been too bad if we just had to make our way to the other gate but it wasn't that easy.  Once at the other terminal, we had to pick up our luggage and go through US Customs (yes, we cleared Customs in Calgary).  After dropping our luggage off, we then had to go through security and get to our gate.  We made it as they were loading the plane…with 10 minutes to spare before the flight was scheduled to take off.

But after all that rushing, the flight was uneventful and we arrived on schedule at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.  The sky was clear the entire flight so Steve was in his glory taking lots of pictures...

We gathered our luggage and found the 'Supershuttle' pickup area and were soon on our way back to Eagle View RV Resort.  It is sure nice seeing the clear blue sky and sunshine again...but the temps are a lot cooler than they had been.  It was 59F/15C and with the wind, it was chilly.

Our truck and fifth-wheel were just as we had left them...and after checking into the resort, we got set up in our favourite site (#122).  It was just after 2:30 so we could have driven the short distance to McDowell Mountain Regional Park but we figured it would take a lot longer to get out of the Phoenix airport (we didn't know that we would clear Customs in Calgary). 

When we checked into the RV resort we were given another coupon for $10 each to play the slots at the casino.  We were tired and really didn't feel like going out but we also had no food in the trailer for dinner...so we took the shuttle over to the casino just after 5:00.  After relaxing with a drink at the bar, we headed to the slots to try our luck.  For a change I had more luck than Steve...no big wins, but we managed to play for about an hour and a half without using any of our own money.

Totally stuffed after visiting the buffet, we called the shuttle and headed home.  Steve went right to bed and read for a bit while I stayed up and responded to a few emails.

Now for a quick recap of our time in Victoria…

(Unfortunately, my old camera did not take very good pictures...most had to be deleted because they were blurry...I am looking forward to getting my new camera back from Canon)

Steve snapped these pictures of Sidney Island...and Sidney...as we came in for a landing at Victoria International Airport...

The day after arriving, I spent a wonderful afternoon shopping with my friend, Nancy.  We both were looking for the perfect baby shower gift for my daughter-in-law, Angie…the shower was Sunday afternoon.  So many cute baby things!  Here is Angie with her two friends, Heather and Jennie, who hosted the baby shower...

Monday night, I got together with a bunch of my “old” work buddies and enjoyed good food and company catching up.  Lynn had quite a houseful…it was so good seeing everyone!

The rest of our first week was spent going to various appointments…from haircut to doctors to dentist…and before we knew it, one week had gone by!  Chris (our son) arrived from Vancouver with his cat, Dexter, to spend the Holiday Season.  

We put the tree up Friday night…here is Angie with Rob, who is holding his "First Christmas" tree decoration made for him by his Aunt Linda...

We had our traditional Christmas Eve…enjoying appy’s (Rob’s chicken wings were yummy!) and playing Rummoli…Angie was the big winner this year ($1.50)!

Christmas morning we opened gifts…

And then Steve made breakfast…well, he cooked the bacon...

Christmas Dinner was at Nadine and Mike's (Steve's sister and brother-in-law).  On the way we stopped to see Steve's Dad and wish him a Merry Christmas...unfortunately he wasn't feeling well enough to join us for dinner...

The gang settled in for a great turkey dinner...

Thursday, Chris’ girlfriend, Angela (yes, both sons are with “Angelas”) came over from Burnaby to spend a few days.  They exchanged gifts…I think she likes it!

Friday night Angela and Chris cooked a pasta dinner for Angie and Rob, while Steve and I went over to my brother’s place for dinner and a visit.  Here is Helen (my sister-in-law), Vanessa (niece) and my brother, Dwight...

On Sunday, Chris and Angela headed back to Burnaby.  We had such a great visit with Chris…a little shorter visit with Angela but it was wonderful seeing her again.

Rob, Angie, Steve and I went out for a lovely dinner at the Fireside Grill in Victoria for New Year's Eve.

I thought that we would bring in the New Year at home...trying to stay awake until midnight...but on the way home Angie suggested we stop in Sidney at the Charles Dicken's Pub.  We were early enough to get a table but it wasn't long before the place was packed.  We ended up ringing in 2013 there...what a great evening!

We had a pretty slow start on New Year's Day and then decided to get outside for a little fresh air...and geocaching with my new GPS.  It's amazing how many geocaches there are...even in the trails around the house...

Found it!

After that, Steve and Rob took down the outside Christmas lights while Angie and I took down all the decorations and tree inside...pretty soon all was back to normal...Christmas was over for another year.

One thing that happened while we were back home, is that my laptop quit working...apparently it didn't take too well to being dropped.  The hard drive was damaged and had to be replaced.  We managed to get that done fairly quickly but while I was re-installing everything, I noticed that the drive was not the same size as the one that had been in it.  Our laptop had a one terabyte drive, now it had half of that.  So I called the fellow at Discovery Computers back...he told me that it actually had two 500 gigabyte drives and one just had some old back-up files on it...both were damaged.  Well, I expected to get back what I had taken in...apparently he had taken upon himself to only replace one and he didn't tell me this.  I was somewhat miffed about that!  So Wednesday, the day before we were flying back to Phoenix, we had to take the laptop back into Victoria to have the second drive put in it.  

After dropping the laptop off at 8:00, we went out for breakfast and then drove down to Ogden Point for a walk out on the breakwater.  The sun was shining but it was a very chilly morning...

We had had a great visit back home but were anxious to get back to our "home on wheels" in Arizona.  The next time we are back in Victoria, we will be meeting our first grandchild...we can hardly wait!