International Lampoon’s North American Vacation

It is decided, booked, done and dusted! This morning, as you can see in the previous entry, Ethan got his passport, and this afternoon we got/found an offer we couldn't refuse and booked our tickets to Canada. It was a bit last minute, a quick decision making process, and very much the way we roll.

In the beginning of November we’ll be heading out from Glasgow and fly direct to Toronto where we will be spending a few days with friends and family. Really something I am looking forward to as: 1) So far, I have only met Jean Noel from the Fortin side of Shaena's family and am very keen on meeting a few more family members. 2) Our friends from the Dublin-years live in the area around Toronto, and they have all visited us here in Scotland, and now it is our turn to meet up with them on their own turf!

Our tour of North America continues to Winnipeg a couple of days later where more family and friends are eagerly waiting. Keith has promised to take us sightseeing outside the city of Winnipeg, which I am really looking forward to as I haven’t really seen much of Canada besides Winnipeg in my last two visits. I have also never met Danika, our friends Jess & Bain’s gorgeous little daughter, so I am very much looking forward to that as well! Last but definitely least - the KISS-concert! Still working on the tickets for this, but that would really be the icing on the cake for this trip!

We will also be paying Aunty Nini in Grand Forks, North Dakota a visit and possibly even Minneapolis, Minnesota for some world class shopping! Nini has promised to front the $6 it costs for us Swedes to cross the US border in Pembina. Obviously, that sum of money would otherwise be a complete deal-breaker, so who can resist such a generous offer? :) Can’t wait to see what Nini has done with the house since last time we were there!

I am going to commence work on a very ambitious list with 'tourist attractions of interest' which I will then post here on the blog for everyone's review and comments, but mostly to help Keith with his budgeting on how many jerry cans he'll need to keep in the back of his truck for our drive.

I am not sure if Keith is fully grasping the extent of what he is getting himself into by offering to take us out driving. We can be quite very ambitious tourists when we need to! Over the years we have become quite good at blitzing many tourist attractions in a short period of time. For those of you who followed our old blog; remember that time in Italy when we did 4 Italian cities in 5 days?

Needless to say, we are very very excited right now and we are so much looking forward to a couple weeks of holidays and meeting family and friends! Thank you very much to everyone of you who are helping us out with this trip, every offer of a place to stay in your homes, every offer to take us out for a drink, borrow cars, strollers, car seats, and more.