Beef cheeks and Justin Trudeau…

Well, that went fast! It’s amazing how quickly the time went by. After months of planning, our holiday was complete and we headed home. We managed to fit in a lot, while still trying to keep it relaxed and easy.

We had a 9:15 am taxi coming to take us to Charles de Gaulle airport. Morning traffic was starting to build up, but our driver forged ahead. It took about fifty minutes to get to the airport. We had no problem checking in our baggage – in fact the line only had one person ahead of us.

Security was a little more backed up. Despite having priority security, they sent us over with the general populace. It went quickly, though I did get pulled over for a secondary scan. Personally, I think she just thought I was cute and wanted a couple minutes more. 😉

One last stop and that was passport control. We would have flashed through, but they were having a slight problem with the reader.

We exited and headed to our gate. Unfortunately, the Business lounge was before security and we weren’t going through that again. We found a comfortable group of seats and waited for our flight. Jan and Dave took a little walk and came back with some 1664 Beer. That would make up a little for the lack of a lounge.

We were flying home on Air Canada and it was delayed for a half hour as the flight crew hadn’t arrived. Dang, morning traffic!

The actual flight was great. The fold down seats in business class are a God-send. You can get comfortable, get excellent food and personalized service. Besides that, with the US dollar exchange rate to the Canadian dollar, you can save some money. So, that was the fun part. For those wondering, we had very tender beef cheeks as our meal on the flight home.

We then had to drive from Toronto to Buffalo. We were cruising right along, making it to the Ford plant in Oakville…and then the traffic came to a standstill. It took us over an hour to get from the Ford plant to Hamilton and we couldn’t figure out why. It opened up a bit in Hamilton, but we were noticing Ontario Motorcycle Police everywhere. We kept going and then picked up in the rear-view mirror a HUGE number of police escorting someone.

I tried to out-race them as we were nearing our exit to the Lewiston-Queenston bridge to the US. Then a motorcycle officer caught up to me and waved me over. So close and yet so far. When the parade passed us by, there was no chance to cross the lanes and get to the exit.

We ended up having to drive to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. We didn’t have anything to declare (except our frustration with the traffic), so once our passports were checked, we were welcomed home and sent on our way.

We thought that both couples would get home before dark. Instead, it was three hours and forty-five minutes just to get to our house. Yikes!

Hugs, kisses, handshakes and waves goodbye ended our time together. Knowing they would still have to drive home, we kept a vigilant eye out for a safe text. We did get a text saying everything was good and they were home too.

It felt good to be home. A few texts later and we were relaxing. The driving was a little stressful, but a warm shower helped with that.

Now all that’s left is to wait for the wine to be delivered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, so I will confess. There were a lot of great meals and wines over the three weeks. I stepped on the scale and I hadn’t gained a pound…talk about excitement ! I never thought that would be the case.

We subsequently found out that it was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who caused our traffic woes.