Here we are in the Plaza Airport Lounge at Pearson, sipping 2 glasses of Canadian Chardonnay and enjoying some quiet pre-boarding time with an assortment of snacks. If all goes well, we’ll be Paris-bound in about 2.5 hours.

Like 16 years ago, we are pretty stressed and tired and looking forward to a relaxing adventure in France.  But, unlike the last time, when we were running a business and figuring out how to keep it running while we were overseas, it’s our puppy, Chaos, who is giving us some grief.  Months after we booked this holiday that we were both so excited about, Chaos, who is 10.5, was diagnosed with kidney disease.  He stopped eating about 2 weeks ago.  Steve has spent an incredible amount of time and energy researching and trying all sorts of food combinations to tempt him, with the help of the vet – some have worked some haven’t.  Last Sunday, we asked Nick to bring Brook over to see if any competition would help, which it did a bit, so we kept Brook for 3 more days.  That, in combination with an anti-depressant, seems to be working well enough to keep Chaos going while we’re away.  It was a tough decision to leave him, but he’ll continue to be with Brook, and Nick and Edith will take good care of him.  Yelena will monitor him and make any decisions on our behalf.  So here we are, leaving on our holiday, but not quite as excited as we were expecting to be.

A little over 2 hours later and we’re airborne.  We’ve been cruising along the US side of the St Lawrence River – easily identifiable.  Looks like we’re heading up into NFLD, then straight across the Atlantic.  We are on our way!