So we are home!  It was an incredibly long day!  We left our lovely hotel at 9 am to make our way to the airport, allowing time to get lost, which we did, get gas, which we did and got directions and take our car back and head in to check in and go through security.  We arrived at our line to check in, which must have been 1/2 mile long to find out that our flight was going to be 3 hours late... not 12:15, but 3:15!  The line was long so that they could rebook everyone on the flight with their connecting flights.  We made it to the desk by 11, found that we would now arrive in Newark, NJ at 5 instead of 2 and would be leaving for Houston at 7 - Not.... that flight was also an hour late and had some difficulty along the way which slowed us down some more, so we landed at 11:30 and our terrific friends, Barry and Shelly were there to greet us.  1:00 AM we cruised into our driveway and Rick rushed to bed as he was on duty at 7 am the next morning. I unpacked and waited for Elissa to come home from a night out with friends... needless to say, a short night.  But little Sprinkles was here to greet us and was happy to be at the foot of our bed again....

The next day greeted us with brilliant sunshine and we headed back to the international airport to pick up Katy (my older daughter) from Montana.  Its been a whirlwind affair since then, getting ready for Elissa's dear friend Raechelle's wedding this weekend.  Baking and cleaning, shopping and baking... we did fit in a dinner with James, Amber and Riley (my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter) and also had Riley for some play time in the pool this afternoon.

Our trip was a fabulous one and we have been left so many memories of a lovely land and many nice people.  Of course the reason for the trip as you have read in these last few weeks, to meet the family of the brave young scotsman who risked his life to save our Dad's, only to perish himself a week later, was the most remarkable event!  To meet and get a real sense of not only who Alexander Barrie was, but how proud he would be of the family he left behind.  We are so blessed to have met them!  If there are any updates to this story, I will add them in, but for now, I will close  with something I read at the RCAF Museum in Trenton, Ontario:

High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941

So appropriate in honor of those two brave young soldiers of World War II - Flying Officer William Sprinkle and Sargeant Alexander Barrie and the countless other young men who fought for the freedom we enjoy today.