Wedding, fishing, grads, and Jaguars

I arrived a bit early in Edmonton. First to drop off a few pieces of luggage and then to collect Mom at the airport. From there we headed over to see Vince and Rosemary for a few hours before checking into the Sutton Place Hotel. Sutton Place was the base for many for the wedding of my niece Alana (my brother Mark and sister-in-law Carmen's daughter) to Mike George. The rooms were large and the suites huge - perfect for people getting together over the weekend.

Alana and Mike celebrated their wedding at the oldest (and prettiest) church in Edmonton: Saint Joachim's Catholic Church. Service was accompanied by lovely singing, was of perfect length and had Alana and Mike exchange their own vows. Outside the day was warm, sunny and prefect for the horse drawn carriage to take the couple around the block before family photos and on to fun at the reception held at the Muttart Conservatory.

Onto Whitecourt where Neil and Gayle and Abby have invited me to stay. Just a few days later we were on the road again to overnight in Edmonton for Mom's 7:00am flight back to Nova Scotia the next day. And for my road trip down to Calgary to swap Jaguars. I prepped the 2001 red one for sale and attached the license plates to the new 2008 dark grey one.

A day later back to Whitecourt and a change of clothes to head out with my brother Blair and his father-in-law Camille to fish on Slave Lake. Wonderful weather for the 2 hour drive, place the RV on its hookup spot! and out onto the lake for an initial 2 hours fishing. Camille landed a jackfish (tossed back as they are too bony), Blair landed a perch (good fish but hard to catch) before all of us landed the main feature, walleye.

Perch	Walleye	Jackfish

Saturday dawned sunny but with quite high winds that kept us off the lake until evening - time to eat, drink, and chat. Sunday morning was calm as glass and great for a final few hours fishing before heading on back to Whitecourt. A bit of congestion on the return with Fisheries and Peace Officers and their roadblock to check for illegal catch and/or drinking (we cleared right on through).

During the "downtime" Blair and Camille put together some amazing lures from the stash Blair had.

Two of my neices graduated from high school this year. Jennie in Calgary and Morgan in Whitecourt.

I missed out on being in Calgary for Jennie but was happy to hear she had a wonderful time at both the grad and the dance.

I was in Whitecourt for Morgan's grad (after spending a few days out at the Eagle River Campground with Neil, Gayle and Abby - always great fun and we had pretty good weather). The graduation was in 4 parts (mass the evening before which I did not make; convocation and grand march which I attended, and the safe grad party only for the grads and their friends). Took loads of photos for her and Blair and Romona at the 2 I attended and later at their home capturing many of the visitors but most importantly Morgan in various settings.

The rest of my time was dinner party time! It took me all day to prepare one for 20, but I got to relax for the one held by Carmen and Mark. And then we did have a big afternoon of food and drinks in Blair and Romona's backyard and home on grad day.

Also liked the time on the river's beach, and hanging out in backyards while I was in Whitecourt.

This post comes from the half way point for me to re-reach Winnipeg to visit Kerry and Donna for 3 more weeks.

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