The winter is well underway – to state the obvious – as the cold weather descends upon the prairies and the term polar vortex is on people’s lips. Strangely enough, Edmonton has just gone through another unseasonal warm up and a great deal of our snow melted. The deck was completely clear.

But don’t be disappointed it’s cold again!

But not as cold as Winnipeg which is where we’ve been for the past week – well that and Elkhorn Conference Center and Spa. I skipped the Spa part should you be wondering.

We had never been here before – though we have tried three times before arriving. Diving to this national park – never knew that this was here before – was interesting as you come off the very flat prairie and suddenly arrive in what seems more like hills, trees, and rivers.

We enjoyed the experience, the people and the week…which ended back in Winnipeg for a couple of board meetings — but you won’t care about that!

For whatever reason, the airlines are limiting some of their flights out of Winnipeg – why I don’t know but airlines tend to make decisions based on financial reasons. So we found ourselves having to fly to Vancouver to then fly to Edmonton. It was clear there were others also trying to get to Alberta on the plane.

Flying west at dusk is always fascinating as you chase the sun over the horizon and makes for some excellent photographs except those airplane windows really don’t help the quality!

As we came into Vancouver from the south east, the sun gave an opportunity for some other great photos.

I don’t know for sure, but based on time, and the other cues in the topography I think this is us crossing the Selkirk range – the highest point that the railroad had to get past as they joined the east and west.

As we approached Vancouver the sun stayed just at the horizon and gave the photo a wonderful light. I took a 2 minute video coming into the airport without recording the landing. I’ve been in and out of the Vancouver airport lots of times. They have a new pizza place – wish it was there long time ago!

Here it is… the approach.

By the way – you may notice winter in Vancouver has a different look – if you can afford it.