One Year Away

Joseph

You may be wondering why we stopped posting for a while.  Well, on June 19th we left the spice island of Zanzibar and started the long journey home.  We decided to take a 12 day interlude in our trip to attend weddings for two of our friends in Canada.

Our friends Dan and Jo got married in Toronto last weekend and next weekend Alex and Marie-Claude will be married in Chicoutimi, a town in north Quebec. 

So, after taking a ferry from Zanzibar to Dar-es-Salaam, a flight to London via Dubai and then another flight to Montreal we were met at the airport by our parents on Thursday, June 21st.  Penny’s parents prepared a delicious lunch and BBQ to welcome us home and it felt great to be home and with our families.   

Never ones to sit still for long, Penny and I took the train to Toronto on Friday.  There we were happy to meet Penny’s brother and sister-in-law and a few of our friends who we haven’t seen in a long time.  Saturday was the wedding and it really blew us away.  Dan and Jo’s fairy tale wedding managed to be lavishly stunning while still feeling welcoming and fun.  From the valet parking to the 3 bands to the incredible after-party nightclub tent the wedding was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  And through it all the couple looked relaxed, happy and were enjoying themselves.

After the wedding I managed to sleep for 2 hours before having to wake up Penny to drive me to the airport.  (Thanks Penny!) I had Alex’s bachelor party to attend in New York City.  Alex thought I was still in Africa and thought that I would be missing his bachelor party and wedding.  So I secretly arranged to meet my friends in a dim sum restaurant where you choose food off a cart pushed by servers.  They sat so that Alex had his back to the entrance and I came up from behind pushing a cart.  I said, "Har Gau, Shaomai", (the names of my favorite dumplings), loudly as I walked behind him.  The blank, stunned look on his face as he turned around said it all.  My friends had done an excellent job of covering up the fact that I was coming to Canada and Alex had no clue at all.