Hi guys, we've finally had a chance to slow down enough to start the blog. It has been simply awesome in the weather department, according to our hosts, Dave and Linda R. But without further ado, I think I'll just start posting the pictures for your viewing pleasure(?)

 Above you can see a rather different view of the I-75 as it meanders south toward St. Ignace. Thanks to our air transport company, we barely made this first plane! It was supposed to have been a Q400, leaving from the Sault 45 minutes later, but due to Porter Airlines competition, there are less Air Canada passengers to service. Because of this, they changed the plane to the much smaller (read s-l-o-w-e-r) Dash 8-100. This, in itself, is not so bad, but when it makes you almost miss your plane when they didn't notify you, well, then it gets a bit touchy. All's well that ends well, however, and so after a much frenzied farewell to our children, we were winging our way ever so slowly toward Toronto amidst the cacophony which is the Dash 8-100.

Things went without a hitch after we hit Toronto, although once on the plane, we had a short delay while one of our African passengers took a little longer than the rest in finding the plane. (Language barrier, maybe?) Regardless, after only a 15 minute delay, no longer having to find and remove her baggage from the plane, we were off and flying to Frankfurt, Germany on the wings of one of Air Canada's Boeing 777's. At first it sounded like a hot rod as it rose into the sky (Air Canada, fix your planes!), but then it settled down a bit as we began a much gentler assent to our cruising altitude. The noise-cancelling headphones they give you in First Class helped a lot after that to calm things down, but I was not very proud that the name "Canada" was attached to this noisy machine. Anyway, we eventually made it to Frankfurt, where we were confronted with some of the sights you can see below.

 Singapore Airlines' Airbus A-380 behemoth getting ready for departure above, with Frankfurt airport in the background

Deserted Hallway, Frankfurt Airport

Below you can see the Passenger Loading Bridge being withdrawn as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner prepares for its departure

 Notice that white painted circle on the tarmac?  That's where the two-wheeled, computer-controlled trolley retracts to when it is waiting for the next plane. Notice also, all the yellow crosses directly underneath the nose of the airplane. Each one is marked for the nose wheel placement of each and every different type of aircraft design. For instance, one of the second lines is marked, "B772", for Boeing 777 type 2. The tow vehicle puts the plane's nose wheels on that exact spot, then someone else punches the plane type into the computer, and the "Jetbridge" does all the rest on it's own, according to its' pre-programming.

Below, you can see it as it continues its journey.

And now you see it come to rest below, in its' proper storage place.

 In this picture above, you can see all the yellow nose-wheel marks, as well as our next topic of discussion, the orange tow-bars to the bottom right of the picture.

 As you can see, the tow bars are all different lengths and circumferences, depending on the weight and length from the nose-wheels that each aircraft possesses. In the picture below, you can just make out the white labels with each plane type printed on them.

At the last minute, Lufthansa was forced to change planes, which afforded me the opportunity to photograph the scene below. The two workers are hitching up the tow boom for our Airbus A321, so the tow vehicle can get us out to the taxiing area where the plane's jet engines then take over.

 The tow vehicle now attached, the ground crew now secures the boom to the A321's Nose wheel carriage.

Once everything's secured, our journey can then begin.

 This was the view out the front of our shuttle bus, as it transferred us to the area our new aircraft was located in. Notice how well the lines are painted that the bus follows. I know that airports are supposed to follow international conventions, but Frankfurt just seems busier and more organized than any other I've ever seen. Could it be the German location responsible for that impression?

As with everything else on this tarmac, everywhere you go, all the lines are clearly and freshly painted to guide each vehicle exactly where it is to go, right down to the circles painted for the benefit of the computers driving the Jetbridges!