I made a final push this afternoon and finished off my trip journal for my family's recent trip to Europe. There are lots of photos and videos and stories if you're interested.

It was a fantastic trip!

I've been working steadily on my travel journal for our trip to France, but I also just finished another book so it's time to blog about it.

Like The Wheel of Time, the Dark Tower series from Stephen King is one of the defining reading experiences from my childhood. Stephen King is unfairly branded a "horror" author due to his early work, but this series is much closer to fantasy than to anything else. I loved it growing up and I also loved how he'd tie it back and forth to other books he wrote that weren't explicitly Dark Tower novels.

King finished the series in 2004, but he recently released "The Wind Through the Keyhole" which is a short novel set between the fourth and fifth books. I love the whole Dark Tower and gunslinger mythology he's built up so I knew I'd enjoy this addition as well. The book features nested story-tellling and gives further insight to Roland's past. Any fan of the series should definitely check it out.

On Sunday my mom, my brother and I returned from an epic two week family vacation in Europe spanning the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Iceland (with my brother joining us direct from an additional two week trip of his own in Australia). We had a great time and the trip is the reason I haven't blogged lately (first I was busy preparing, then I was on the trip).

Now that I'm back I'm going to start working on a trip journal complete with lots of photos and fun stories. I intend to finish before I leave for my next trip in July: canoeing in the Northwest Territories!

In the meantime, here is a photo of Mont Saint-Michel at sunset.

Mont Saint-Michel at sunset