Great read and beautiful pictures so far.^ You really lucked out in terms of weather as mid-May can be a real crapshoot here.

Had to laugh at your description of the scrum at the gate at LHR. It's always been like that with Toronto flights whether you are leaving from T5 on BA or T3 with AC. AC has improved of late though as they are much better at enforcing priority boarding and use a second bridge for J pax.