In Dublin's fair city

Took the bus tour of Dublin today. Lots of history. Neat buildings. Had my chai at Insomnia coffee. Shout out to Frank - we went to the James Joyce museum. Word to the wise, if you take a double decker bus tour of Dublin - even if it is the end of July - dress warmly! We about froze our tatas off. So we're regrouping at the hotel getting ready for the concert tonight. Lovin' this city! Lovin' traveling with DL!

Multicultural Dublin

Denise faded in the afternoon yesterday, so I put her down for a nap & went on a walkabout. I got lost, but I got in a great walk. I saw things I'll probably not be able to find again. The thing I really noticed was all the different languages I heard being spoken. Still love hearing that Irish lilt - second only to the Scots. Lots of folk smoke too. Fortunately they no longer smoke indoors, but they sure do while they're walking. Our room is small but cute. Something really odd is we have to insert one of our card keys in a slot in the room for the lights to come on - & we have to leave it in there while we're in the room . I guess that way people don't leave the lights on after they leave? Walked down Grafton Street. Cars are prohibited on it & it's lined with all manner of shops. What's really fun is all the street entertainment. If you've seen the movie "Once" it's just like that, no surprise since it was filmed here. There seems to be a real vibrancy to this city. I may head out to check out a pub. Afterall, it's my first day in Ireland. Denise is done. I'm sure she'll regroup tomorrow. We plan to take one of the bus tours of the city in the morning. The pass is good for 24 hours & you can jump off/on as you like. Then we'll be listening to "my boys" Libera in concert tomorrow night. I can't wait!

Who got frisked in security at Eugene Airport?

That would be our very own Denise Larson. Actually her issues started when I saw her "medium" suitcase (we agreed the medium size cases should be big enough for a 12 day trip) - which is the size of my large suitcase. Okay, so she has 5 pairs of shoes. I think she has her hairdryer & flat iron in there as well. Then our flight is delayed for 2 hours meaning we only have 1 1/2 hours to get to the international terminal in San Francisco & clear security. We ran in to John David from PACU on his way to meet his wife in NYC & spent our delay catching up with him. The United agent in Eugene nicely sent our bags on to Aer Lingus, but wasn't able to give us boarding passes. She told us we could just go to the gate & get them there. Wrong! We landed in brilliant sunshine in San Francisco after being told we were delayed due to weather. What a difference 2 hours can make. So we boogie over to the international security check point only to be turned away because we didn't have boarding passes. We backtrack & find the Aer Lingus counter & are assisted by possibly the slowest ticket agent known to man. We go to get back into the security line & now it's doubled in size. DL notices our tickets say the gate closes at 1415 - just a scant 15 minutes away. I find someone in a TSA uniform & tell them of our plight & she waves us in to the shorter line. This line is not moving. I find another person in uniform who just blows me off. I try another one & this time we get moved to the front of the line. Oh yeah, I may be short in stature, but I can move mountains. This time though I get stopped because I had water in my stainless steel H20 bottle. I didn't have time or a place to empty it okay? So they have to scan my bag again. Tick tock! We are now walking quick time to the very last gate in the international terminal & arrive as they are starting to board our plane. We are sweating big time now, but we made our flight where many people who flew with us out of Eugene didn't. So we get on board & I start tearing up. This trip is a big deal to me. I never thought it would come to fruition. Then I hear our Irish flight crew & start beaming from ear to ear. They're so cute! What wasn't so cute was a 10 hour flight where they didn't really dim the cabin lights. Weird. I was able to catch a few winks, but Denise couldn't. She was intrigued by a couple of teenage brothers sitting in the center seats next to us. Those boys ate non-stop. Started with Subway sandwiches, moved on to a gallon size bag of candy bars & cookies, saltines with cheese, another Subway sandwich, not to mention the 2 meals we were served. It was a very smooth flight, thank God. We landed in Dublin at 0930. It's 8 hours ahead of Eugene. It was sunny & really quite warm when we landed. It's clouding up a bit, but dry & in the 60's. Lovely. Our taxi driver was a hoot. I understood maybe 3/4th of what he said. I smiled & laughed at the rest. While driving we looked over & saw a rather largish woman with hot pink hair petting ... a large reptile of some sort on her shoulder. Welcome to Dublin! Our hotel is quite nice. It's located pretty centrally. Very comfy lounge in the basement with a computer room. I'm a happy girl! Our concierge Marco is so sweet. He sat down with us & went over a map of Dublin & talked about some tours we could take. Poor Denise needs to have a little nap, but our room isn't ready yet. She's a trooper though. I hope I'll be able to teach her how to get onto our blog & get her to write something during our journey.

2 hours of sleep

Is this a good thing? I was up till midnight fussing with what to pack. Sheesh. I should be able to sleep a little on an 11 hour flight, right? Okay, last minute sweep to see if I've forgotten anything. We'll pick Denise up soon & then off to the airport! Woo hoo! I can't believe this is really happening.

Time to start packing

Okay, I can't procrastinate any longer, it's time to get serious. We're taking small suitcases. Aer Lingus charges for suitcases by weight - at least for the flights from Ireland to Scotland. I figure if I help their economy too much I can always mail stuff back. :-) It's going to be about 30 degrees cooler there & rainy. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a break from the heat. Was it really 105 degrees today? So I'm off to sort out my clothes & such. Can't forget my moonstone earrings from Allison. She said they protect travelers. More research shows they're good for navigation. Particularly good for me since I was raised on an island where everything was either towards the mountains or towards the ocean. I hope Denise has a good sense of direction! More tomorrow from San Francisco if I get the chance. Love you all & thanks for all the good wishes!

One week to go/what to pack?

I have different areas of Ireland & Scotland bookmarked on my Weather Channel app. It has been raining nearly every day in both countries since I've been keeping tabs on them - for the last 5 months or so. See, Oregon really isn't that bad as far as rain goes. Temperatures have been pretty consistant also with highs in the 60's, lows in the upper 40's & 50's. I have a good rain coat from REI & an umbrella. Just got the voltage converters & plug adapators for our trip. I've heard horror stories of women burning their hair with curling irons, etc. Got to keep our iPhones, cameras & camcorder charged up. Shoes are an issue. Have to be comfortable - duh. You don't want to wear white tennies - they just scream "tourist." I'm short so I just have to have something with a heel. I'll suffer the consequences. They have to have a good sole with traction & be waterproof. Also you need something you can slip on & off as you go through airport security. I wound up with a pair of Merrells - with a wedge heel. I'll keep you posted on how my feet hold up. Clothes-wise, I guess layering is the way to go. I've got a backpack I plan to use (my first ever!) since we'll be out & about. Naturally I have hand sanitizer in my purse. What to do about kissing the Blarney stone? Disinfect the stone - will they let us do that? Disinfect our lips before & after kissing said stone? I'll get back to you on that.

My first attempt at blogging

Hello! So it's 11 days & counting till Denise & I leave for Dublin, Ireland. We're flying from Eugene to San Francisco, then straight over to Dublin. That's an 11 hour flight. I bought heavy duty knee high support stockings (as recommended by a surgeon - ok, it was Dr. Swangard.) We're also going to dose ourselves with 81 mg ASA before we fly. NO DVT'S! We are scheduled to arrive in Dublin at 0900. We plan to take a bus tour of the city to get a lay of the land. Denise wisely suggested having a "home base" to take day trips from rather than moving every couple of days. Dublin sounds like a fun city. The majority of it's population is around 25 years old - half my age!

Speaking of my age, that's what started the notion of this trip. I turned 50 on Christmas 2008. I received, and am continuing to receive lovely gifts from my lovely husband, Stoy, & this is another one of them. I've wanted to visit Scotland for as long as I can remember...Loch Ness, dragons, the Highlands, castles, "Brigadoon" - all terribly romantic. I mentioned this to my co-worker/friend Allison, who was planning an amazing trip to India. (I live life vicariously through her.) She told me to write my idea down & make it happen. I kind of poopooed it off thinking I would never be able to do it. Then I mentioned it to Stoy. Allison kept after me.Then I started doing some internet research. Allison kept after me. And it just kind of snowballed from there. I had every intention of going alone. I saw it as my right of passage as I entered the 5th decade of life. Stoy had serious misgivings about that idea. Our son Reyn didn't want to go & Stoy isn't able to travel. People at work (Teresa) said it would be sad to have no one to share this incredible experience with. Thank God Denise stepped up & asked if I'd like company on my trip. The rest is going to be history.