Come On Over and Watch The Slide Show of my Trip to Ireland!

Remember those days when your neighbor would drag you over to their house for an agonizingly long slide show of picture after picture of scenery that pretty much all looked the same? You'd see them heading your way after returning from a trip and run inside to avoid the invitation. Luckily those days are gone. Now we can thrill you through the Internet! Come on. At least you can skim through them at your own pace. You might even discover you enjoy them! ;)


This week I wanted to share with you our trip to Ireland, one day at a time. So pack your bags! We're headed to the Emerald Isle!


Tuesday, October 6th ~ Our drive to Chicago was uneventful other than our Tom-Tom telling us to take an exit that was I-pass only. We rerouted and ended up at a toll booth that took only change, and we had none. Thus began our first lesson on how to pay a toll online. 

We parked at Loew's Hotel and took a shuttle to the airport. We met an interesting man in line at the Aer Lingus desk. He regaled us with stories of his trips abroad. Then we met a man while waiting for our plane and eating the most delicious hamburgers for lunch. The man--who was in a wheelchair--and his three friends were going to Acapulco. He told us he owned several pizzerias in the Chicago area and explained that Acapulco's economy has been very depressed. Cruise ships, which used to bring in big money, no longer stop there because of the drug cartel violence. 

A delightful couple joined us who were on their way to Slovakia to visit family. They had run away from Czechoslovakia at the ages of 19 and 21, when the tanks moved in. Their original plan was to go to Canada. But he was a soccer player and ran into someone he had played soccer against and they asked him to come play in Chicago. The Chicago team sent an emissary with tickets, but the team's representative told the soccer player they only sent one ticket, for him. There was no ticket for his wife. The man told him to go on to Chicago, he would send his wife later. He said, no way. I'm not going without my wife. So either you give me the other ticket the team gave you for my wife, or you explain to them why I didn't show up. The guy put on an elaborate show of searching his pockets, and, lo and behold, he found her ticket! He was going to sell that ticket and strand this poor guy's wife, figuring he could pull it over on these non-English speaking young immigrants. Luckily our new friend is pretty smart.  

He worked as an engineer before retiring and helped to build the bridge in Peoria, which he told us was a challenge because of the angle. He was very excited about a new soccer stadium in Slovakia and told us that now that he is retired, he pretty much watches soccer 24/7. His wife said she makes jewelry while he is watching TV, and proceeded to give me a lovely bracelet! It was cool that we were

all eating lunch together, and then heading to such different destinations, Ireland, Slovakia, and Acapulco.

The plane ride seemed to go quickly. They gave us pretzels and a soda, then dinner, (yummy chicken and rice, a salad, brown bread, and dessert) and breakfast. It seemed like they had just finished cleaning up one meal when they began serving the next. I watched "The Devil Wears Prada," my husband watched "42" the movie about Jackie Robinson.


Somewhere along the line, we crossed into Day 2.


Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened next...