On The Road to the Vacation We Were Supposed to Take
/Back in the year 2020 (I’m sure you know were this is going) Sara and I had plans for a 2 week vacation visiting Ireland and Scotland. We all know how that turned out. Fast forward to 2022, as covid was winding down, I asked Sara if she wanted to try and recreate that trip for 2023. Her response - a resounding YES! So here we are - with a few hiccups along the way.
We had an 8:55 pm flight Friday night from Chicago O’Hare to Dublin. Ample time for me to put in a day’s work, get home, finish packing and get to the airport with no issues - except for one - the weather!
MAJOR storms were being forecast right at the time we’d be taking off! If our flight was delayed, or worse yet canceled, we’d miss connecting with the tour! So I gambled - there was an earlier flight, but the only seats left were economy (I had upgraded to “economy plus” on our original flight). Do I risk it for the extra leg room and early boarding??? NO WAY! I hustled to finish packing; Sara even came over to help! We made it to the airport with time to spare, and even though our flight was delayed, we got out before the storms hit, creating a ground stoppage at O’Hare. We safely arrived in Dublin shortly after 6:00 am local time!
Since we now had time to spare at the front end (and our hotel room wasn’t ready anyhow) we decided to push through the jet-lag and explore the Jervis Street Shopping Centre.
It was a beautiful sunny morning, temps in the 60’s, which is pretty good for Ireland! Even though the clouds were determined to take over as the day progressed, it didn’t dampen our spirits - a little tired - of course, but thrilled to be here together? Absolutely!
I still have to get used to the roads being flipped, and the summer weather feeling like our spring/fall, but for the next two weeks we are thrilled to be exploring the beautiful countries of Ireland and Scotland.
We meet with our tour group tonight - the adventure begins tomorrow!