July 5/6, 2010 – Denver to Ireland

July 6, 2010  •  Airlines, County Cork, Europe, Ireland, Kinsale, Travel

I spent the past day traveling to Ireland. I’m on on a trip to help my parents tour the country, Ireland being “the one place I’ve never been that I always wanted to go to” for my dad. That’s them in the airport – dressed in green like kids sporting school colors.Call this my personal “final rounds” of sorts – it’s unlikely my parents will feel up to another trip of this magnitude given their advancing age and health issues. So I’m here, hoping to show them around, hoping they don’t tire too easily, hoping they enjoy the spots I’ve picked for us to bunk down and eat, and hoping I take time to live it up on my first trip to Ireland as well.Traveling with older folks has it’s challenges, but I must say having a walker in your group helps you move to the front of the security line! We made our way through the airports in record time, stopping in Newark on the way where we found a great salad place for dinner.I was happy to get a full 5 hours of sleep on the flight to Dublin before waking up just before sunrise at 5:30am. Actually, my mom woke me up because she was afraid I’d miss breakfast on the plane – that’s a genetic default in our family, the fear of missing a meal. I originally thought these clouds would hang over Ireland all day, which wouldn’t be surprising for the climate here. “You don’t come to Ireland, now, for the weather, do you?” we were asked more than once today.But as we got close to Dublin the skies cleared and I was stunned by this patchwork of fields below. I love the way each field is lined with trees, sort of marking the end of one crop and the beginning of another.And although we won’t even attempt to golf while we’re here, I was tickled to see this course near Dublin.We picked up a car in Dublin to drive to Kinsale in County Cork, a cute harbor on the southeast coast of Ireland. We took our time getting here, me driving on the left hand side of the road from my cockpit on the right hand side of the car (surprisingly easy I found), my dad navigating with the maps in the left front seat, and my mom safely buckled in the back, a bit thrown by the time zone change.Since our travels will take us largely around the southern coastline of Ireland, I’m committed to getting as much seafood as possible on this trip. I started things out right with a huge bowl of mussels (with fries, of course) at The White House in Kinsale. It’s drizzling today – ” a soft day” I’m told by Noreen who runs The Old Presbytery where we are staying – meaning a soft drizzle instead of gale force rains. I’m thankful for this opportunity with my parents – and really thankful for my new short haircut that is unruffled in the soft drizzle here!

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