On our way home

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The last weather report: some patches of blue sky. Did it really wait until we were packed for us to get blue sky? But then I remembered that we had had blue sky two days ago. We saw a t-shirt in one of the shops that said, "It only rained twice the week I was in Ireland: first for three days, then for four." Mark got a t-shirt that says, "The Four Season in Ireland" and it has 4 squares on it. In each square there is a sheep under an umbrella with various amounts of wind and rain evidenced by the state of the umbrella. In all frames it is raining. Pretty much sums it up!
We had breakfast at the hotel and then got on the shuttle to Dublin Airport. I heard them telling someone at the desk, "That shuttle is full but we can call you a taxi." Glad we made the reservation! Yesterday at Dublin Airport had been a mess. Their radar had broken down and with all of the fog, they could not safely send planes into the air. About half of the flights out of Dublin had been canceled the day before. We didn't know what kind of chaos we were going to be walking into so left even earlier than originally planned. The Dublin airport looks quite chaotic when you first walk in but, luckily, someone saw the blank looks and asked if he could help. We said, "Delta" and he pointed us towards counter 15. The line there wasn't actually too bad. They had a flight for New York that was about to start boarding that they needed to clear so they were pulling the few NY passengers left in line up to the front but then it was just us Atlanta people left. We were probably checked in within 20 minutes and then made our way through security. I had pulled some things that we had gotten at the Kilkenny design studio out and put them in my carry-on bag because they were well wrapped which means breakable. Unfortunately, two of the things I had pulled out were a jar of jam and a jar of whiskey marmalade. Oops--that no liquid rule, so those got tossed. I had not even unwrapped them to see what they were, not that I would have thought of jam and marmalade as being a liquid anyway. Not sure it would have helped if I had been aware.
After we made it through security--where we didn't have to take our shoes off!!--we spent our remaining Euros at the shops. We did replace the jar of whiskey marmalade as that was a gift. We turned in our VAT relief forms and mailed some postcards. (Let me be honest--I wrote and mailed some post cards which was a challenge since I had apparently put my address book in my checked luggage.)
We went downstairs (with my hand luggage now containing a bottle of Jameson's--heavy!) and went through a preliminary customs and passport control check for the US. that was different. Our plane was slightly delayed (about 40 minutes) and the good Delta people had booked us onto a later connecting flight because they knew we would miss our connection in Atlanta.
We boarded the plane, trip was smooth, only real glitch is that 4 rows of the seat-back entertainment system were not working--and we were in one of those rows. On the way over to Ireland, I really wanted to sleep so didn't watch any of the movies. On the way back, I really wanted to stay awake so had planned to view but, alack and alas, the only thing that worked was the progress of the flight screen. So we all sat there and watched that for 8 hours. I actually read and snoozed a bit. Ordered a Bailey's on the rocks for my free drink. (I remember when international travel meant free drinks the entire trip--not any more.) Mark actually slept more than I did, though he would deny that.
Got to Atlanta at about 4:00 (our original connecting flight was leaving at 4:30 so glad we could change that), picked up our bags, went though customs part II, put liquids from carry-on bags into checked bags, rechecked the bags, went through security (take those shoes off this time!) and out into the fray. Am I the only one who feels like I have run an obstacle course by the time I get through airport security? Lordy! We looked at the departure times and our original 4:30 flight had been changed to a 6:15 departure. We went to see if we could get on that flight but no, it was overbooked. Our flight was at 7:15 so it didn't make much difference.
Atlanta was having major thunderstorm problems that day and everything was canceled, delayed, backed up. There were probably about a third again as many people as the airport could really handle. The garbage cans were overflowing, people sitting against walls, you know the drill. The bar was filled and halfway out into the concourse aisle way. Mark and I found seats at the end of concourse B, about 10 gates away from the gate we needed. Every now and again, one of us would walk down and check on our flight which, of course, was now delayed. First it said 7:30, then 7:50, then 8:00, then 8:30. Finally 8:30 seemed to stick. My sister and her family were flying back to SC on the same day. I finally got in touch with her to see where they were changing planes and it was in Atlanta! They were there the same time we were but we were about to board about the same time they had just deplaned. We were in concourse B, they were in E so no way to hook up.
The plane started boarding at 8:00 (we had been in Atlanta for 4 hours by now) and the jet way was pulled away about 8:35. Then we sat there. And sat there. No information, nothing. Finally, about 9:00, the captain came on and said it was time for us to start moving and we should be under way within about 3 or 4 minutes. Then we sat. And sat. After 20 minutes, we started moving. Got onto the active runway. The captain came on and said, "We are number 3 for take-off. We should be off the ground in 3 or 4 minutes." Then we sat. And sat. At ten minutes to 10:00, he came on, apologized for the delay, said they were trying to clear traffic but we were moving again and should be off the ground in (you guessed it) 3 or 4 minutes. Mark said, "You can take that to the bank." But actually, this time, we did start moving in about 4 minutes and at just about 10:00 on the nose we taxied and took off. We got to Atlanta at 4:00, boarded the plane at 8:00 and took off at 10:00. What a fun day! Here's the interesting part: my sister and family were flying from Atlanta to Charlotte. Their plane was supposed to leave at 8:30 or so, was delayed about an hour, they boarded the plane at 9:00 and took off at 9:30. I guess our pilot picked the wrong line to get into!
Landed in Newport News at midnight. By this time we were working on being up for about 23 hours. However, our luggage arrived, the whiskey and whiskey marmalade were intact and all was right with the world We got a cab home and found everything in order. So Mark and Beth's Ireland Vacation is now officially over.

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