Where to Begin? Day 1 and 1.5

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So where to begin with this adventure? We made it to the airport yesterday afternoon with plenty of time to spare (thank you again Jill for the ride!). A majority of the other people on our flight were members of a choir, so they were singing "Oh Danny Boy" over and over while we were waiting to board the plane. Fortunately, they didn't sing during the flight!

As much as I dreaded the idea of a 7 hour flight, I have to admit the time flew by and the flight was fairly smooth. It was kind of fun to fly into the sunset AND the sunrise. Mom was lucky enough to pass out, but I spent most of the flight wide awake and watching movies. Fortunately, we were so excited to be here we didn't realize how exhausted we were until this afternoon. At first, I do have to admit that flying over Ireland looked about the same as flying over Iowa (ie, lots of farm fields!). But as we got closer to the ground, it began to look VERY different than the midwestern United States.

We passed through Customs quickly, and were excited to see our driver waiting for us on the other side. Mom is also in love with her first passport stamp. Our driver, Finton, brought us to the hotel and was a wealth of knowledge on history, places to shop, and things we needed to see. When we did arrive at the hotel, it was so early that our room wasn't ready. We ditched our bags and went for a long walk (through the shopping district!), and had some tea and awesome fresh scones with raspberry jam for breakfast. Since I have a yarn addiction, the first thing I wanted to find was a knitting store. Mission accomplished, with a few beautiful hanks of locally dyed sock yarn. We were surprised at the number of jewelry stores on Grafton Street (the main shopping area).

After shopping, we were so exhausted that we went back to the hotel and waited until a room was ready for us - then it was NAP TIME to sleep off some of the jet lag. After a hot shower and a long nap, we both were feeling better and hungry. We wandered until we found an enticing pub and had a traditional Irish dinner of cider, corned beef, potatoes, and carrots.

We are taking it easy for the rest of the night tonight (it still seems so crazy that it is after 8 pm here, and only 2 pm at home), and gearing up for new adventures in the morning. I'm too lazy to upload pictures tonight, so maybe will have some tomorrow.

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