Why blog?

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Being a technology trainer and always encouraging my teachers to use blogs in their classrooms, I thought, "What better way to learn about travel in Ireland than to read the blogs of people who have traveled the same route as us?" So I started reading travel blogs. Did you know that most people who blog are 18 to 22 and they like to get drunk every night? Not being pious here--when I was 18 to 22, that was fun for me, too. But now that I am 46 and wiser (or maybe just wear out easier), that just isn't the scene I crave when finding out about Ireland. So this is the blog for people like me: those who want to find out what it will be like to spend 10 days in Ireland, rent a car and hit the country side. My husband and I have traveled quite a bit, both as part of his Air Force duties and on our own. I also lived in Europe for an additional 3 years when I was in high school, and spent summers and Christmases here during college so I am fairly comfortable in a European environment. However, as much traveling as we had done, neither of us had ever been to Ireland. Faced with a use-it-or-lose-it $2200 airline credit (expiring July 24th, thanks very much), we decided to look for a fun place to go, just the two of us (one son, in college, working at a Boy Scout camp for the summer--yes!) that would be an adventure and cost about $2200 round trip. Bingo! The emerald isle wins.
I finish work on June 27th, have class on June 27th-June 29th, so we are off on June 30th. I have class again on July 11th so we are back July 10th. Can you imagine planning a trip with so many parameters: work dates, school dates, air fare expiring, oh, and we also have a lot of Hilton Honors points and want to stay free as much as we can. And even with all that, it's all worked out.
We did some planning because, quite frankly, beyond the book of Kells and the Blarney stone, I am really not that familiar with Ireland. But even with that, we are sort of setting ourselves up in home bases for a few days here and a few days there and exploring out from those spots. We think. Maybe. We really don't know what we are going to do. We're just excited to be going to a new place that we've never been before. Off we go!

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