Arriving on the "Auld Sod"

Patrick and I left Phoenix at approximately 12:10 on Friday, March 14. We arrived in Philadelphia after having to wait in a holding pattern for about 20 minutes. We had to change planes about an hour and we were very close to the gate. We spent an hour on the plane waiting to take off because there we so much traffic. Everyone on the plane slept all night and I woke up just before we landed in Manchester, Great Britain about 8:00. We had to jump through hoops with customs, but everything went fine. We just made it to the Aer Lingus terminal and got right on the plane. I slept the whole 45 minutes it took us to get to Dublin. I don't even remember taking off. We had no trouble with luggage or anything and got on the shuttle to get our rental car. That also went smoothly and we headed out with Patrick driving a stick shift on the wrong side of the road. It was overcast and then started raining quite hard and there was a lot of fog. We stopped in Wicklow and had a snack as we hadn't really had time to eat since we left on Friday. Everything was bustling there and everything is so beautiful and green even in the fog. There are so many "roundabouts" which remind me of the traffic signal in Bisbee. We stopped in Wexford and took pictures of one of the immigrant ships. It was closed for tourists to go through, but we could take pictures. We then called Breda, the owner of the B & B we are staying in to let her know we would be there after 6:00. We arrived around 6:30 and she was waiting for us and has been so gracious. Our room is up some very steep stairs and has a double and a single bed and bathroom with a small shower. We went to dinner at Murphy's Pub in Holy Cross. As we were driving to the Pub, we saw a huge Hasbro toy manufacturing plant. Breda told us that Ireland is the second richest country in Europe. That is so nice to know after so many years when this was not the case. It use to be that Ireland's greatest export was its people. We are back here in the room and I can tell you that I will sleep very well tonight. We have been traveling for about 24 hours. Patrick is going to try to put some pictures on the blog.

It has been so great to hear from so many people and so many of my wonderful cousins that you are reading the blog. I have had many emails. I love to see the comments that are left!