Days 11-12 - "She'd better be!"

The entries get less and less exciting as the trip winds down. I'm sorry. But not a ton happened on this last day in Ireland. We left the hotel at 7am to get to the airport. We had to walk a lot before getting onto our flight, which wasn't the most fun experience, but everyone made it. Grandma very much wanted to get someone a birthday gift from a specific store (not mentioned here in case the gift hasn't been given yet). That store, apparently, has been moved a few times in recent months, so a few people directed us in the wrong direction a few times, but we ultimately made it there. We made it on our plane, too, which was the bigger concern.

Everyone was thrilled to be awake so early

Grandma actually didn't seem too sad to be going home...

Waiting for the shuttle... waiting for the plane... there would be lots of waiting today

Passport is in order.

Dum de dum. All that hurrying just so we could sit and wait.

Our plane

Our flight... back to the States at long last

Back in Chicago, waiting for people to pick up the car

I think pretty much everyone slept soundly on the plane... except my father... and Grandma, who had SOMEone nudging her every few hours to walk around. We landed in Chicago about an hour late (not too bad), and picked up the car that we'd left behind. It was sad thinking that our day of traveling was only half-over. My father drove the whole way back to Dearborn Heights (despite offers for someone else to drive), and we made it back in about six hours.

Driving out of Chicago was, of course, horrendous

During the car ride home, Elaine sent my parents a few text messages, jokingly urging us to drive the extra few hundred miles to Norwalk rather than just stopping in Dearborn Heights. We told Grandma that Elaine must be pretty anxious to see her. "Well, she'd better be!" I think that, even though Grandma didn't say so specifically, it went both ways. In fact, when we mentioned the possibility of waking up early and driving Grandma back to Norwalk the next morning, she jumped at the idea.

So, with utmost secrecy (so that Grandma's arrival wouldn't be too much of a hullabaloo) we woke up at 6am (which wasn't bad... 11am Dublin time!), and drove down to Norwalk. Little did we know, that even though her arrival wasn't announced, there would still be a little welcoming party for us.

The welcome spokesperson, waiting eagerly in Grandma's chair for his friend to come home

The hero of our story, dressed for her triumphant return.

The last few steps...

A proper welcome

Enjoying 14 S. Garden more than usual

And thus concludes a whirlwind tour of Ireland. It was marvellous, and I don't think any of us can wait to go back... especially Sophia Lauren. Fortunately, we packed in enough memories to last us until we have the chance to go again. So, we appreciate you following along and reading about our adventures, and in the words of the Irish,

Tanks a million!

Day 10 - "I'll be here all night!"

We all knew this day would come. No one thought it would be a particularly fun day, but we knew that we had to say our goodbyes to Helen and her family. Honestly, though, before the trip, I had certainly anticipated that the day we flew home would be the most difficult, but I was wrong. Of course I was. I hadn't met Helen and her family, yet. I didn't know how great they were. But we knew we had to head out. It was a little easier that we had set an agenda for ourselves, and we had to leave by noon in order to make it to Dublin to see anything before it closed. So, my parents, Libby and I ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to Helen's to pick up Grandma.


She was eating breakfast when we got there. Eating breakfast and enjoying some beautiful artwork courtesy of Kiera (one of Helen's daughters). We didn't spend too much time before we headed out.

No, Grandma didn't draw that... Kiera did

Jenna celebrating our visit

Grandma wanted to see some of Helen's horses up close before we left. Outside, Timmy went and put a bridle on one of the horses and led it up to Grandma. She pet it and was quite pleased. In fact, she decided she wanted to try sitting on the horse, so we figured, why not?

The horse approaching

Getting to know one another

Family portrait

Already ready to get down

It wasn't the easiest activity figuring out how to get get on, and once we did, she didn't want to stay up for very long. So, she got down, and after that last little bit of excitement in Mullingar, it was time to head to Dublin.

Jenna saying goodbye



It wasn't fun or easy to go...

Still teary-eyed

The only think we really wanted to see before closing time was Trinity College. There's the Dublin Castle, but we'd seen lots of castles. And there was the Guinness factory, but it turned out that you couldn't actually see any of the factory where they make the beer on the tour. It definitely seemed like a 14-euro tourist trap (with a "free" four-euro pint at the end). So, we were left with Trinity College.

Cool bridge in Dublin

Enjoying lunch in Dublin... The "Recession Special" (Soup and sandwich)

My father's pannini

Entering Trinity

The College is an actual university in Ireland, and it's very, very, very old. But it's claim to fame is that it is home to the Book of Kells. In fact, as we learned on our tour, more people come to see the book of Kells each year than the University has students. The Book of Kells for those of you who are like me (and didn't know what it was), is a REALLY old Bible. It's not the oldest known copy, but it IS a very complete version. It's the four gospels (the first four books of the New Testament that tell the story of Jesus' time on earth), and it is pretty much complete. They had other really old Bibles on display, but it was quite apparent why the Book of Kells is so impressive. The other books were fragments of individual pages, put together as best they could. The Book of Kells is actual full pages, and it seems to be all of them. A very complete copy, relatively speaking. It's from about the year 800, if I remember correctly. Others that we saw were from the 600s, but couldn't compare in terms of completeness.

My father and Grandma wait just inside the college grounds

The Book of Kells (as well as the other books on display) are phenomenal. They are all hand written, obviously. And the process they used to make ink was incredible. They used different colors, and they had to gather elements that were literally across continents to put them together. The blue was apparently the hardest to come by. I can't remember specifics of the story, but it was impressive. Take my word for it. Or don't, and go see it for yourself. But take Grandma with you. Even more spectacular than the story behind the ink (or maybe equally spectacular) is the illustrations included. They are elaborate, intricately detailed pictures that span the entire page sometimes with very complicated depictions of multiple people and crosses and letters and symbols all intertwined. If I were going to draw one of those, A) I would have to copy it because I could never come up with something so pretty in my head, B) I would have to have a magnifying glass because the pictures are so complex, and C) I would need about 2 weeks because that's how crazy complicated the drawings are. Even the first letters of sentences or pages are decorated in a very elaborate manner. It was certainly quite impressive.

Our tour guide, a student at the College

The College is really old. Really. Old.

In fact, this bell tower, put up in 185o-something is considered quite "modern"

Library where the Book of Kells is housed... it is arranged with the biggest books at the bottom... so much for Dewey Decimal System

Know where this tree was born? Any guesses?

Another view of the library... the arches at the bottom used to be hollow and there are no books on the lower floor... this is so that the books aren't damaged by moisture from the ground or flooding

A Henry Moore sculpture... he did it for free as long as the College didn't put it outside of the ugly Berkeley library building. The sculpture sits underneath one of two super amazingly old trees imported from Oregon, USA.

Notice that this picture is in color... This building is where color photography was invented. Whoa.

The sculpture that ended up outside the ugly building instead

After the University tour and seeing the Book of Kells, we headed out of the city. That was treacherous. Buses, taxis, and motorcycles do not obey any traffic laws in Dublin, just so you know. There were cars everywhere! There were virtually no two-way streets, and no straight streets either. It was a pain getting out. Lanes started and ended without warning. Pigs were flying overhead, swarming our car! Well, ok, not the last one, but it was very stressful. We went toward the airport because that's where our hotel was for the night. (We had an early flight to catch, after all.) That was an adventure, too.

Grandma's favorite restaurant

So, we had some rooms booked at the Holiday Inn near the airport. Our little GPS thing can lead you to different hotels, so we programed it to lead us to the Holiday Inn - Airport. When we got to where it told us to go, there was definitely not Holiday Inn in sight. There was a Carlton Hotel, though, so we went inside and asked where the Holiday Inn was. They explained it to us, but what they didn't take into account was the construction nearby. We got a little turned around, but eventually found our way in the right direction. We saw a billboard, though, that told us we missed the Holiday Inn Express (and of course we should turn around to go stay there).

We obeyed and turned around, but then we realized that the sign was really pointing in the opposite direction. So we turned around to our original direction and kept driving. The sign had said we were only a kilometer away, but the car's odometer was in miles, so we had no idea when a kilometer had passed (we didn't know how many miles one kilometer was...). We drove for about a mile before giving up and turning around. We made it all the way back to the sign. This time it was right when it told us we had to turn around.

Finally we decided to just turn in what we estimated was a kilometer. We ended up finding the Holiday Inn Express (very prominently labeled as "Crowne Plaza by Holiday Inn" with Holiday Inn Express in tiny letters underneath), but as we had made our reservation at the Holiday Inn, we were still slightly apprehensive that our reservation wasn't there. We asked them, and they told us that we were in the right place, indeed, and our reservations had been "upgraded to the Crowne Plaza."

We got checked in and then took the car back to the rental place, which was another adventure, the details of which I'll spare you. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was surprisingly good. Grandma got the soup and sandwich, but it was a HUGE bowl of soup accompanied by a large sandwich. "I'm going to be here all night," she lamented as she eyed all her food. Don't worry, though. She got help.

Hmmm... what to order?

Neither sandwich in my hand is my own... Grandma's not the only one who needed help

No wonder she needed help! Look at all that!

Irish Blossoms

I know what you're thinking: "How in the world does Jonathan continue to keep us entertained almost a WEEK after they've gotten back from their trip? He's a magician!"


Well, as you wait for the dramatic conclusion to our glorious tale, I thought I would post some pretty flower pictures from Ireland, because we have lots... and because I can. Enjoy! (Or endure, if you're not a fan.)

My friend, Erin O'Leary called this an "amazing picture," so I had to include it again, even though I already posted it once.

An unusual bouquet

With so many flowers, it's a shame we didn't see calla lillies, right? I mean, being Grandma's favorite flower and all. WRONG! Actually, calla lillies practically grow like weeds. There was a stretch at the end of our trip, staying in a different B&B every night where Grandma consistently had a view of a gardenful of calla lillies from her seat at the breakfast table.

We even saw shiny (AKA ugly) calla lillies!

Credit where it's due: about half of these pictures were taken by my parents, not me. And half of what's left were taken by Libby. So, basically, I took a couple of them.

It's understandable that you're getting anxious. But rest assured that the final few entries are on their way!