As a young woman my mom lived in England and Scotland 54 years ago with her family while they served as church building missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For years it has been a dream of my mom's to return and to bring her family with her so this would be an extra special opportunity. Dad thought it would be a good idea to make her dream a reality as a graduation gift. He hit a grand slam with that one.
Life Saving Book. I'm a member of the Rick Steve's Fan Club for life now. |
View from our room at the Hampton Inn at the Toronto Airport. |
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See the Gates of Mordor sculpture behind us? We were supposed to be making a terrified face,
but apparently I'm the only one in the family with natural acting ability.
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The aftermath of my terrified face. We are not the best selfie-takers. |
When we arrived at the airport on the morning of the 14th and tried to check into our flight we ran into a few snags. Initially we were told that there was no flight to Dublin that day which struck a little bit of panic into our hearts, but we were soon able to figure out our situation and verify that there was indeed a flight and we were indeed scheduled to be on it. The other issue was that my carry on was just a little too large (though not too heavy). My mom had brought more liquids than allowable though so we just stuck them in my carry on and checked it. I am what my husband likes to call "a nervous Nelly". I didn't really want to check my bag but an African man that was waiting to check into his flight could see the consternation on my face and assured me in a kind baritone that "Eeet's oh kay." He was right--it was okay. I think we were all a little anxious about our international travel since it was the first time for my sister and me and the first time since she was sixteen for our mom so we just hung out at the airport all day.
My sister's Instagram photo of one of the art installations at the Toronto Airport. |
Toronto is a nice airport--lots of art installations and pretty good food (falafel for lunch and a bagel with cream cheese, lox, capers and red onions and fresh berries for dinner) and we were happy to be together so it worked out well.
Hanging out at YYZ, waiting for our flight to DUB. |
As we were beginning our descent into Dublin I just kept thinking "dreams DO come true." I know it's cheesy but that doesn't make it less true.
We had spent many hours--a ridiculous amount of time really--arranging the details of the trip beforehand. We figured we would make several mistakes along the way (remember this was our first time abroad) but we would just have to count them as part of the adventure. We really didn't know what we were doing, but we were optimistic that we could do it.
We touched down on the Emerald Isle exhausted but supremely excited to see the motherland.
To Be Continued. . .
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