Having a younger person (Shelby) on the trip is always a good thing. She was our taxi-summoner as needed, and she booked us in on our flight from her phone yesterday. In the past, I’ve always avoided doing that since airport bag check machines always told me to see a desk agent anyway. Today, it worked very well – we skipped the very long line for check-in, and so got to our gate in about thirty minutes. Which put us here three hours early.

This was an excellent trip. We are inclined to think all Europe vacations are going to be excellent, but Ireland did well by us with the weather. Right before we left, the forecast was for rain four or five of the six days we were here. We had twenty minutes of rain over all the times were were out.

The food was quite good. I had heard that Dublin especially had gotten “foodie,” and we benefited. While we still had some good pub grub, we also had excellent American BBQ, good pizza, and yummy breakfasts, and in general ate too much.

The Irish and those living here were universally kind. I accidently blocked a parking lot because I thought I had to pay at the exit. The woman behind me didn’t freak out, and instead explained where the pay machine was, and she waited for me to come back (I did run to be as fast as I could). All of the service people in hotels and restaurants and museums were helpful and polite. It is an attractive trait to cultivate.

We did have some good “Irish” driving moments for the new folks for the first couple of days we had the car. We had to stop for a herd of sheep on one road, and another road was a two-way one-lane road with rock walls on either side. Good times.

Despite our having been in Dublin multiple times, there are still some things I would wish to see. The little village of Howth is at the end of the Dublin DART train line, and is supposed to be cute. There is a replica famine ship on the Liffey. Mer and I have never done the Big Bus tour of the city, which is an overview of the sights of the city. We’ve never done the art museum, and Marsh’s Library of old books looks great.

Shelby, Meredith (“Neuf”), and Regina did great. They kept a sense of humor and put up with the small mistakes that happen on trips. They are good travel companions. And Shelby is good with her phone.

So, Lord willing, we’ll be back in Ohio tonight, which is always a bit mind-bending. I’m looking forward to my friends, family, kitties, and routine, of which I am fond. And I’m sure I’ll be used to work again in a few days.