On the way home

This is Hamish the Highlands Cow, friendly, but a bit hairy I'd say. LOL

Tyrone Crystal makes the trophy for the All Ireland Champions and over the last couple of years it has been for their home team Tyrone. This is a copy of the 2008 trophy that was given to the team.

7 July

So here I am on my Aer Lingus flight back to Chicago. Tomorrow I'll be on a Southwest plane back home. I'm always a little melancholly at this point. Lots of time to think and reflect on about the last 3 weeks. It's doesn't really seem like it was that long. I really coul have found tons to do over another week or two or three.

I briefly touched on our last day with the flight delay from Glasgow and then a relaxing day for me in Dublin topped off with going to Riverdance at the Gaiety Theater. The theater was a restored older theater and just magnificient. It was small, no more than about 800 people, but it was packed this Monday. We had seats just off center in the second row. Perfect from my perspective. Seeing the show live was definitely an experience. A great end to a vacation that was way too short.

I keep thinking about next year and wondering if I can swing another trip then. I've tried every other year, but keeping find more reasons to return sooner. The B&B experience is the way to go. Small towns and small pubs. Sitting at the bar and talking to the regulars. And giving all the towns their own chance to show off their own craic.

Once I get home and life starts to run away with me again, all this will be a very special memory. I'm hoping to scap most of it, like I have my other two trips. I'm thinking this will have a little different slant. I will be putting up a selection of pictures as soon as I can sort through the 700 or so that I've taken. I may actualy have to do more than one slide show. No decisions there yet.

We arrive in Chicago in about 2 hours now. I've spent the first part of the flight catching up on some much needed sleep. I think I run on adreniline while traveling and now I'm all out of it. Sarah and I are hoping to meet up with Becky and her mom tonight or late this afternoon for a little while. We'll both be heading to the Midway Airport around 5am on Wednesday.

Three weeks, where did it go?

A