Guest Blogger: AGV

Written By:  Valerie Mortimer VanDyke also known as Aunt Gramma Val or AGV

I’ve lost eight hours, somewhere, and I didn’t realize how big an effect that would have on me. I missed my evening dose of meds, because I never had an evening, and never went to bed. And then I didn’t take my morning pills till I got “home” here in Ireland. I went from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning without a pause.

Our adventure was lots and lots of fun. There were 50 rooms taken up with displaced airplane passengers, and we recognized each other and visited, ate meals together, laughed and joked.

I went out for a walk this morning in Chicago. I probably walked about 1 1/2 miles, out among the traffic, the wind and the piles of snow all over. The sun was shining brightly. Diane walked with me for a bit, and then went back to wait for me. I saw a bit of Chicago and enjoyed the sunshine.

We returned by shuttle to the airport, among 18 others. We got there a few hours before the desk opened, and gradually had quite a queue. We just kept on visiting and laughing and having fun.

When the desk opened they had 4 agents working, and we were processed very quickly, and we went off to find some lunch and use the vouchers given to us by Aer Lingus Friday night, but at the food court, after three of us had used the voucher, one of the servers noticed the date on the vouchers was for Friday. So the next several people were being refused service, and quite rudely at that. I was among one of the ones served, and I quickly got into the spirit of the thing,and joined the group raising a fuss. We made so much noise, that word got back to Aer Lingus and pretty soon an official from the airline just walked into one end of the food court and shouted ” the vouchers are good, the vouchers are good”, then just continued walking out the other end and disappeared. Everyone was served and we finished our lunch and went on to our gate.

We were on a jumbo jet for this leg of the journey, and we were packed. We had two episodes of serious turbulence, one while they were serving breakfast. They practically threw a small wrapped breakfast sandwich at us and then had to sit down again. No coffee, no tea. By the time the turbulence eased, we were landing. Diane handled the turbulence with ease. She has really gotten into this traveling thing.

We went thru immigration and customs with absolutely no problems, they never even looked at our bags at all.

Coming out of the gate at Dublin Airport.

We met Kerry and Amy, and drove about 1/2 hour to Bettystown where we are staying.

Kerry took us for a ride around the area, and Diane rode in the front seat for awhile, and cringed every time a car came toward us, ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. We were very tired and this just wasn’t computing in her brain. We went to the house, and picked up the girls, and visited the Battle of the Boyne battlefield and Museum,

Battle of the Boyne Museum

and then had a great lunch at the Esquire restaurant. I had ” the full Irish Breakfast”. Then we toured St Peter’s church, and drove around some more. Finally back to the house and Diane took a nap. She still looked droopy when she got up. I worked with Kerry on fixing problems with my phone and I Pad.

We had a great dinner, which included mashed potatoes, one of the best foods in the world, and everyone is in bed except me, and it’s only 8:30, 2:30 pm your time. But I will be there shortly. Tomorrow, after a good sleep and a day following a night, I hope to be ready to go out on an ambitious schedule of sightseeing. We are going to be busy!!!!