Up, Up, and Away!

Date:  18 June 2019

Written by: Amy sitting next to Colleen on our flight to Chicago on our way to Dublin PDT 1:30.

Obligatory PDX carpet photo

The Columbia River is beautiful to see from the air.  It’s windy brown water stretches in all directions it seems as we ascend.  It’s familiar beauty—I try to dig down to the place where it’s magical and new.  But, I’ve been here too long and I know I take its waters for granted.  I’ve been beside it on bikes, on foot, and on it on boats.  It’s a ho-hum river now that disappears under us as we gain our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet.  And, just like that we are over Idaho.  I know after 7 weeks it will be magical again.  I’ll see it and know that I’ve returned.

It’s been a crazy week or two.  Preparing to be gone for seven weeks was more details that had even more details embedded.  It felt like a Möbius strip of grading, planning, packing, grading, teaching, meetings, planning, and grading.  I wanted to wrap up as much as I could for a smooth ride for work, Kerry, and Abigail.  They will be joining us in a week, but there’s still stuff to be done at home.  The laundry is all done.  So, one thing’s accomplished.

Clean desk.  Ready for desk move.

I had such good intentions but my eyes are always bigger than my stomach.  At least my desk at work is packed up and ready to move.  My students all have grades.  I’ve told Abigail 100 times what to do whilst we are gone.  And, we’re packed.  That’s something, I guess. 

Speaking of packing.  Yikes!  Colleen and I are in one checked bag and one carry on and our backpacks.  Which means I’m without my shoes.  I have one pair of walking shoes and one pair of flip flops.  I had to leave so much behind to make the 50lbs limit.  And, I did.  That suitcase is 49.66 lbs.  The tragedy is that the suitcase still has room in it.  I could easily fit my 2 pairs of abandoned shoes, shampoo, pairs of jeans, towels, feminine hygiene products, sunscreen, extra backpack and outfits from both Colleen and me.  It was looking grim until we remembered we could have a carryon—we were 10 lbs. too heavy in the big case.  But, we were able to move all the jeans and other heavy clothes to the carryon.  Phew!  I still think that if you can get it into your suitcase, the airplane companies should take it.  Having a weight limit is crazy.  Every time I left something behind, I said a mantra that whatever we leave we can replace in Ireland.

It’s been a little more challenging this last couple of days due to some stomach issues on my part.  I’ve been periodically not feeling great.  I’m pretty sure it’s nerves.  Which is weird because I’ve been so excited about this trip for so long.  But, that didn’t seem to get through to my tiny brain.  Instead, I had to go through the near constant state of panic and anxiety that has been my constant companion and it didn’t stop even when I was at the NAIL SALON.  Yep.  Pamper city turned into stress central complete when the nice nail specialist accidentally took too much cuticle off and tried to unsuccessfully stop the bleeding. It wasn’t our best moment.

Things I didn’t finish:

·      My Car

o   Did not get cleaned.  And it needed it inside and out.  But it did get through DEQ and I have new tags. 

o   Did not get oil changed and brake check. When I get back I’m going to need to take it for an oil change and brake check.

o   It’s out of gas.

·      My Hair

o   Yep, not cut.  It’s been a year.  But, I’ll get that done in Dublin or Belfast.

·      Accommodations for Nice and Dublin

·      Pin for my Bank of Ireland card

It helps me to take it step-by-step.  I’ve got the next 24 hours planned out.  First, we stay awake during the first flight to Chicago.  This is definitely helped by the Captain Marvel movie.  I love that we get to watch it while we sit here on the plane.  We can sleep as much as we want on the 8+ hour flight to Dublin.  Once we land in Dublin at noon Irish time, we reunite with our luggage and board a bus to the first of our hotels.  Once there, we will drop our luggage, get some food (coffee!  Scones!  Toast!  Full Irish!  Carrot and Coriander soup!) and go to get our phones some new SIM cards.  After that we’ll swing by a Boots and grab the critical stuff we left behind.  We also need to grab a couple of towels and a padlock because they don’t come complimentary at many of the hostels we are staying during the trips.  We need to stay awake until it makes sense on Ireland time to go to sleep.  The last time we did this jump, Colleen slept for almost a solid 2 weeks.  She doesn’t know this, but not this time.  We don’t have 2 weeks for her to acclimate this time.

Speaking of plans, we now know where we are going after we drop Ker off at the airport for his ride back to the US.  So, July 16 – 20, we are gonna hunker down in Ireland somewhere and from 20 – 25, we are going to Nice!  Yes, we are gonna French Riviera that week.  Woot.  All we need to do is find affordable and comfortable lodging.  It’s late, but I’m hoping we can find something.

We'll find something and it will be amazing!  Because, this is going to be a wonderful summer!