Well everyone, we made it.

Before taking off, we made a quick visit to my local neighborhood landmark: the Fremont troll. He’s been looking awfully dapper since a huge glow up this fall, and is no longer languishing in a dirt pit. Now he’s got landscaping, concrete, and dance new stairs.

After visiting our landmark, it was time to grab an Uber XL to head to the airport. Now Uber promised that the XL could fit six people and luggage. This was in no way true of the car that showed up. We did fit four of us, the driver, and our luggage, but there was no room for a fifth or sixth person, and I was shoved in a back seat with my knees up to my chin. Good thing I’ve been doing yoga.

The departure gate wasn’t too busy, and we were able to schedule a spot to skip the tsa line ahead as our airline, Aer Lingus, doesn’t work with tsa pre-check. The spot saver function was very fast and easy, so if you find yourself at SeaTac without pre-check, definitely look it up. You can reserve it up to 5 days before your flight. You’re welcome.

We all took our seats and tried to settle in for an evening flight.

And off we go…

Leaving the rain of Seattle…

For the rain of Dublin.

Honestly, from the air they just don’t look that different. Although Seattle has tons of mountains and Dublin has tons of fields. Which I assume are covered in sheep. But I digress.

Since I took my anxiety meds on the plane I slept great (I also have a magic plane pillow; Reach out if you want details), however the rest of my crew had a harder night.

We landed, grabbed our bags, and made it to our rental car. Jimmy has the privilege of doing most of the driving on this trip, although my driving experience in England this summer has made me a world class backseat driver. I’m still only a mediocre navigator who caused us to make two wrong turns down tiny lanes. Poor Jimmy.

Right after landing we had a four hour drive to meet the rest of party in Killarney. They had arrived a few day previously and had a cottage all set up for us.

We got coffee for Jimmy, and hit the open road, passing through lots of fields with sheep, and some adorable villages with beautiful Christmas lights. I managed to not get pics of any of it.

However, I did get pics of my purchase of Taytos, a delicious Irish crisp snack. Because I always capture the important things.

I also got this cool castle ruin with a moat:

Killarney is all decked out for Christmas, and we got stuck behind a sleigh ride carriage trying to get to our cottage.

When we found our cottage we were enthusiastically greeted by the rest of our family, given a tour of the place by our youngest traveler, and provided with meat pie and mashed potatoes by my sister.

There was some quiet time by the peat fireplace

Then we all headed off to bed. I was so exhausted from the travel day and fell right to sleep.

Now it’s 2am and I’m wide awake writing this blog. 🤷‍♀️

Hopefully this is good night