Ireland - Day 1 & Day 2

Technically, Day 1 was Vancouver-Denver-Newark arriving on Day 2 at Shannon Airport. It was supposed to be Vancouver-Chicago-Newark, and there's where the story begins.

My aunt & uncle planned a trip to Ireland and my aunt invited my dad, her brother, to join them. Then my dad invited me to join them. Very cool. Kinda funny, the Finn-Swede side of the family visiting Ireland when my Irish mother never went. We were to meet up in the airport at Newark for the flight to Ireland. My aunt & uncle live in North Carolina. For us that meant a 6:15am flight, getting up at 3:30am, ugh. No problem, I have amazing housemates who will drive you to the airport at any hour!

We arrived on time and we almost made our plane. We slogged through all the airport bureaucracy until my dad set off the, wait for it, radiation detectors. Who knew that US Customs and Immigration personnel wear radiation detectors? Who knew my dad would set them off?

He had a medical stress test 2 days earlier where apparently he was injected with radioactive stuff. Lots of it. Apparently you can get a letter from your doctor confirming you've had this procedure and that you are not in fact carrying radioactive materials around just for fun. Easy enough to do if you a) know they're injecting you with the stuff and b) know they're scanning for it at the airport. This is not an unusual occurrence, said the fairly pleasant US Customs & Immigration guys. Unfortunately by the time they decided my 79 year old dad was not a threat to anyone's safety, our plane had left. With 2 connections to make and people to meet in the middle of it, we were both on the verge of needing a stress test!

Greeting us at our very empty departure gate was a fabulous employee of United Airlines, a very pleasant and competent young man that re-routed us on a 7:15 flight, found our luggage and checked us in all the way to Shannon. Halleluiah. The rest of the trip was long but all the connections worked.

Ennis, County Clare, is a lovely, very old town with a history of uppity Catholics demanding their civil rights. Great place to start our visit!

Photos are being posted at: Ireland 2010