When Irish Eyes Are Smiling..

 

"The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff."~Britney Spears 

Thank you for sharing Britney!:)

  I have such a fantastic son; he decides to do things like move to Dublin Ireland to earn his MBA at the University College of Dublin. Due to of some details in my life  I did not expect to be able to make a trip to Europe durning the year,  but to quote Emerson: "Every wall is a door." And, sometimes things work out even when you least expect, and I had the opportunity to travel with my son and his wife for his graduation.

 I just needed a passport,  and fast, which wouldn't have be so bad if I could just find my birth certificate.  Considering the hot flashes I was experiencing, I must be closer to death than I am to birth (Excuse me while I put my hair up...) but I doubt I will ever be in the position to have to look for my own death certificate:) but, if I could lose it, I would. 

I knew I was born, because I was living and breathing and have even added three extra people to the population of the world. I just needed to find the paper that said when and where!

Geez, details, details....

I looked everywhere for my missing paper.  I emptied draws and boxes and files. I laid eyes on all kinds of treasures, notes and letters and little hand drawn pictures from my children. I took the time to organize it (after all, my lack of organization is why I couldn't find this rather important document. I mean, there came a point where I started to doubt my own existence....)  I decided to break for lunch and try again later in the afternoon. I ordered chinese and cracked open my fortune cookie:

I listened to the wisdom of the cookie.  My home state of California didn't fail me and quickly sent me (for a small fortune for rush service) my birth certificate.

TAH-DAH!!

 I  started to believe this trip was actually going to happen. I realized I must have given one of my children my suitcase so I rushed to Belk the night before my trip and bought the largest one I could find. The suitcase is the size of a crib mattress. If it had fold out legs, we could easily fit four around it and complete a 500 piece puzzle:)   Go big or go home, as my friend Heather would say. She was talking about handbags (which goes without saying) but, it wasn't the best choice for Europe where everyone packs a month worth of living into one small backpack. The cars are small (my one suitcase filled the entire trunk of a car. You don't see many Hummers or gas guzzling SUV's)  The staircases are small and there may or may not be elevators where you stay. (Not).

Even if I can get it up the stairs...will it fit through the door?

Here are some thoughts on travel:

1: Sleeping on a plane is not the same as sleeping in my bed.

2: The only way to get over jet lag is to sleep

3: The city of Dublin is so fantastic, you don't want to waste time sleeping. 

                              The city of Dublin is beautiful~cold in December, but, beautiful. 

                                 But, three perfectly poured Guinness's warm us up quickly:)

                                      Hm..someone can find a chocolate shop in any country...

I want to keep this post short and sweet and there are more than 300 hundred pictures to choose from so let me just share the most important ones with you:)

                             That's right, tea time and bath time are the same thing in my Castle.

Basically, I just went from having tea in bed..to tea in the bath. Notice how many trays you see. Room service knew me well by the time we checked out.

                           The country roads are dotted with sheep. So much easier to see than squirrels:)

    The city is beautiful, the countryside  is beautiful and the cliffs  are beautiful. I mean, look at this view.

The Irish are so friendly and we received such warm welcomes wherever we went. Like this gracious sight after a long cold drive.

                   
                           We pretty much know how to make ourselves at home. In any country:)

                                   
                       It seems like every small town has it's charming pubs. No one meets a stranger.

 

                                                 

                                                  Did I mention the people are friendly?     

                        
Cheesy sandwich board for cheesy tourist like ME! Some of the best live music I have ever heard.                                              

And here he is..the Graduate! Toasting to a job well done and a life well lived. He makes me very proud.

They say you live once, but we have a way to life it three times.
First in anticipation
Second in the actual moment
Third in recollection

There is a spiritual lesson playing over in my life. It seems when I finally let go of something and just give it up to the Lord, often, He wraps it up in something beautiful and gives it back to me in a way I could have never expected. (or deserve considering my utter lack of faith) That's what this Ireland trip was for me.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.