The Last Day

 We started Monday morning out slowly. We had to get our luggage in order to get through airport security and make sure our snacks were stowed away where we would be able to reach them easily during our flight. We also needed to make sure the Kindles were readily available and charged. Ryan and I went on a 45 minute walk along the road where we were staying. The speed limit was typical of country roads in Ireland- 80 km/h. That is 50 miles per hour. Can you imagine? Just a twisty little country road and the possibility of becoming roadkill. No big deal. People walk along these roads all the time.

The kids opted to stay and play outside. We were going to be stuck on an airplane for 9+ hours, and time outside is always good.

Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:10 pm, so we took a little detour to see another crumbling tower house. One more ruin, just because.

More crazy, narrow road driving. Where exactly is an oncoming car supposed to go??

Then it was time to start the journey home. Just before entering Dublin, the clouds started dumping buckets of rain. That rain we planned for with our extra pairs of shoes and raincoats had finally made its appearance just in time for us to say goodbye. With Google Maps cheering us on one last time, Ryan wound his way to the rental car drop-off. We got a clean bill of health, grabbed our bags, and wedged ourselves into the shuttle van to the airport.

We had a nice long wait to check in our passports at Aer Lingus. Finally, we were checked in with our boarding passes, and then it was time for security. I like that we don't have to take off our shoes in Ireland. That done, we follow the signs to US customs and security. Oh, joy. Thankfully we were not required to do security again, but we did have to declare our family status as Americans. We were a kid sandwich, with Ryan first and me at the end. The customs lady asked where we had stayed while in Ireland as she handed me back my passport. It felt almost like an afterthought question. Like husbands can't remember stuff like that? So I rattled off our itinerary, and I was given a nod and we could go.

We had spent over an hour in lines. We wanted lunch before boarding! There was one little super overpriced sandwich and crisps shop near our gate. Our sandwiches cost more than our pub food lunch the day before. At least we were able to fill our bellies and use the "toilet" (not restroom) before boarding. Ryan thought the backrest was an interesting feature. The women's room had no such thing. Rude!

Our seats were really close to the toilets on the airplane. I could lean over and touch the door if I wanted to. (I didn't.) It was super easy to go over and grab a tissue mid-flight. Once boarded, we sat for a good 40 minutes past take-off time. It turns out we were waiting for our food to arrive. But we had movies to entertain us, so that helped. It was about 4 pm in Dublin when we finally took off.

All of us Kannely girls were sitting in a row. Ryan just didn't get Maddie in the picture. Ryan sat just in front of Maddie. On the flight over, Ryan couldn't get any sound from his screen, so we shared my screen and headphones. On the way back, I settled in for the entire second season of Sanditon. No snarky comments from the peanut gallery, ahem my husband. But our flight was only half over, and it was still light outside. I switched to reading at that point. We were fed a lot on that flight. We had pretzel service. Dinner with dessert service. Ice cream service. A fancy version of a hot pocket- I think mine was tikka masala or some such. Plus drinks a few more times. We watched the airplane icon on my screen slowly, ever so slowly, crawl its way to Seattle. Maddie proudly says she watched 13 or 14 episodes of Psych on the way home. Elizabeth watched 5 movies. As we got closer, we heard the landing gear come out. A moment later there was a very loud noise, a bit of a shudder from the plane, and then an announcement over the PA about how to find your nearest exit.

What the?!?!

We were fine. Physically anyway. There were no more weird noises and we landed just fine.

We flew so long that it was Tuesday in Dublin when we landed, and when I was finally able to switch my phone off of airplane mode- we went back a day. And it was still light. And still had to drive 3 hours to get home. It was the day that almost never ended.

Ryan got us safely home. There was no relearning curve to driving on the right side of the road. We essentially left our bags at the front door, grabbed toothbrushes and chargers and went straight to bed. It was 9 pm Pacific time and we were dead, dead, dead. Hungry again, but too tired to do anything about it.

The next day was a school day. We were all awake early, but Elizabeth chose not to attend seminary. Ryan was at work super early and put in a full, long day, followed by high council meeting in Yakima. He didn't get home until about 10 pm. I was asleep before he got home. I think by Wednesday evening, Ryan had caught up on all of the work hours he missed Monday. I'm not sure what the point of officially taking the day off was. He more than made up for it last week. The girls went to school and looked like the zombies I felt myself to be Tuesday. Pushing through the jet-lag, sometimes you wonder why you did that to yourself. Looking through my pictures and reliving those experiences has reminded me- it was fun. We did enjoy it. It was totally worth it.