After our overnight flight from Toronto, we easily passed through customs and quickly found our Brendan Vacations greeter upon exiting the airport in Dublin.
Hotel Arrival
Our bus driver, the lovely Louie, dropped us off at the Sandymount hotel next to Aviva Stadium where we met out wonderful guide for the week, the Amazing Allie Lister. Our rooms weren’t ready yet. We needed a caffeine pick-me-up, so we ordered coffee (tea for me) in the hotel bar and sat out on the deck. Dennis remarked that the coffee wasn’t very good, and Mom quickly cut in and said “It’s awful!”
We were exhausted by the time we boarded our Air Canada flight AC842 from Toronto to Dublin. It was a larger plane with two seats on each side and four in the middle for a total of 291 passengers. I didn’t see any empty seats at all. I put my headphones in and turned on some music, hoping to go to sleep as soon as we took off at 11:15 p.m. especially since each seat had a pillow and blanket. Unfortunately, the crew decided to leave the lights on in the cabin for another two hours and served dinner at midnight. Drinks (including alcohol) were free, but we just wanted to go to sleep. Continue reading “Air Canada Flight 842: Dublin, Here We Come!”
Saturday was my birthday and the day we would be flying from Cleveland to Toronto and then onto Dublin. We were up early (4:00 a.m. for me)–I never sleep well before a big trip. We packed the last-minute items for our flight to Ireland and dropped the dogs off at the kennel at 8:00. It was too early to go to Mom and Dad’s, so after stopping at the bank, we decided to go to Brookfield Diner for breakfast. Before breakfast, we ran into a Dollar General for new reading glasses for Dennis. After breakfast, we went back in for a Tide To Go stick for me. You guessed it–I spilled dried beef gravy on myself at breakfast. Continue reading “Air Canada Flight 7408: From Cleveland to Toronto and Beyond”
Palm Sunday has always been my favorite Sunday of the entire year. When I was young, my family attended the Kinsman Presbyterian Church. The deacons always handed out entire palm branches as we entered the sanctuary the Sunday before Easter. I loved fanning myself with the fronds as we sang “Hosanna to the King of Kings.”
Welcome to my first attempt at a blog! Dennis and I are getting ready for our next big adventure–we fly to Puerto Rico this Friday and then leave for a Southern Caribbean cruise on Sunday evening. Â I’m all packed and ready to go. Dennis, not so much.
When I first started researching for this year’s trip, I thought we’d go to Texas. I was on a quest to visit all fifty states by the time I turn fifty (2 years–eek!). Â While looking at the different cities in Texas and deciding where to go, I stumbled upon Galveston and cruise ads. Many, many cruise ads. CHEAP cruises. And I thought–five days on a cruise is less money than we’d spend for a hotel and to eat out for the same amount of time. And that is how my search for a spring break cruise began.
Dennis drives a lot for work and I didn’t want him to have to drive for the majority of this vacation (not like the 10 states in 9 days we did for Christmas of 2015). Â I thought cruising would be a great way for him to relax. Neither of us have ever been to Puerto Rico and the prices were great. We (okay, really me) decided to book a seven night Southern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Fascination. This cruise is port-heavy. Six ports in seven nights with only one day at sea. I was excited about the opportunity to visit San Juan, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten. Â Other than booking flights and a hotel in San Juan, I didn’t do much research until about a month before the trip. At that time, I started getting nervous. You see, we’re not really beach people. We’re good for about two hours. That’s it. Â So I started to look at tours. I’ve probably overdone it now–we have seven tours booked!
t a blog! Dennis and I are getting ready for our next big adventure–we fly to Puerto Rico this Friday and then leave for a Southern Caribbean cruise on Sunday evening. Â I’m all packed and ready to go. Dennis, not so much.