Off to Ireland

Growing up, about the only foreign country I wanted to visit was Ireland. I think it was because my mother was a Clark and I heard that the Clarks came to the states during the potato famine. Well, once I started doing my genealogy, I discovered that our Clarks probably came from Ireland but not during the potato famine--much longer ago than that. Back in the mid 1600's.

Then about 8 or 10 years ago, I discovered Scottish Highland Games and fell head over heels in love with anything Scottish. I was lucky enough to travel to Scotland twice with Alex Beaton who became not only our tour guide but also a good friend of ours. This year he is taking a group on his first tour of Ireland. There are 37 going on the tour and all but 4 have been on at least one of his Scotland tours. We are lucky enough to be one of the 37 who are on the tour.

We will fly out of Cleveland Hopkins Monday afternoon. (Thanks to our daughter in law who is taking part of the day off work to take us to the airport!). We will then meet up in Newark, NJ with a couple we met on our first Scotland tour. We still meet them once a year at the Kentucky Scottish Weekend. (You met them here. They were the ones with the Mini Cooper.) We will fly out of Newark at 9:45 Monday night and arrive Tuesday morning in Dublin. A car will meet the four of us (arranged by Alex) which will take us to our hotel. Alex wanted everyone to try to get there a day before the official tour started so we wouldn't be so jet lagged. So, we will have a whole day to sightsee on our own, sleep, shop, or whatever. Then we will have 3 days in and around Dublin, 2 days in and around Cork, 2 days in and around Killarney, 2 days in and around Galway, and the last day in Limerick. We will fly out of Shannon to Newark on Saturday June 20th. 13 blissful days of not having to think about selling the house!

Anyway, I'm not going to be around here for a couple of weeks but I promise a report and some pictures when I get back. So, "feicfidh mé go luath sibh" which means "see you soon" in Irish. (Just don't ask me to pronounce it!!)