Emerald Isle

I'm doing it.  I'm going, and that's it.

I'm planning a trip to Ireland for this summer.

I've been wanting to visit Ireland for years and years.  One of my goals was to go before I turned 40.  Didn't make it.  The money was never there.  This spring, however, it will be, and if I don't go now, the chance may evaporate.  I'm grabbing it.

My plan is to board a flight to Dublin on a Wednesday, thereby arriving Thursday morning.  I'll spend Thursday and Friday in Dublin, seeing what I can while I recover from jet lag.  Saturday I'll rent a car and drive to a country cottage I'm planning to rent in County Meath.  I'll stay there for a week.  The place is equidistant from several things I want to see, including Newgrange and Tara and several other smaller things.  It's also within easy reach of Dublin if I want to go back there some more.  Once that's done, I'll go back to Dublin, spend one more night, and fly home.

It's not my dream trip, which would involve two weeks and a long tour of archaeological Ireland, but I'll take it.

I'm taking Corey with me.  My harp maker friend (found at http://www.lewiscreek.net/lc_home.htm ) is going to make a hard-sided travel case so Corey won't get smashed in transit.  I'm going to play Irish folk music in the Irish countryside, on Irish cliffsides overlooking the ocean, and in the center of standing stone circles.  (If I don't come back, forward my mail care of Tam Lin and True Tom.)  And oh yes--maybe even in a pub or two.

I'll be alone.  This is partly because we can't afford a family trip to Ireland, partly because I don't think the boys would really be interested (and I =know= Kala isn't interested), and mostly because I want to do in Ireland the things I've always wanted to do without worrying about other people getting bored.

This is going to be so cool.