Oh Canada

We have waited through a global pandemic for this. Ireland. Like so many others, I have always felt drawn to Ireland but have no idea why. Maybe it's because I have always liked dreaming about magical creatures like fairies...maybe it's because I like the music that comes from Ireland. I never thought that I had a genealogical pull like so many others but recently I found out from my Godfather (and Uncle) who did Ancestry DNA that I am about 1.5% Irish! I still don't think that my ancestry has anything to do with it.

Four years ago we enrolled Gwen and Ellie in summer camp at St. Louis Irish Arts. And were amazed at how much music and dance they learned in just a couple of shorts weeks. We never thought we would be able to enroll them full time in the program because it is so far away and since I work evenings and with Jay's commute it wouldn't be possible to come home, get the girls, and go back over the river again. But with Nana's help, we figured it out, and somehow we were able to make one evening class a week work for Gwen. And she enjoyed it and was good at it and it was a one stop shop for her to grow as a musician and to learn a form of dance all in one class.

We watched Gwen grow in the Irish Arts and loved her teachers and what she was learning so when the opportunity came up to travel to Ireland with them in 2020 for the All-Ireland Fleadh, we decided to go for it. Travel has always been important to us. As everyone knows, travel takes us out of our comfort zones and stretches us in ways like nothing else can. We learn resilience, tolerance, compassion, and understanding in so many unexpected ways when we travel. And we get to see pretty places.

So we signed up for the trip...and then Global Pandemic...so the world shut down and Ireland was cancelled. We cried a bit of course. But there was nothing we could do about it. So life went on and we had bigger things to think about. The girls continued with SLIA online and I absolutely LOVED that they continued to have a regular schedule with their classes. Ellie was able to start SLIA full-time much earlier than Gwen because the classes were at home and we didn't have to worry about getting her anywhere further than our living room or her bedroom for classes. The girls kept busy and though it wasn't ideal, they learned so much and looked forward to their online classes each week.

Once classes went back to in-person, we knew that we had to find a way to get both girls to STL for their classes even though they were on different days...Ellie had fallen in love with SLIA too and was just as good at it as Gwen.

When the time came in January, 2022 to start thinking about the spring competitions, Eimear (the girls' private SLIA teacher) made us aware that the Gwen and Ellie stood a very good shot at qualifying for the All-Ireland Fleadh. It was very confusing for us to learn about the world of Irish music competitions. As Jay and I are both music teachers, we've been involved in music competitions in various capacities for a long, long time but music competition for the traditional arts feels very different to us. While some elements are familiar to us, many of the aspects of the competitions are not at all like the classical and musical theater competitions we're used to.

So based on Eimear's encouragement, I started looking for Airbnb's and hotels and flights for a trip to Ireland. This time there wouldn't be an organized tour group as a school since everything is rebuilding, all expenses and arrangements would need to be made on our own. As I made the reservations I looked for places that were budget friendly, unique, and had cancellation policies that would give me until at least June to see if the girls qualified at the Midwest Regional in May or not.

And then I called my mom.

"Hi mom! Do you and dad want to go to Ireland with us in July?"

"YES!!! Sign us up!"

So I booked some places with 6 travellers in mind.

And then I realized that Jay and my Godson, Chapin (also our nephew), is graduating high school next spring...and what do you really get a boy graduating high school? I wanted to give him the gift of an experience with us...so I talked to mom and dad and we all decided to gift him with going on the trip with us!

So now we are 7!

In May the girls were amazing at the Midwest Regional Fleadh and qualified for the All-Ireland! They both received Silver medals in English Singing and both received Gold in Lilting. Additionally Gwen's Grupa Cheoil took the Gold medal and Ellie's duet with Caitlin Bishop took the Silver!

Gwen and Ellie have worked so hard they deserve to be supported and to take this trip to see what they can do in International competition...and to just experience the place where the music they study came from. But regardless of why, Ireland has always been a place I have

dreamed of visiting.

But we're not getting to Ireland quite yet.

When I booked our plane tickets months ago, Air Canada seemed like a good idea. I liked the flight times and the price. So today around 11 a.m. we left for STL and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Elise's as we got our ducks in a row and collected Chapin.

Elise and Stephen dropped us off at Lambert and our adventure began smoothly...until the flight was delayed...and delayed. So we made the best of it and played airport pinochle and waited. Two hours late we boarded very worried about our connecting flight since we only had two hours to make the connection in Toronto. When we arrived, we became increasingly worried because

we had to sit at the gate for almost an hour because we had no ground crew available to unload us.

We also had no gate agent.

And then we did...and they announced that those of us with a connecting flight to Dublin would receive our boarding passes when we deplaned. When we got off and found the attendant with our new passes, he gave us a packet.

"Where do we go?"

And as he looked over our passes, he showed us vouchers for a hotel for the night, $20 each in vouchers for meals, and our boarding passes for a flight TOMORROW at 9:00 p.m.

Oh man. An unexpected 24 hours in Canada.

None of us have ever been to Canada before! Hopefully

we'll find an adventure and fun way to spend the day in Toronto instead of in Dublin. I'm sure we'll think of something.