First off, I have to begin by pointing out that traveling to Ireland has been a dream of mine since I was around 20 years old. When Amy and I married in 1995, our hope was to go to Ireland for our 5 year anniversary. However, struggling as young couples do, we weren't able to do that and vowed to go for our 10...then our 15...then our 20...you get the idea. :)

Fast forward to a couple weeks before this fateful trip. We had been visiting with Kelly and Mirinda a bit because Amy and Mirinda were having a dance class together. They were talking about this trip and Kelly was listening to podcasts about the history of Ireland. They were very excited and I shared with them that was a dream bucket list trip for us, as well. One of the couples that had originally planned to go on the trip was unable to, and we were friends with everyone going through meeting them in SCA around the time Amy and I got married. Kelly said he'd mention it to Kate.

When we unexpectedly ran into Kate at the Rocky Horror Picture Show a few weeks later and she asked Amy if we had passports, it sent a jolt of excitement to both of us, but tempered with not getting hopes up. A few days later, Kate informed us that she was able to get names changed and that we were officially invited to go on the trip.

Amy had to finagle her schedule and call in some favors, as 10 days off from work with short notice isn't always easy, but the stars aligned and we were official! We spent the next few days reading up on notes that the rest of the group (Kate, Kelly, Mirinda, Tim and Lori) had been sharing on a facebook page to know what to pack, how to prepare and what the schedule was for where we were staying.

I am, by nature, a planner. I like routine and I like to know what to expect. Amy is the spontaneous one and has always encouraged me to try to be more spontaneous myself. I vowed that since we were guests and since we had such a short time to prepare anyway, I would not be looking up anything and would just 'go with the flow'. I managed to keep fairly close to that, I'm proud to say.

The next few days were spent on Amazon and hitting local stores to get things we though we would need. Ireland has been experiencing a very unusual winter this year, with snow falling every few weeks and it was as cold or colder there than here. We got some thermals, some waterproof boots and jackets, vacuum bags that saved much more space than I'd have believed and I picked up a Chromebook to help document the trip and have something to do on the long plane trip.

I spent some extra time at work over the weekend to make sure all my deadlines were met and to save a few vacation hours, we packed Ian and Brennan to stay with Mom and George and because no one was home to take Aiden back to college, he got the keys to the Freestyle to drive himself.

As for Amy and I?

We were excited...we were thankful...we were ready!

*Note:

Most of the entries contained were written the night of each day, so the tense may change here and there based on updates I add when I put this thing together, but hopefully, the gist of the stories remain clear.