As we set off on our journey to Ireland and Scotland, I knew the plane rides with Elijah would be challenging, but I was determined to do everything I could to make the trip go as smoothly as possible. Once I’m finished documenting each day of our journey, I’ll write a post about all the things we did to prepare for our trip, just in case anyone else wants to attempt a similar journey of their own.
When we left DC en route to JFK (in NYC), we began to regret things already. It was supposed to be a 40 minute flight, and we were on the plane for a total of 3 hours…our trip was already getting off on the wrong foot.
However, things began to look up as we went to check in our flight to Dublin and the agent had put our family together (we were not supposed to be sitting together), and we were in the first row just past business class. Which meant we had a lot of floor room in front of us. So, as we set off to fly at 10:40PM on Tuesday evening, Elijah was in his pajamas and settling in for the flight.
This was our starting position. Elijah was out before the plane took off. Whew…stress averted! I thought I was going to have to do the whole transatlantic flight just like this, but….
…thankfully, with ample foot room in front of our seats, Elijah slept on the floor for the entire flight! It was awesome! I even got maybe 20 minutes of sleep on that flight myself.
We arrived in Dublin, without too many hiccups, around 10:30AM local time.
We took the bus from the airport into Dublin’s city centre. Elijah loved sitting like a big boy on the bus looking out.
Our first meal was in the Guinness Pub. It was a traditional Irish meal with meat, potatoes (two kinds), carrots, and cabbage. It was way too much for one person to eat. Elijah ate a granola bar.
After we all took a nap in our hotel room, we headed into the downtown area of Dublin.
My favorite spot in Dublin was St. Stephen’s Green, which is a lovely park in the middle of the city. It was almost magical.
It was such a beautiful day (with rain showers here and there), everyone was out enjoying the sunshine.
Elijah was fascinated with all the pigeons.
Everything in the park was so well manicured. It was simply beautiful.
Elijah’s favorite part of the park was definitely the playground we happened upon. You know you’ve moved to a new stage of life when you get just as excited about finding a playground as you do an old Cathedral. Right after this picture was taken the heavens opened up and rain came pouring down. While we all had on proper rain gear, we still got quite wet! Welcome to Ireland.
We had some dinner at a local burger joint in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. It’s a famous neighborhood for all it’s pubs and nightlife. We got there a little before all the nightlife activities began.
Our first day ended with a beautiful rainbow covering the city. It was such a great first day!
great pictures. keep em coming!