I'm home safe and sound from the Island of Green Grass and poetry and spirituality.   It was a wonderful trip.   I can't say enough about the experiences and will try to relate an incident or two for the next few days (or weeks) however it happens.

I was dropped off by Joseph and Felicia at about 9PM last night.   We had an uneventful but interesting flight from Dublin to Chicago.   It was raining a bit in Dublin, but Aer Lingus has settled their strike so we were on an Aer Lingus plane.   The transportation there was a bit more dicey.

The group that left on Thursday got to the airport to find that the strike was on and that they were "renting?" a plane from another airline.   It was 11PM when they left almost 4 hours late and the plane was an American Airline plane which was not as nice.    We left on time but had an AirBerlin plane which we heard is much better than American Airlines but still, as we ALL found out yesterday Aer Lingus is Much nicer.   Better seats and other amenities.

We arrived in Chicago in a storm.   Fortunately, once our transportation to Milwaukee arrived, we drove north out of the storm.    We were all tired but still talking like a bunch of crazy people about the wonderful week we had just shared and the Packers.   Yeah Packers.   I won the Guessathon Fantasy Football league that I belong to with family and friends.   I was tied in points with Mike Gustafson, Mary Margaret's husband, but I won on the number of total correct picks.   I also won a quarter in the league we did as a CWI tour group so I feel very rich and lucky.

The tour was wonderful and exciting.   I will review it as the week goes on.   We spent our first two days, Saturday and Sunday in Dublin.   We went on a pub crawl, which was every bit as fun as I remembered when Bobbie and I were in Ireland many years ago.    I will enclose a couple of pictures of the crawl.   At the end, they again had a quiz.   Last time, I won a poster.  This time I was neck in neck with a gal from England.   She won the t shirt but I got a little bottle of Bushmills so don't feel that I did so badly after all.

The next day, we went to Kilmainham Goal for the tour.   It was truly moving and informative.   Our leader was a man named Micheal O Doibhliin who has authored a book called Anne Devlin , one of the true female heroes of the 1916 uprising.  I purchased his book and have his email.

We also went to the Westbury Hotel for an Afternoon Tea.   That was very special.   Such good finger sandwiches, a lovely selection of tea served beautifully in tea cups, good scones and breads and special sweet desserts.   I have nice pictures of that also.

That is enough tonight as I am really ready for bed.   I am almost caught up on wash and have the house almost put back together after my diving back in and unloading.

So until tomorrow.   The pictures will foloow.

Love

Mary