Ireland - Days 1 & 2

Now I realize that if your reading this, my title might imply that days 1 & 2 of Lisa and my Ireland trip are going to be about Ireland..........NOT!

Day 1 was running around getting ourselves together so that we could leave in the afternoon for Dublin. It started off with me cutting the grass at 8am - the only speed work I have done recently - I heard thunder so I was practically running around with the lawn mower to get it done (I have a checklist you know). Shawn so kindly pointed out that you could not even tell that I cut the grass as it really hadn't grown in the past week. I had to check the box! Shawn & I ran..man was it humid and saw a really scary character...looked like he was stalking a girl walking down a street so we stopped to watch what he was doing. Other than the sweltering heat/humidity, it was fun to run with Shawnee.

After finishing up my chores, I decided to turn on the TV and relax for the 45minutes remaining before Shawn was coming to pick us up to go to the airport. Almost immediately, the tv program was interrupted with a severe weather warning......tornado warning. Flipped to TWC and holy crap!!!!!! This nasty little storm was coming into Richmond. I REALLY hate flying. I know I used to be a travel agent, but I am a white knuckle flyer on good days. I was on a Pan Am 747 going to europe not long after the Lockerbe bombing, when our plane was struck by lightening right in front of where I was sitting (in the window seat). We all thought it was a bomb at 1st. I probably don't need to say anything more about that....I am sure I had to change my shorts!
Anyways, Lisa & I saw the storm on the radar, but thought that we still had over 2hours before our flight was to leave Richmond, and 7-8 hours before our flight was to leave for Dublin, surely we would get there, maybe a bit delayed.

Shawnee dropped us off at the terminal (thank-you) and Lisa & I check-in and go up to security. We have plenty of time and the security area is pretty much deserted, interesting. We both make it through security without either of us being strip searched. It is a minor miracle as we believe that Lisa was on a terrorist watch list. Every time we fly, she would get "randomly selected". We have a good chuckle about our good fortune and head to our gate. When we get there, the 130pm departure is still at the gate. They have been delayed d/t the weather...poor suckers. We then here a urgent announcement from the gate agent for the 130p passengers: "you have 15minutes to get on the plane, get seated and close the door". "We want you to be safe, but you need to hurry". The captain must have seen a small clearing in the clouds and decided it was now or never. I briefly thought to ask if we could get on this flight, but knew that the airline personnel were too stressed to figure it out so I kept my mouth shut. The flight left, and it wasn't 10minutes later that the skies opened up! I am glad I was not on that flight.

Almost immediately, the gate agents were saying that there was a possibility that they would not be able to leave Richmond. It was still only 3:30pm???? WTF? By 4pm they made the announcement that the flight was canceled and there was no other way to get to Philly....no way to get to Dublin. It is not like it used to be when the airlines cared about your travel itinerary and would find other ways to get you to your destination....very sad! So we were booked for a 7am flight the next morning and would have a 12hour layover in Philadelphia.

I started to make phone calls to see if we could change our car rental and hotel in Dublin. Lisa got her first taste with a REAL Irish accent on the phone...haha. She could not really understand the person on the phone, even though they were speaking English. I hope we have a hotel room when we get there. On our way home, the clouds parted and the sky was blue. It was only 430pm. Still unclear why we couldn't have made it to Philadelphia. We figure there must not have been enough customers on the plane, so they were going to lose $$ if they flew.....how convenient there was a storm. As we were leaving the airport we noticed that USAir was the ONLY airline that canceled flights. Oh well, another awesome dinner with Shawn & Karen at a new place on Broad by Bellvidere called "the Bellvidere" - I would highly recommend it! At least we weren't stranded in some foreign country (Miami) with no place to go/stay and no one to help you (Brazil).

Day 2 - 5:00am - up and stumbling around trying to get out of the house. We make it to the airport without event. We hope to be able to run around Philadelphia with all our free time. We check-in and learn that the airlines will not check our bags all the way to Dublin d/t the long layover - like we asked for it! Damn! Now what? We don't want to cart all of our bags around with us all day. We are pretty sure that after 9-11, there are no longer lockers at the airports, oh well. The flight to Philly was uneventful and we get our bags without any incident. We start looking for options of what to do, do we bring our bags and go into town??? do we spend 12hours in the airport (sounding like Brasil yet?). We happen to walk by the Usair Lost baggage claim area and Lisa decides to go ask them if there is anything they could suggest for leaving our bags. As she is explaining our sad tale about missing our flight, long layover....one of the girls makes a comment about starting a side business and that she could make a lot of $$$ storing bags for the day. Lisa says that she would gladly pay for such a service - wink wink. We go out to the side of the office where all the bags are lined-up (in a secure area) and the lady takes our bags and Lisa slides her a $20.00. Awesome! Now we don't have to lug those things around.

We head out to the train tracks and get on the train to central Philly. We had an awesome time running around the city. It was not too hot which was good as we were dressed for airplane/Ireland weather = jeans. Not too smart. Should have worn shorts and changed into jeans when we got back to the airport. Oh well, now we will smell like Europeans :-)
In our day tour we say the liberty bell, independence hall (inside and out), Benjamin Franklin & Betsy Ross's gravestones and tomb of the unknown soldier. We also went to some really old street - started with an E - oops, and of course had a Philly cheese steak.

Probably the best part of our tour was when we were in the Independence House. There were some breeders with a few young offspring. One of the kids was screaming/crying and carrying on. The parents were not really making any attempt to shut it up. It was very distracting. Finally the tour guide told the woman that she was going to have to do something about her kid, or leave. She actually started to argue with the guy, with a whole room full of people. I would have been mortified. She eventually packed up her kids and left in a huff. It was the 1st time I have seen someone actually speak up and say how annoying it is, and then ask them to leave! :-)

OK, we make it back to the airport without any issues. We go to pick-up our bag, and of course, the crew manning the baggage claim area are all new people. We go to get our bags and Lisa's bag is there....mine is mysteriously missing. I know all of you reading this are thinking, dah.....what did you think was going to happen! Well, honestly, I didn't really think they would loose my bag. We have a heated conversation with the lady at the baggage claim area. She swears that my bag will be in Dublin.....right. I will shave my head if my bag shows up :-)
She is saying that they start looking at the bags and see where the passenger is going and that they must have sent mine forward to Dublin. We shall see. I will only be disappointed about losing all of my Ironman finishers shirts/hats that I will lose......bastards!

This blogging thing is hard work. I am not so cleaver.....if you are still reading this is you must be bored. sorry!

We are in the Philadelphia airport. I hour until we leave? Hopefully leave - with my bag mysteriously in the bottom of the plane.