Day One: Dublin

Our first day of travel went off really quite smoothly, with only a few minor hiccups. We arrived at Raleigh-Durham airport a good three hours in advance of our flight… overkill, I realize, but we decided it would be better to have time to kill than be scrambling through some sort of last-minute snag; plus, I had visions of a painfully long slog through security with six kids.




As it turned out, we breathed through security and had plenty time to kick back at the Delta Sky Club – with free drinks and snacks, the kids were spoilt silly. I think our kids ate the entire bowel of apples they had out (we’re kind of like locusts that way). Dylan clearly enjoyed traveling in style...



Sharon had a mild panic as our plane to Atlanta was taxiing – she couldn’t find her wallet. Now, I felt it was inevitable that she’d lose something during the trip (I have backup plans for our backup plans), but even I was surprised it could occur before we left the ground in Raleigh. Luckily, at about 10,000 feet, she found it buried in her backpack.



Traveling with young kids makes you young in a way; you notice things that otherwise pass through your subconscious as an adult. Every airplane, every engine, every machine, sign, light, and door were of interest to my four-year-old son and his younger sisters and generated a level of excitement (as first-time travelers) that’s contagious. The older kids were fixated on the concept of time zones, for some reason (and, jealous of Wyatt's preferred mode of transportation within airports...).


Switching planes in Atlanta was equally painless – a quick tram ride from terminal A to terminal E and there we were again, at the Sky Club, bingeing on Sprite and Delta Trail Mix, only this time we were forced to sit in the “Quiet Zone” due to limited seating. It wasn’t really much of a quiet zone with us there… but, technically, we were in compliance as we weren’t yapping on our cell phones.





The excitement really started when the wheels of our Airbus A330 lifted off the ground… goodbye USA! We had two rows of four seats in the back, traveling in style. Once the kids were situated, everyone gradually dozed off fitfully. I slept surprisingly well (rare for me on planes).




We finally landed after about seven and a half hours in the air, although the excitement of arriving was muted by everyone’s general grogginess. I will say: the customs officer who took our stack of eight passports was really exceptionally nice and jocular, and despite the backdrop of Ireland being a land of large families, the sight of us and our kids was clearly a curiosity to almost everyone we encountered. While it wasn’t cheap, I’m glad I had a van pick us up, since we had to travel to one location to get the keys to our rental flat, and then on to the flat. It would have been a royal pain trying to do that with two or three taxis.





We napped for a couple of hours at the flat (once we got in – had a mild fifteen-minute feeling of buyer’s remorse when we couldn’t find the flat and found ourselves, suitcases and all, camped out on the sidewalk… we eventually found it), and then did a nice afternoon walk around Trinity College (established in 1592), followed by bustling Grafton Street (tons of nice stores).









We had an exceptionally good dinner at Harry’s on the Green, adjacent to St. Stephen’s Green – best mushroom risotto I’ve ever had – with two of our kids venturing out with fish ‘n’ chips to kick things off right (my cultural salute was a pint of Guiness, naturally).







We then finished off the evening with a walk around St. Stephen’s Green, where we helped photograph a stereotypically nice young Irish couple who’d been married earlier in the day, and then headed back to the flat.



Tomorrow, we do our “hop on, hop off” bus tour of the city and expect to hang out at a few museums, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Phoenix Park Zoo, and maybe the Guinness Brewery. For now, time to catch up on some Z’s.