It had been 8 years since Mom & I made our pilgrimage to Lithuania. I have always wanted to go back, and to take my grandgirl, named Elena for my mother. But, in a moment of sanity, I thought that going alone with a 6-year-old might be a tad daunting. So I invited Mari, her mother and our middle kid. We could all fly from RDU as we all live in Raleigh/Durham. Then I though that, as we'd really need two rooms anyhow, it made great sense to also invite Vikki, our older daughter. Sure, she lives in Massachusetts, but we'd work that out. So, I got a flight for Mari, Elena, and me to Logan, in Boston. We'd meet Vikki there and fly to Lithuania, via Dublin. Spend the night there so we could see Dublin. Then fly from Dublin to Kaunas. I even had our rooms in Dublin (coming and going) and Kaunas arranged.
And I emailed my cousin Sharon, in California, to tell her our plans. And said I wished she could come. She talked to Kent, made reservations to meet us in Boston and come!
As planned, on Monday, September 22, I met Mari & Elena at RDU, we got a Delta flight, and arrived at Logan. We followed the tiled sea creatures along the walkways to the Kidsport play area. And there were Sharon and Kent. They'd taken advantage of our trip to have their own fall visit to New England. We tried to wear Elena out playing, then had lunch. Kent headed to his flight west and we headed to the international terminal to meet Vikki. Ian came in with her, so we got to have a quick visit.
Then through customs and onto our Aer Lingus plane to fly through the night to Dublin!
By the way, for all you males who make jokes about how much baggage we women "need": for this whole trip, each of us had one backpack and one suitcase that, although we checked them, qualified as carry-on. Dare you to match that.
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Elena, Mari, Vikki, and Sharon on the bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin, early Tuesday morning. Yes, I have one of those sweaters, too. I'd have made one for Sharon had I the time. Yeah, Vikki said it was like when they were kids and I dressed them alike on trips. But I never lost a kid. Hey, at 5'2", Sharon is tall. This way we could find each other in busy airports. It worked. And they were warm. |
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