Notebook-Inspired Nostalgia

 Since yesterday's post focused on a notebook my daughter bought me while she was studying in Ireland, I thought today might be a good day to revisit that trip. :-)

Over Easter, my husband and I went to visit our daughter, who is studying in Ireland this semester. I'm not going to bore you with a travelogue but, since I wanted something to go with my photos, I thought I'd share five things I learned -- or maybe re-learned in some cases -- on my trip.

1. There's a reason people travel when they're young. My daughter has wanted to travel since she was in elementary school, but I never had the travel bug. Still don't, really. I'm very, very glad we went, and I had a great time, even if everywhere we walked was uphill.

2. Sometimes, optimism can get you to the top -- literally. I wasn't very far into Blarney Castle when I noticed the smallness of the space. Half a flight below me, a woman decided the space was too small and gave up, taking an exit close to the bottom of the long, curving stairs.

Nope. I didn't go all the way to Ireland to leave a castle before reaching the top. There's air and light even in an old castle, and finding those was all I needed to make my way to the top.

3. My mind is powerful enough to overcome my fears. Before this trip, I hadn't flown since September 10, 2001. But my daughter was on the other side of the ocean and if she could do it, I could do it.

4. I don't always have to do what people expect. Did I mention that everything was uphill? We were most of the way to one of the sights my daughter wanted to see when I saw the final approach.

Straight downhill.

Not bad, except that what goes down, must come back up. So, I opted to do neither. My husband and daughter went ahead without me.

No regrets. Especially since we found a prettier, less taxing route back.

5. Family is family, no matter where you go. We saw lots of great places and it was wonderful seeing my daughter in her element. One of my favorite times, though, was the afternoon we all ended up back at the hotel for a little bit of quiet time between jaunts. We each did our own thing in companionable silence, punctuated by the occasional comment, story or share.

Just like home.

She was, after all, the sight I was most anxious to see.