Who would have thought a volcano could delay our trip? Are you kidding? When they first announced that a volcano was interrupting flights last week, I thought no big deal; our trip is still 4 days away. But as the days went by, so did our departure. After our Monday flight was officially cancelled, we were promptly booked on the next available flight. Not Tuesday, not Wednesday, but Sunday, six days later. That was a bit deflating as I started to work on cancelling accommodations. What made things worse was that our new departure was certainly no sure thing either. After things started returning to normal though, I began keeping an eye on things with American (Airlines). And sure enough, I found just enough seats open up for a Friday departure. All of a sudden we were packing again. When we got to the airport though, Ella started complaining of a stomach-ache and needing to use the restroom often. She started complaining of the stomach-ache a few days earlier, but we never connected the dots. All of a sudden we’re standing in O’Hare and it makes sense now - she has a bladder infection! Perfect timing of course. After making another emergency bathroom stop we find out that there’s a clinic in the airport. So off we went, and sixty minutes later we’re heading for our plane with a new bottle of antibiotics. Things were starting to come together, although we were still nervous we’d hear an announcement that the “ash cloud” had returned. We managed to take-off however, and eight hours later find ourselves landing in Dublin. Was it Luck of the Irish?
You’ll notice in the photo above that we learned a thing or two from our first trip. Even though we’re gone for 3 months this time, we’ve managed to pack a lot lighter compared to the luggage from our trip in 2008 (photo below).
