The summer of 2016

There is so much more to share about the summer travel we did. I am slightly disappointed I didn't get to more blogs then Day 1. My excuse will be losing my phone somewhere in the middle of the trip. This meant the blogger app went missing with the phone, and writing them became more troubling. None the less, I should have. About 6 weeks later and much of the vacation is fuzzy thanks to the project that awaited us when we returned (the new house, settlement, packing, another settlement, moving, and so much more).

To summarize the vacation, 3 weeks away was a lot of work. We moved every 3 days, except for the last week in Glasgow.  Our itinerary was 3 days in Reykjavik, 3 days in Inverness, Scotland, 4 days in Dublin with the kids with Grannie, and 8 nights in a flat in Glasgow with many day trips.

For me, returning to Dublin after 12 years was the personal highlight. I still love that city and would welcome the opportunity to live and work there. I think I could easily be convinced to stay.

For the family, I think the highlight was the day at Culzean Castle outside of Ayr in Scotland. This is not far from where Bob grew up. It was nice to see the area. The kids loved being on the beach and exploring. The day was gorgeous. Everyone was happy and we had even a good meal.

The kids were troopers. Some days were better then others. I hope they look back with fond memories such as driving the boat on Loch Ness whilst looking for the monster or one of her babies, playing at the Castle, baking with Grannie, playing at the nature park, enjoying the local parks in the cities we wondered, seeing the great wonders of Iceland, and hopefully even the silly sleeping arrangements and the adventures of flying and traveling.

They did great on the planes - thanks to the movies!

The one challenge was getting Clair to sleep when it was light nearly all the time. One night in Iceland she lay in her bed for 3 hours with the eyes wide open, propped nearly by toothpicks as she was exhuasted. But each time i tried to tell her to go to sleep, she would say "But the Blue Sky is still awake Mommy." We needed that girl some black out curtains!

Maybe over time I will write a couple more stories down, but for now, the 3 week European Adventure will be know as that, and A Great Family Adventure!

Travel day 1 down

This morning we ventured out as a family of five for a long vacation over in Europe. The day started at a normal time in the US and ended at about 2 AM local Icelandic time. The kids actually did fantastic on the journey. There was a lot of TV watching. But we made it through the whole flight without any tears! Props to the kids!

Ellie and Clair were both very vocally excited about the flight. At one point Clair looked at me with this man said this plane will never leave. But it did. 

Ellie was so excited to have unlimited access to a TV with movies, that she didn't get a lunch to go to the bathroom. On the other hand Clair was there at least six times. So I think she made up for her sister not going. 

Arriving into Iceland everybody was confused by the daylight. Ellie told me she wasn't impressed by the fact it would never be dark. I was impressed. It's been something I always wanted to experience. 

It was about a 45 minute ride into town. We had a nice driver who got all her luggage in and took us till we thought was our location. We unpacked, walk down the hall, went to open the door, and the man inside are supposedly room open the door and said how can I help you?

You can imagine at 1 AM with three kids and 15 pieces of luggage and tow, I wasn't pleased. Thankfully this was a very nice man from Boston who was happy to help us find where we needed to be. He was very friendly. Turns out our place was a block across the street. After one trip with the kids and David following up with about two or three trips to get the rest of the luggage we were finally in our. 

A little disorganized trying to unpack 10 bags and find what I needed to get the children in bed quickly, but it was accomplished in about 15 minutes. Clair was out after hitting the pillow for about two minutes. I think Max and Ellie took about five minutes. It took me a long time to fall asleep, the light sky was a bit alarming really. 

The one thing clear make sure to make Clair before falling asleep was that mommy would sleep with her and daddy would sleep on the couch. She's a funny girl. They have been telling her for the past two nights that she couldn't sleep in our bed at home because she would get to sleep with mommy on vacation. She didn't forget those promises. 

I woke up at 8 AM local time thinking it was noon. I was wrong. I walked around the Street trying to find a coffee shop, nothing was open. I finally found a small supermarket that charged me at least an arm and a leg for some berries a couple yogurts water and a little chocolate. Welcome to vacation! They always told me Iceland was expensive. Today we are off to explore the town. Tomorrow we will do the Golden Circle tour, which is supposed to take you to all the great Icelandic geographic tourist spots.