This is my first view of Ireland, from a British Airlines flight, about to land in Dublin. Shades of green, as far as the eye can see, just as I always imagined it would be.

Once we collected our baggage and went through customs, we headed for the car rental office. This was to be our (Dave’s really, I have no intention of driving!) first experience with driving on the left side of the road. Dave reserved a car with automatic transmission and with GPS. The car we ended up with had neither. Suddenly our journey from Dublin airport to Dublin was looking a lot more daunting…

We paid extra to get the GPS but were still stuck with the manual transmission. Dave had a manual when I met him, but that was in 1982… it’s been a while! Put it all together and you have the uneasiness of driving a manual, in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road, with a far from modern GPS.

All in all, he did great, at least on this, our first day. I am not being a critic, actually, I am giving high praise! If it was me, with my ADD, dyslexia, and the fact that I can’t drive a stick – Very High Praise!

It was only about 6 miles from the airport to our hotel, but with all that, it was still something of an adventure. You know how travel is, with the security and the tensions and anxiety that foreign travel brings about, we were happy to get to our hotel and even happier when the valet said he’d park the car for us!

We’d booked a room at the historic (1824) Shelbourne, overlooking beautiful Stephen’s Green. The very hotel where the Irish Constitution was drafted on the first floor in 1937.

We were escorted by the bellman to the registration desk and from there on out – it was all gravy!

We’d reserved a “junior suite” so that Dave and I would have the master and Connor would have the suite part of the room. We were informed that we’d been upgraded!

Is there anything better than hearing that you’ve upgraded?! It is THE BEST!

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As you read this, I am someplace I’ve never been before.

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One last post, a pictorial actually, about Kansas and our trip last weekend for my dad’s Otter Family Reunion.

Then tomorrow, I’ll give you info on a recipe to NOT make. I bet you can hardly wait…

Check out the price to ride this awesome vintage kiddie ride mechanical and coin-operated horse. One Cent! Just like it advertises on the base of the ride. One penny. Love It!

Grain silos every which way you look.

Old family photos, a family reunion classic.

Huge bails of hay… my sister is nearly six feet tall, these were big. I have a video of her climbing up on there too, but we’ll keep that in the family.

“Amber waves of grain.” America the Beautiful!

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I realize that tornado warnings are nothing new for many people, but for two girls from Arizona… it made for a very long and eventful night.

As I began to tell you yesterday, late Saturday night, after the family reunion, we received an alert on our cell phones at about 9:30.

Sloane and I were in our hotel room, watching a movie when the alert came through. Neither of us had been anywhere close to a tornado before and we weren’t sure what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed to go to “Take shelter now.”

I called down to the front desk to ask the manager, who we had already become friendly with. He was somewhat amused, especially since he hadn’t heard of any warnings yet. He then advised that if we needed to really find shelter we would hear the sirens. We shouldn’t worry if there was only one siren, that meant there was a fire. Two sirens meant there was a fire in town, but if we heard eight sirens, then that was for a tornado.

Um…OK, eight sirens, and then what? Where do we go if we hear eight sirens?

If there are eight sirens, we are to come down to the lobby and the safest place is by the soda machine. The soda machine?!?

I said, “You’re lying! The soda machine? That can’t be the safest place, the damn thing might fall on you!”

He laughed and said, just come down to the lobby if you hear the sirens.

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When I first wrote about our trip to a family reunion in Kansas, I said, “It is being held in New Almelo, Kansas – population 622.”

I guess that was the population of the town and the surrounding area “back in the day” when there was a church, cemetery, post office, grocery store, gas station, and such. I had found that population number on the web.

Now there is only the church, the cemetery, and about a dozen homes and a population of…

… wait for it…

… a grand total of…

… about 22!

That’s right, between 22 and “maybe 25” permanent residents and approximately 10 more “weekend residents” from Denver, CO.

The reunion was held in the church hall.

Given that my Dad was one of the attendees, we were among the first to arrive at the nearly empty hall at about 9:30 AM on Saturday morning.

By 11:30 or so, the place was hopping! And the food…

There was enough food to feed a small army.

Smoked meats of every type and flavor.

More salads and sides than I could count.

And the desserts, don’t get me started on the tables upon tables of desserts! The food was all delicious and the company was delightful.

Although some of the most exciting moments of the trip occurred AFTER the reunion. Remember, we were in Kansas after all.

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I awoke at 3:30 yesterday. Picked up Sloane at 4:15, then picked up Dad at 4:30. Arrived at airport by 5:00 and took off for Las Vegas at 6:00. Did I mention this was AM, not PM!

We arrived in Wichita at 12:25 in the afternoon and rented a car, then drove for four hours until we reached Norton, KS. We checked into our hotel, then jumped back in the car and drove another 30 minutes to New Almelo.

Not exactly the most exciting day of my life. The best part – is we get to do the reverse tomorrow!

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“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Arizona anymore.”

By the time you read this, I’ll be boarding the second flight of the morning on my way to Wichita, Kansas.

My dad is an Arizona Native, but his parents are originally from Germany. They came to America by way of Kansas. There is a family reunion that he wants to attend this weekend. Sloane and I are accompanying him.

It is being held in New Almelo, Kansas – population of 622.

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The good news is that I did not have an ounce of jet lag!

Staying awake for 24 hours and then going to bed at 7:30 PM once arriving home from the airport was the key. I was still tired the next day, the day our company arrived, but I again went to bed early, by 9:00, and have slept well ever since. That is the first time I’ve ever returned from Europe and beaten it!

We had a wonderful time with Dave’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Beth.

We checked out Cubs Park in Mesa which replaced the old Hohokam Stadium and is now of the home of the Chicago Cubs for spring training.

We visited the Desert Botanical Gardens for the Chihuly in the Garden event.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is a must.

It runs through May 18, 2014.

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Friday of last week was our last day in Barca. Peggy and I spent it shopping for gifts for friends and family and just relaxing as we walked the pretty cobblestone streets.

We stopped for wine or sangria each and every time either of us needed to use the WC, which was often since we were drinking so much wine and sangria!

For dinner we finally had the “tapa toothpick” experience we had heard so much about.

This is a tapas bar where you choose your tapas from a counter…

…and then are charged by the number of toothpicks left on your plate at the end of your meal.

We returned to the apartment earlier than we had any night other night since the first day we arrived. That first night, we were in bed by 7:30 PM. This last night we packed and were in bed by 10:00 PM.  A far cry from the 1:00 AM or later nights we’d been doing for the last 10 days.

Instead of the bus/metro/airport excursion of that first day, we took a cab. Even at $25 euro each, it was totally worth it to not heave heavy suitcases up and down the metro stairs over and over again!

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Thursday of last week was Lorraine and Natalie’s last day with Peggy and me in Barcelona. Lorraine would be leaving on Friday morning to get back to Arizona so she could support her husband (Peggy’s brother) in a bike race he was participating in. And Natalie was leaving the next morning with her study-abroad group for a weekend trip to Madrid.

After a quick breakfast, we visited the Picasso Museum.

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