September 22 2016 - So Sad To Leave Ireland!

It is a very sad day to leave beautiful Ireland!  Again, Blaine spent all day driving on the opposite side of the road with a car that has a steering wheel on the wrong side.  When we return to Ireland, we will definitely try to get into Shannon and return to the Dingle Peninsula.  We had to get to Dublin airport, which is a 4-hour drive (at least!).  Somehow, we made it and even found where to return our Europcar!  Like the rest of this trip, our decision was made "by the seat of our pants" to try to get to London today, overnight, and fly home on Friday.  Original plan was to leave Saturday because the flights looked better.  This "day earlier" decision was probably made due to Shorty's Oktoberfest and the chance to babysit the beautiful grandson!

We bought an ID90 ticket on Aer Lingus from DUB to LHR.  Arriving in London, we got a room at the Heathrow Hotel Bath Road.  We got in after 10:00 pm, just in time to have dinner at their restaurant that closed at 10:30 pm.  We decided to take the LHR-SFO nonstop.  It's a 10-hour flight, but we were closer to PDX :-).   Of course, the UA flights were full all day.  So, Blaine decided to buy a ticket on Alaska Airlines SFO-PDX.  It was such a relief to make it home instead of waiting at SFO all evening!  Our wonderful daughter, Elyse was able to pick us up at PDX!!  And then, we had the opportunity to babysit Jude!