Maybe I'll get to Ireland...

Monday

I nearly didn't get to Ireland.  My sister was arriving on Saturday night and the two of us were to fly out on Monday from Montreal.  It had been a hectic few months and during the past week my brothers, Ed and I had moved our mother into residential care and were trying to dispose of her extra furniture, etc.  So I didn't start to pack until late Friday afternoon.  We were only taking small carry-ons, so that part was pretty easy.  Then I started to look for my passport.

I won't describe my hysteria when I couldn't find it (because I always put it away with documents after a trip, right???)  Suffice it to say, Ed and I tore the house apart, then Elizabeth and Anthony, who were over for brunch on Sunday, also had a go.  Elizabeth told Anthony to go through my car "like you are searching for drugs", and he did.  It was a nightmare.  I swear, my hair turned gray!  I was sure I had ruined my sister's vacation as well as mine.

Well, thanks to a friend's clear head, I was able to make an appointment at the U.S. Passport Office in St. Albans, Vermont on Monday afternoon (of course the loss was discovered on a Friday afternoon, leaving no days to try to fix things with officialdom except the day we were to fly out) and Debbie at the Charlotte post office snapped a new photo for me in the morning. Who knew we had a office in Vermont that could actually issue a replacement passport?  Not me.  The next nearest one is in Boston.  I was a wreck all day, but they did give me a replacement and we caught our flight after my brother and his sweetie gave us a ride to Montreal.  Ed isn't allowed in to Canada (another long story), plus he says he had scheduled the dancing girls to arrive at the house that evening, so….

Here's our cute waiter Franck at the airport where we decided we wanted a little wine before the flight.  We thought needed it after a fairly harrowing day.  I have a few comments about British Air.  The plane was clean and the attendants friendly, food was OK, too.  But they have obviously joined the American airline industry in minimizing space for coach/economy passengers as much as they possibly can.  It was excruciatingly cramped, to say nothing of hot and noisy.  I had such a backache after six hours that I had to take ibuprofen for a week.  We decided we are too old for economy, too broke for business class!

Adventures in Ireland in my next post.  Also in the next post: BUTTER!