Well, i made it! I've been away, home in Ireland for 10 months now and i definitely almost cried when i saw New York under the plane.
My amazing husband and I shot a wedding together on the 13th. We were there in Dublin for a solid 16 hours, if not more. It was a great day, although the evening following was not very fun. We drove about an hour west of Dublin, toward Shannon Airport and stopped for the night in a hotel to sleep before getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to head out. We got to Shannon early, and i was able to enjoy a lovely breakfast with V before our tearful goodbyes in the airport.
After a pretty intense 6.75 hour flight, i landed in JFK on the 14th and was greeted my my pal, Phil! We had fun discussing our language learning skills and testing out sentences in Polish and in Russian on each other. It was a gas!
When we got back to Brooklyn, i had the honor of meeting Phil's wife, Sonia! She is a doll. Gorgeous and smart and... i definitely can see why Phil is soooo smitten. They're perfect together! We went to dinner at a lovely little breakfast restaurant near their home, and afterward, we enjoyed the brisk walk home.
New York really is lovely in the fall.
We watched a
I had to get a car service to transport me from Phil and Sonia's abode to the Newark airport to catch my flight to Seattle. It was good that i was able to go to bed so early, as i was definitely coming down with something and 5am is no fun for sickies. I kept blaming my cough on a dry throat, but yeaaaahh... more on that later.
I got up at 4 to ensure that i could be re-packed and ready to travel (including a few moments for the obligatory internet check-ins). Phil kindly woke up to see me off, and we took this photo, entitled "5am":
One of my other great friends was on the flight with me from Newark to Seattle.
Unfortunately, my travels don't take me to Cincinnati so i can see my favorite ladies - but just so you know - you're always in my thoughts!!
Now that i'm done being sappy...
I arrived in Seattle safe and sound on the 15th. My dad FORGOT that i came in when i did - and he and Barbara got him up and out of bed in record time to zoom down the freeway to pick me up. That definitely made me laugh. For those that don't know, my dad is a quadriplegic who requires constant care and this trip is to care for him while Barbara (his wife) is in Utah to see her kids for Thanksgiving and meet her new grandbabies.
On Saturday, my brother and his girlfriend came up to visit dad and me. We kids are all going through a little bit of financial non-awesomeness, so instead of spending money on going out to eat or going to the movies i came up with the idea to go up to Bow, Washington to an apple orchard. We had a great time! My brother drove:
I thought it was sweet that they were chatting the whole time. My brother rarely gets the time to come see dad, and dad was just soaking in the time with his son. I loved it! Dad glowed the rest of the day.
I'm not supposed to have taken any photos inside, but i couldn't resist. Dad was having such a good time. We all were. This store is fantastic! If you're in the area, i highly suggest dropping by and paying them a visit. They are wonderful people!
Dad treated us to some apple-type desserts and bought a couple gallons of un-pasteurized apple cider. I have been having trouble resisting it... it's sSOOOOO good.
Fresh apple cider always is!
The sky was beautiful on our drive home.
And i'm glad i got to see my big brother even for a little while. Here's us:
It's been predicted to snow for the past several days, and it snowed a little bit on Sunday... Today, however...
You can see a video of the early stages, here.
