On Saturday morning, 3/15/08, our Spring Break Ireland Adventure begins!
After getting packed and ready to go the night before, we woke up this morning at 6:00am to get ready to head to the airport. Mom picked us up at 7:30pm and took us to the SLC airport, and there were a zillion people there this morning! Must be the week for travel! We stood in the international line for a long time just waiting to check our bags, and then stood in security for another long time just trying to get to our gate. Finally, after TSA’s new rules of practically getting naked to go through the scanner (no shoes, no jacket, no belt, no this, no that) we found ourselves at the gate with about an hour to go before our 10:15am departure. Luckily, there was a Squatters Pub right next to our gate, so Stanley and I enjoyed a delicious meal… mine was a veggie wrap and Stanley got a super burger, no bun. It was great! When we got to the gate, there was only a few minutes left before boarding and onto the plane we went. This flight to New York was uneventful, and even seemed to go by pretty quickly. Yay! But, the video screens were broken, so no in-flight movie. Boo! Anyway, we landed in NYC early because of good tail winds, but because we were early, they didn’t have a gate for us, so we sat on the runway for just over an hour waiting for our turn to dock. The bad part about that was just before we were going to land, I had to pee. But not bad enough to have to use the plane bathroom so I decided to wait not knowing that we’d be delayed on the land. Well, just as the captain announced that we’d be sitting on the runway for a while, the bladder pain kicked in and my need to go to the bathroom became an emergency. At that same time, another woman stood up to use the bathroom and one of the flight people told her she had to stay seated because we were on an active runway. Ugh… I sat there for another 10 minutes wiggling and doing the potty dance until I decided that it for sure was going to be an accident. Up welled the tears in my eyes, imagining myself wetting my pants and being stuck in the New York airport all wet and stinky with no clothes to change into. Right then an attendant walked by and I asked her if I could please use the bathroom because it was an emergency and she either saw the fear in my eyes or she felt like being nice because she said yes and I practically ran down the isle to the bathroom. Phew – happy, non-soiled Michele! Anyway, luckily we had a 3 hour layover, so time was not crucial and we weren’t too concerned about having to sit on the runway for a while. Once we got inside the terminal, Stanley and I enjoyed a nice appetizer dinner near our gate and were able to board our new plane directly after dinner for our flight to Dublin. I don’t know what it is about me and planes, but I have the hardest time sleeping on planes and when I do sleep it is restless and jumpy. Well, this flight was no exception. I was not able to sleep at all during the entire 6 hour flight to Dublin. I watched “Martian Child” and “Bee Movie” and their Delta In-Flight TV Service, listened to my iPod, played iPod games and even enjoyed my new noise canceling headphones to drown out the loudness of the plane. But, sadly, there was snoozing at all for me Stanley managed to sleep a little bit, but not much. So, by the time we landed at 6:05am in Dublin, we had been awake for nearly 18 hours. The greatest part though... we arrived on time - a first for our history of international travel. Yippee!!! -Michele
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