Summer 07 Travel

Well we've had a hell of a few weeks and during this time I've been trying to plan a road trip over to Ireland with my brother and travelmate Ryan.

We're 8 days from go time and thank goodness I've done this before...although a new wrinkle for me will be travelling from Philly to Shannon instead of going through Heathrow or flying into Dublin. I chose this routing to avoid the headache of staging in LHR...takes all day and really drains me. Also I liked the pricing attached to the US airways routing into SNN. The flights are direct from Philly to SNN and this breaks things up nicely for us as we make our way from the west coast - approximately 5 1/2 hours from LAX to PHL and 6 1/2 hours from PHL to SNN.

From SNN we'll take our rental car into Cobh...should take about 2-2 1/2 hours depending on traffic. I looked up on American Airlines (www.aa.com) to secure a rental car discount code eventhough I am not flying with AA. We should be able to have a nice quiet pint before my brother arrives the following day. Noel will be arriving into SNN close to 5pm and is hoping to catch a coach into Cork city or into Cobh itself. I have driven in IRL now a few times but have not driven from Shannon yet so I'm a bit reluctant to drive from Cobh to SNN to pick Noel up...we'll see. It may very well depend on the connection options available to him from the SNN.

Ryno is looking forward to the trip and we are looking to obtain the Euro he'll need for the trip. We're looking to make this a first for Ryno as he hasn't been to Dingle yet...so this should be fun The weather is shaping up to be quite comfortable for our trip...we should cover Cobh, Dingle, Dublin and maybe have time for the Cliffs of Moher (http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie)...it all depends on how our heads are and how much we get accomplished with the obligatory visiting.

Back soon,

VP

Life's Cycle

So Mario passed at 10am PST June 1st 2007 in Surrey Memorial. His family had said their respective good-byes and he passed after they had all said what they needed to. Rita, her mother and sister were having breakfast, I was out with the father when he received the news his youngest son has passed away...it was something I will never forget. Grieving and relief followed as this was clearly what Mario would have wanted.

Now the planning for the viewing, funeral and burial are going forward and life's cycle will continue.

Better days will come and hope is renewed.

All the best,

VP