A Very Special Adventure

Spouse and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss last week and that alone is pretty dang awesome. At a point in my late 20s, I honestly never thought I would *get* married, so getting to this point in life, and still loving him (profusely), and loving being married seems quite the accomplishment. 

When we were married 10 years ago, work schedules precluded us from taking a grand honeymoon, so we went with what I call the "Baby Honeymoon", meaning just a few days and not very far away. It truly was lovely but we've always talked about having a special adventure. 

This year we pulled the trigger, and so we leave very soon for international travel and we're so very excited. 

We both have family that originated in Ireland at points in the 19th and 20th centuries and no one of recent relation has been there. My family emigrated during the waves of the potato famine in the mid-19th century, and Spouse has great-grandparents who emigrated in early 20th century, which means his paternal grandmother was first-generation Irish-American. 

We both take a lot of pride in this link and have started down the path of genealogy, as well as incorporate various parts of this heritage in our every day lives. 

We have only had one other trip abroad, to Hungary, to celebrate the wedding of the friends who introduced us, and in the light of this trip, I have no idea how the hell we made it over and back without getting arrested - because we were woefully unprepared. Now granted, it was pre-9/11, so things were more lax and all, but geez. What a bunch of travel noobs. 

(BTW, Budapest, Hungary - gorgeous place. Lovely people. Fantastic food and drink. Would recommend a month other than January but we hope to go back again, with our friends, at some point.). 

I believe we have all of our ducks in a row and just have a few last-minute things that need done. Like packing. 

But house-sitter is on the job, cops know we'll be away, State Department knows we'll be away, family members have our travel details, passports are in hand, flights on time - holy cow. This is happening. 

When we get back, I'll share how we put this trip together but it boils down to: awesome friends, the twisty tubes of the interwebz and a lot of research. 

Side note: while on the Emerald Isle, we'll be keeping many folks in our minds. At the forefront is our dear friend, Chris, who lost his sweet, lovely wife way, way, way too soon (and their daughters, A & M too). We are hoping for an answer for them that brings some closure and peace. 

We miss you, Amanda.