8 May -- we leave Charlotte in the afternoon (I still have to arrange some airport transportation) and fly to Boston. Then we take an overnight Aer Lingus flight to Shannon, then on to Dublin.

9 May -- We arrive Dublin at 7:30 in the morning and will go pick up our car. I've reserved us a room at the Grove House in Carlingford. Carlingford is only about an hour from the airport, but I know we'll be dead tired. We'll also be getting used to driving on the left, steering from the right, and shifting gears with our left hand. Look out, Irish motorists. We'll see stuff close by this day -- the Hill of Tara, the tombs at Newgrange, and some monastic ruins with high crosses near Carlingford. I'm sure we'll crash out after dinner, but we'll try to go to bed at a reasonable Irish hour to get rid of the jet lag. We'll also have to figure out a place to stay the next night, probably somewhere near Sligo.

10 May -- We're go to try and get up early and head into Northern Ireland, all the way up to the Giant's Causeway. (I say "all the way up" but it's maybe 90 miles. Living in the U.S., one's sense of distance is a little skewed, I think). Our original plans were to stay here for a day or so and take a trip into Belfast. I wanted to see some of the murals and learn more about the Troubles. But we now have a connection in Cork, so we're going to eliminate Belfast from the interary and head south. Depending on time, we may stop in Derry, but we'll end up somewhere in Sligo.

11 May -- I'd like to see Yeats' grave, which is right outside of Sligo. I'm not a huge Yeats guy, but "The Second Coming" is one of my favorite poems. I've started to read a bit of Yeats to prepare for the trip, and this is his part of the country. Not sure what else will do, but we'll continue south.

12 May -- Have no idea what this day has in store for us or where we'll end up. We both want to see the Cliffs of Moher (aka the "Cliffs of Insanity") and poke around Connemarra, so we may stay there or in Clare somewhere, or we may continue on to Cork.

13 May -- One of my gradaute students is good friends with Stephen Housden, the gutarist for the Little River Band. He and his wife live in Cork. They've said they's like to meet us and show us around a bit of we get down that way. Because Stephen is a musician, he often plays out around town, so this may be our chance to hear some "trad" -- or at least hang out with a rock star, which is pretty cool in and of itself.

14 May -- We certainly want to go to Mass somwhere. I'm looking forward to that. After church, we'll head back to Dublin. Blarney Castle is near Cork, so we may do the tourist thing and go kiss the stone. We have to return the car this day, so we'll do that then check into our hotel: the O'Callaghan Alexander. We used one of those package deals from Expedia to bundle our hotel and airfare together, so we got a good deal on this hotel, which looks very nice. (I love Expedia, btw).

15 - 16 May -- Two full days in Dublin. I want to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Sarah wants to see the Guinness Museum.. I'm sure we will not spend any time at all in the pubs of Temple Bar. Nope.

17 May -- Back to the U.S. Our flight leaves at 1:00 and we'll be back in Charlotte at about 9:00.

Very excited about this one!