July, 2025
Maybe it was the trip to Ireland several months ago. Maybe it’s the fact that it appears I am now the designated family source that the nieces and nephews are being sent to for ancestry information.
In any case, I’m not swabbing any cheeks but I am enjoying browsing old records. What have I learned? For one thing, when I was a kid we didn’t know anyone else named McEnroe (at least not until John burst onto the tennis scene), so we thought it was a rare name. Not so, turns out that there are many, many of them.
Also turns out that you can’t really count on people to have accurately reported their ages and birthplaces, or spelled their names, with any consistency. And that those Irish Catholics, whether in Ireland or in the U.S., really had quite a short list of names they chose from. Maybe that’s how Delia becomes a nickname for Bridget.
Makes for better late night scrolling than some social media platforms I could name.
October, 2024
Our 3-month working (ish) adventure begins October 31 with a month in Bray Ireland.
Bray is about 45 minutes south of Dublin by rail. Apparently before there were cheap flights to sunny places, this was the destination for a seaside holiday for city-dwellers. Ireland in November clearly isn’t about the weather, but this region is supposed to be “relatively” sunny and “relatively dry.
We will base in a flat in an old whiskey distillery within walking distance from the beach, the train, the shops, etc.
Day trips are on the agenda, but based on previous experience in Ireland, you never quite cover as much ground as fast as planned.
Slow travel is the goal.
June, 2024
We’ve taken vacations, but only over long weekends
We’ve taken vacations, but only in the low season or shoulder season
We’ve expanded our long weekend-week to two week splurges
We’ve digital nomad-ed, which isn’t snowbirding because the work comes with us, sort of
Now, because we don’t want to miss any of the buzz words, we’re in the planning stages for an 89-day slow travel extravaganza (yes, the work is still coming with us, sort of)
It’s not about the weather, because although we will be gone from Chicago during the colder months of November, December, and February, we’re not just going to warm places.
We’re starting in Ireland for the month of November
We’re basing in Marbella, Spain for another month
We probably can’t go to Europe and not stop off in Italy again (it’s not a rut, it’s a groove)
In between? After? Still under development (yes, I hear you, Portugal, Seville, etc. etc!)
Planes, trains, busses, or automobiles? Still under development
Stay tuned.
