It’s been a long time since we’ve done a multi-stop trip like this. Waking up this morning a little before 4 AM and dragging our bags and our tired eyes downstairs to checkout wasn’t nearly as fun as I remember it. Luckily after a lengthy wait to find an Uber we got in the back of a Prius and made our way to the Dublin airport where we waited in long lines to eventually make it to our terminal to board our plane early. Unfortunately, as I said “this may be the first on-time flight I’ve been on this year” we were told that there was crowding in the airways over France and Croatia and we had to sit on the runway for 45-minutes. Luckily we had gotten Starbucks before boarding or I would have been even more grumpy.

If I was going to map the normal trajectory of Jenn and my first few days of vacation it would be to start strong and then need a day or two to recover. Today was exactly that. We slept into a little after 9 AM (which is unheard of at home, thanks to Frasier) and I went for a run while Jenn got ready and ordered us breakfast. When we finally left a little after 10 AM we walked out to an absolutely stunning morning in Dublin.

Jenn made it. After a very busy four days of work in Dublin, she made it through and today was time to start our vacation in earnest. We woke up a little after 9 AM Jenn ordered us room service and I went down to the gym to get a run in. We both had eggs, mushrooms, and bacon for breakfast with pastries, orange juice, and coffee. It wasn’t anything to write home about but since it came with the room we enjoyed it before venturing out.

Let’s try this again. It was only seven weeks ago that we cut our first trip of the summer short with COVID. Luckily we’ve both since fully recovered and we’re ready to try this again. This time though we flipped it and I’m the one meeting Jenn on her work trip.

Outside of a few weekend trips to the Hamptons and a weekend in Washington DC and Philadelphia we haven’t done a lot of local travel. Our list of these getaways is still quite long with jaunts to Nantucket, Cade Cod, Newport, Boston, and Montreal still on the list. However, this past weekend, which also happened to be Juneteenth, we took advantage of the long weekend and drove from Manhattan to Niagara Falls, ending the trip in Toronto.

During the pandemic, all Jenn and I could think of was getting back to Paris. Since 2008 it has been our home away from home, the place we travel back to most frequently. One day we will probably live in Paris. But until that happens we will continue traveling to the city of lights. This time I had a work trip to London so Jenn got to Paris on Thursday, March 31st and I met her for a three-day weekend, and what a glorious weekend it was.