May 10-11—Getting To the First Pint

In the late afternoon of May 10, The Boys gathered at Dave's house, where we watched the video from our last trip of ten years ago, which none of us had ever seen before. Most of us realized that we'd packed the very same clothes for this trip as we did for the last one. Yankees?  Us? After a pint of Pratt's, Mary Counihan gave us all a ride to Logan in their spacious Honda Odyssey (thanks, Mary!).

(Click on the thumbnails for a larger view, and then on the enlarged image to return.)

	Check-in was easy—too easy. To compensate, our flight to Shannon was delayed two hours. Mike, a little testy, is caught here about to give Joe a slap in the chops.
	Dave & Doug, with varying reactions to having their photo taken by John.
	For reasons we didn't fully comprehend, the airline had several rocking chairs scattered around the waiting area. Do the Irish have a special affinity for rocking chairs? Do people grow old waiting for American Airlines flights to depart?
	Finally, we lifted off and the plane wasn't too full, so some of us actually got to sleep a little. Others of us flirted with the flight attendants for six hours. Despite weather forecasts for Ireland that we'd read, we were surprised to see from the air that some sun appeared to be actually striking the ground, albeit through the standard coating of Irish mist. Sure looks green down there!
	And it is green! Here's a typical shot from the ground.
	We surprised ourselves by actually stopping to take in some culture before stopping to take in the trip's first pint of Guinness. Here's the monument in front of the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. Yes, a flying boat museum. Well, we wanted to get the culture out of the way as soon as we possibly could.
	Ahhhhhhh, at last!!! This mustachioed barman demonstrates the painstaking attention to his craft that we came to expect as the trip went on. (No, it didn't take us until 4pm to find the first pint—the clock behind him wasn't running.)