4 July 2016: From England to the U.S. on Independence Day

Today started early, getting up at 4:45 AM to return our rental car and catch the first of three flights. Manchester to Dublin was not a bad flight.  Some of the workers at the Dublin Airport dressed up for Independence Day.  At first it seemed bizarre but then we realized how ridiculous we must look to them when we dress up for St. Patrick’s Day.  We had a long layover and then a bit of a panic getting through US Pre-Check for our second flight from Dublin to Washington DC.  We finally arrived in Raleigh about 8 PM after our third flight.  One of our suitcases didn’t make it to RDU but otherwise we made it unscathed, just a bit tired.  Cole wanted to stay up til midnight so he could say he stayed up for 24 hours straight but the rest of the family fell asleep on the couch before 11.

We thoroughly enjoyed our road trip across the United Kingdom and Ireland and were all a bit sad to leave. When planning the trip, I approached it as if we might never return, after all we have a lot of places we’d like to visit, but we now hope to make a return trip soon.

(The flag graphic above is from a Facebook post I found funny.)