What a lot of Blarney!

My friend Andrea and I loved to wax poetic about the Emerald Isle when we worked together at Kathleen's of Dublin, an Irish import store in downtown Portland. We made several failed attempts at visiting Ireland together. Mostly we just dreamed of Ireland as we organized boxes of Barry's Tea and folded giant Irish sweaters while listening to Irish music and the ding-dings of the cash register up front. Finally our time has arrived to be in Ireland together. Andrea is a flight attendant, and as her brand new Travel Companion, I shall be flying to Ireland August 15th. Joel is coming along too and we're going to be bonafide tourists, something I am looking forward to quite a lot! Well, maybe not bonafide tourists. I do not intend to go around telling people, "I'm Irish!" I guess I'll just be a pleasure traveler, rather than a working traveler on the island. I can't wait! And although I spent several months working just around the corner from the Guinness Factory in 2002, I've never visited it. Touristy Ireland, here I come!