The Day 1 that wasn't really Day 1...

Tomorrow is a relative term, right?  I'm buried in work and mommying, which has kind of left recaps of our trip in the dust.  That being said, I'm starting right now!   I can't really call this day 1, because it ended up not being day 1... in Ireland at least (fair warning, there aren't any Ireland pictures in this post).  See, here's Erin showing off our excitement as we waited in Wichita's airport for our plane to take us to Chicago which would then take us to London and on to Ireland.  Lots of excitement! 

And then... well, then began our bad luck in traveling.  Our plane got delayed... like really delayed.  We had no pilot or crew (they were in... Houston?)  At first they told us we were only a little delayed and that we would make our flight.  We were a little sad about the running we were going to have to do... but nothing like what followed.

 

Then we got delayed enough that we were going to have to rebook our transatlantic flights.  Luckily, my husband is brilliant, patient, nicer than me and a wiz with the ipad and got us on another flight the next day.  Unfortunately, the best possible deal was for us to wait a whole day in Chicago and then take a direct flight to Ireland.  ugh.  Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago, but it's not Ireland.  Luckily, Erin lived in Chicago and therefore has a dear, sweet friend who took us under our wing after a very despondent night in a hotel.

The closest we got to Ireland that day was a shamrock on the window of the Italian pizzeria we ate lunch in.

Then, Christy (the dear sweet friend), used her zoo pass and took us to the zoo to distract us from the cranky fact that we were due to arrive in Ireland around that time.

Yep, zoo.  And from there?  Ireland!  We had another snaffu with the transfer of Erin's ticket from United (I'm so unhappy with them right now, just wait, you'll see by the end of this trip why) to Aer Lingus (whom we love, because even when they give you bad news, they do it with accents...)  More on all of that later, but we did get on the plane and we really did start winging our way to Ireland.  Yay!  There will be real Ireland pictures "tomorrow".  On a side note, I promised my sister to fill her in on the meals we ate, so, I think I'll just give them their own little section here:

On this "first" day, we managed to get food vouchers for each meal, so our options were limited.  We made them work for us, though :).

Breakfast: fruit parfaits, scones and coffee at the hotel coffee shop.  Fruit parfait?  Totally awesome.

Lunch: A local Italian Pizzeria in Chicago took airline vouchers (seriously grateful for that!) and we shared some great pizza there.

Dinner: This was our "grab and go" meal.  I settled in at the gate with all of our things (I because really good at being a luggage watcher on this trip), and Daniel and Erin ran to grab us sandwiches from a nearby stand.  It was really pretty good... though the fresh fruit was the best... I had been craving it all day!  We also ate a dinner and breakfast on the plane... I have no idea what time it was in either time zone (that became very disorienting).  Airplane food is, you know, bleh.  The "american fudge cake" (aka brownie) was probably the best thing we got, but the random assortment took the edge off enough to sleep a good portion of the flight... except for poor Erin.  She had a bit of a seat hogger next to her and didn't get very much sleep on the flight.  Luckily... next up was IRELAND!