In the Pursuit of Life, Love and Great Food!: Going back to the Mother Land, slowly but surely

After nearly 5 years, I finally made it back to Ireland. Well almost. We had a bit of a delay in getting there. Since my visits were so frequent in the years before, I honestly didn't think it would be so long before I would be able to get back. But as they say; time flies when you're having fun and work and school and life just happens and before you know it, it's been 5 years since you've been back to Ireland. Minus a sibling, Ross couldn't make it due to work commitments, Courtney and I made the trek back to spend two glorious weeks among the lush green rolling hills, the fat happy cows and sheep that dotted the countryside and the pubs. Oh the pubs. The pubs that would supply us endlessly with pint after frothy pint of velvety black stout, or as we learned recently it's actually ruby red in color, more about that later.

We headed out from Sonoma County early on Monday morning November 4th. Two weeks was by far the longest trip we had taken, aside from my time living there, so we planned to take advantage of the extra time and explore some areas we hadn't before.

At the airport, we spotted Buena Vista which is a San Francisco staple for good Irish Coffees. While not truly authentic, they sure hit the spot, especially right before a flight to Ireland. They're slightly sweet with rich coffee, spicy Irish Whiskey and a dollop of whipped cream on top. Now if that doesn't get you in an Irish state of mind then I don't know what will. As we made our way to the gate, we quickly learned that the plane hadn't arrived yet and we would be delayed by two hours. Yikes! Our connecting flight in Chicago was just two hours after our arrival and the possibility of catching that flight was now looking grim. Courtney remained optimistic, while I planned for the worse case scenario. Upon arrival into Chicago, the staff of United seemed to think that Aer Lingus may hold the plane for us since there were so many of us traveling on to Ireland from our flight, but no one from United could tell us for sure. Note to self, avoid flying United Airlines whenever possible. Their customer service is just awful. We only had one option at this point... Run like hell to Terminal 5 which was roughly 2 miles from our current gate. And so we ran, we ran with our carry on bags passed the Hudson News stands, the airport bars, the Wetzel's Pretzels and then we ran some more. If you've ever seen Home Alone, when the family is running through the Chicago airport trying to catch their flight to France, you'll get the idea. That was Courtney and I and another lovely couple who we met while running who were from Belfast. When we arrived at terminal 5 by tram, oh, did I mention there was a tram involved in the two mile trip, we were horrified to see that the computer monitor said our flight had departed. We quickly asked someone what our options where and they said, "Dublin? Oh it hasn't left yet!" Huh? Well okay, so we run, again, through security, remove shoes, belts, phones to arrive at gate M5 with not a soul to be found. We had in fact missed our flight. Back to Terminal 1 to get a hotel for the night, courtesy United thank goodness, and our flight sorted out for tomorrow. We would have to wait for the same flight, which wouldn't leave until 7 p.m. so that meant we'd be spending the day in Chicago. We'd never seen Chicago before so we relished at the opportunity, although we would now be arriving in Ireland a day later. At the ticket counter while we waited for a terribly unfriendly United associate to sort out our hotel, we met a woman named Sarah who also missed the flight with us. She was traveling alone and was returning home to Belfast for her annual visit but had been living in Calistoga for the past 30 years. Calistoga? That's where our family was from! Turned out, Sarah knew our Mother, and Grandparents and had even rented a house in town from our Grandfather. Small world. Later that evening at the hotel's restaurant, while I sipped wine, Courtney a beer and ate shoe leather burgers, we ran into Sarah and over another round of drinks, we decided we'd all take the train into downtown Chicago in the morning, since we'd have quite a bit of time to kill.

In the morning we headed to the concierge desk and met a lovely older woman named Bobby who was a Chicago native and sounded like she had smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for the past 40 years. She told us the best sights to see in our limited amount of time and within minutes we were on the train towards downtown. We strolled down the Magnificent Mile and were amazed at the incredible Art Deco design of the buildings that was build after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. At the end of the mile, we were cold and a little thirsty so we stopped at the John Handcock building for a drink. We took the elevator up 95 floors, which took all of about 30 seconds and had cocktails at the Signature Room. Courtney had Bourbon Apple Spice drink that was served warm and made with maple bourbon, ginger liquor and apple cider. I had a Maple Bacon Manhattan, that was actually served with a piece of bacon. After drinks we went to "the Bean," also known as Cloud Gate at Millennium Park before heading back to the hotel to gather our things before heading to the airport. We couldn't do this though,

before sampling some authentic Chicago style pizza, then eventually, finally, onto Ireland!