planning

 I'm afraid I'm a bit overwhelmed. We found this bike tour with the Rockers but it did not seem like it would get enough participation to go so in the meantime we booked a Japan cruise tour with Princess. It is a whole package deal so not too much to organize but flights and we got that thru USAA.  we started playing on Duolingo to learn a bit of Japanese.  its tough.  Then we found the bike tour In Ireland is a go. It is only 1 week in western Ireland so we want to get a bit more out of it. We watched a video about Ireland, and the lady that arranged the bike tour will see if there is some 5-7 day thing we can do first.   I am concerned we are spending a ton of money. Paul thinks it is no problem. The Japan cruise tour was 12k, the flights 5k, we still have to get shore excursions, and then all the stuff that goes with the Ireland tour. So far this is just venting.  We watched a show about Ireland and it sure is green. But all the pictures had people in coats, hats and rain gear. I checked the temperatures. The lowest should be in the '40s and the highs should be up to 55. We are also nervous about leaving our puppy Lily. this summer looks like- get her spayed in April, we leave in mid may for Ireland and come back on the 31st. We leave the end of June for Japan, and come back July 11th.

    What I know so far about Ireland. We want to add something first, but the bike trip starts in Bunratty and each day we have a choice of  at least  3 rides 20-50 miles long. We opted for E bikes.  Day 5 is a rest day with a Ferry trip to the Aran Islands. The trip ends in Galway and we fly home from Shannon Airport.

February  -We have flights booked, and hotels in Dublin and Limerick for several days. We are pretty much down to choosing day trips in Dublin and Limerick, and some of the transfers. And buying trip insurance and booking Lily's boarding. She started advanced obedience today and did pretty good.

March-  Misty told us they want to take Violet to Boston to participate in a research study. A full day of physical testing, and a full day of cognitive testing. Dave is helping her with flights and we are covering her hotels. Sandra and Joyce are watching the boys. She is so lucky to have so many people to help her.

      Got frustrated with duolingo because it is trying to make me learn to read kongi and I don't want to. Just some niceties of the language; please, thank you, where is the bathroom... I e-mailed them but no response. I can't find a way to skip the kongi

     We bought tracking tiles and QR code labels for our bags.

      We got our train booked from Dublin to Limerick and found out the bike company is providing us helmets, jerseys and a water bottle on the bike ride. Pretty cool jerseys.

      He is also providing us Samsung phones and GPX files and says our path is going to be marked by yellow arrows. That sounds pretty cool. Oh, and a motorcycle escort.

       I have to get a power plug for Ireland and Paul is checking out our noise canceling earbuds for the plane ride. They are 15 yrs old and not holding a charge well.  I test fitted things in my backpack and it works! I even can fit into my long down jacket now. I bought a new electric vest that's purple. That makes me feel better about the cold temperatures. I still have to rain guard all that stuff. I bought another pair of noise canceling earbuds.

   We have a day trip from Dublin to Northern Ireland to see the Giants Causeway. And another day trip booked in Limerick. We had to get ETA visas to go to Northern Ireland and instead of paying the $20 charge somehow we ended up paying $95 a piece.

April - we discovered in 2026 that traveling rules have changed with medications and they want them in the original bottles with the original labels. We also found out we can take Benadryl and Sudafed to Ireland but it's illegal in Japan. We tried to get small medicine bottles from CVS and they they would only give us bottles for the meds they filled. So we tried to get other bottles from caremark and they won't do it. We found small bottles on Amazon and peeled the labels from our bottles. Hopefully that will work. So now instead of having one sandwich bag size with our meds in little Ziploc bags I have one quart Ziploc bag with medicine bottles in it and Paul has two. That occupies more of our precious luggage space.

    April- test packing begins. We were hoping to only take carry on luggage. Well figuring on clothes, bike clothes, cold weather bike clothes, rain gear, extra shoes it just isn't gonna work. We will have to check one minimum between us or maybe each of us will have to check one. Oh well our duffel is easy to roll.

T-18 days and I'm packed. I went with a checked duffel and my osprey carry on. I just have to charge electronics, pack tennis shoes and sun glasses and snacks.

Paul wants to just go with his Eddie Bauer backpack and his osprey roller and just have it as a carry-on.

 I don't think I could take enough warm stuff but I'll try that when we go to Japan.