Day 9: The Eagle Has Landed

Our morning began with many hugs, handshakes, photos and goodbyes between Blue Wave swimmers and parents and our host families. Families with which there is no way to express our gratitude except by gracing them with the same hospitality when they come to the States.

We boarded the buses for one last trip, this time to the Dublin Airport. Once through security, we saw Blue Wavers frantically dumping Euros in the airside shops before boarding the plane. We saw card games being played by the little ones, and we saw smiles and conversations about all that we had experienced in 8 days. Our trip home was long but broken up by reruns of TV shows and movies. We saw grown men crying over "PS I Love You." Aleks and Vinny...did I hear a change in your speech patterns after that movie? At about 5:00 PM the eagles landed as Flight EI 121 touched down in Orlando. That is when the longest part of the trip began. Customs - ugh!!!! We went through security and had our bags x-rayed in Dublin, then in the States, we went through 3 more security checks and 2 baggage claims before we were free go. It would have been much quicker to fly into Mexico and drive home ;-)

I can't speak for the other families, but we crashed as soon as we got home. After all, our bodies were still on Irish time – and that goes for wake up as well. Yes, I woke up somewhere around 4 am, tossed and turned until I finally got out of bed at 5. And as I came downstairs I found that I was not the only one that could not sleep.

So here I am, posting to our Ireland Tour blog. A blog that during the week had become a lifeline to both family and friend back home. Through the week and in the Orlando airport, I received many gracious thank you's for the blog entries, but know the pleasure was mine, and I was pleased that the blog was so well read. After this I plan to post one more entry to this journal. Over the next day or so, I will create an Ireland Tour folder for you to upload your best photos from the trip. In turn, I will post the best of the best online. Parents and swimmers from Dublin and Galway, send me an email (dgraves@vromangraves.com) and I will forward the upload instructions so that you may do the same.

Thank you to the coaches on both sides of the pond for making this trip a possibility. And to the parents in Dublin and Galway...you have been a godsend, for without you, none of this would have been possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We look forward to seeing you all again!