luck o' the Irish

For 2 years now, my cousins and I have been planning an expedition to Ireland for Summer 2010. We spent much of thanksgiving afternoon plotting and exploring resources and options, as you can see by our intensity above. But something very interesting has come of our preliminary plans. My grandpa and aunt went to Ireland 13 years ago, and now that he actually believes that we're going to go, he's excited for us. I'm about half Irish and half German, but I was raised to value my Irish heritage and cling to it. I think I'm gonna have to marry an Irishman one day (to keep my irish last name as well as the fact that they have the most amazing accents ever). My grandpa has always instilled an appreciation for our heritage in us--even in the most simple ways.

Today at lunch, his eyes lit up. "Susan," he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "I have something for you!" He had collected all his old information from his trip, made copies of his travel logs to give to me, and attached ancestry lists from family who's traced us back to Ireland. There was something special about reading my grandpa's entries from his travels. When someone writes--I mean hand-writes, not emails and typing etc.--it shows their personality, and their heart. Even funny things, like details about what they had for meals made me laugh. I don't know why, really, but it was cool to read about things that my grandpa saw and what he thought about them.

I want to have something like that when I'm older. An experience, a set of thoughts that I can share with my grandkids. It just made me think!