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<\/a>2017 was a hard year – friends died, good buddies moved away, and I didn’t lose the five pounds<\/strong> I so optimistically recorded on my New Year’s resolutions.\u00a0 So when I saw a sign in a gift store that said, “Life is Short.\u00a0 Take the trip.\u00a0 Buy the shoes.\u00a0 Eat the cake.”, I took it to heart.\u00a0 In fairness, I’ve never had an issue with the cake part of the affirmation.\u00a0 In fact, eating cake is right in my wheelhouse<\/strong>.\u00a0 But I’m not a good shopper and my travels are limited to occasional trips with my nieces and our summer road trips.\u00a0 As a life-long knitter I’ve always dreamed of going to the British Isles or Ireland<\/strong> but year after year I put it off.\u00a0 Until I read that sign.\u00a0 Exactly a year ago this week I asked a few friends if they would like to go on a knitting trip to one of my dream destinations.\u00a0 They all responded a resounding “YES!” So next week we’re embarking on a nine day trip to Ireland, which we have dubbed the “Irish Princess Tour”.<\/p>\nWhy ‘Princess?’\u00a0 Because we decided that if we’re going to go, we’re going to go in style.\u00a0 We are flying from Phoenix to London on a British Air 747<\/strong> in the Upper Deck.\u00a0 Riding “upstairs” has been on my bucket list for a long time.\u00a0 I recall many years ago flying from San Francisco to New York on a 747 but I was “stuck” in business class down below.\u00a0 This time, I was going to make it to the upper deck or bust!\u00a0 We also decided that we would rather stay in one location rather than constantly pack and re-pack our bags.\u00a0 After all, the weather this time of year is still a bit chilly and rainy so numerous layers, requiring lots of clothing options, are required.\u00a0 We concluded that Killarney is centrally located, has good restaurants, and more importantly, plenty of pubs.\u00a0 So we selected the Killarney Park Hotel<\/strong>, which I discovered after the fact, is the same hotel brother Bob and his wife Linda stayed in when they visited Killarney.\u00a0 Apparently the KPH is a Sparrow tradition!<\/p>\n My husband helping me get into the spirit – or spirits.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Once we had our plane and hotel reservations we began to work on what would occupy our time.\u00a0 Here is where another good life lesson was learned.\u00a0 There is a very famous knitwear designer, Carol Feller<\/strong>, who lives in Cork, about an hour away from Killarney.\u00a0 She does many large group classes for the Irish Tourism Board tours and we were a bit disappointed that we could not join in the tour’s classes.\u00a0 Mustering up my courage, and on the premise that the worst she could say was “no”<\/strong>, I emailed her and asked if we could visit her studio and have a private class for the five of us.\u00a0 She emailed me back within hours to say not only would she do the class, she will come up to our hotel to do it.\u00a0 Armed with my newfound confidence in asking strangers for favors, I emailed a yarn store in Dublin that we’re visiting and not only did she respond that she will greet us with tea and biscuits, but that she’s arranged for Kieran Foley<\/strong> to give us a private trunk show.\u00a0 Okay, by now most of you have glossed over Carol Feller and Kieran Foley so let me put it in terms you might relate to: it is the knitting equivalent of a golfer getting a lesson from Rory McElroy or Padraig Harrington.<\/p>\n To top it off, well be spending our last night in Ireland at Dromoland Castle<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yes – a real castle for fake princesses!\u00a0 At the time we made the reservation the exchange rate between the Euro and the dollar was much better.\u00a0 If it keeps climbing at the current pace we may be Princess Dishwashers<\/strong>.\u00a0 Finally, I got my Ancestry DNA results in last week and I’m 20% Irish<\/strong>. \u00a0More about that after my brother gets his results and we find out if we\u2019re really related. \u00a0In the mean time, for the next couple of weeks, I\u2019m going to\u00a0 be 100% Irish, visiting its wild coasts, singing “Ireland’s Call” at a few pubs and paying homage to my ancestors.\u00a0 I’ll keep you posted.\u00a0 They do have bail bondsmen in Ireland, don’t they?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson 2017 was a hard year – friends died, good buddies moved away, and I didn’t lose the five pounds I so optimistically recorded on my New Year’s resolutions.\u00a0 So when I saw a sign in a … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-03-17-19.43.38-300x169.jpg\")
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<\/a>One of the wonderful aspects of this trip is that there is another Type “A”<\/strong> on it!\u00a0 While I arranged the knitting end of things, my friend Patsy worked on many other aspects, most importantly our touring agenda.\u00a0 We knew that big bus tours<\/strong> are not for us – we’ve all had the experience of people in a group that are so annoying that you spend half your time ducking them.\u00a0 Patsy did some research on Trip Advisor and found Jack at Killarney Taxi and Tours<\/strong>. \u00a0 Jack, it turns out, is a treasure.\u00a0 It’s little wonder he gets rave reviews.\u00a0 Not only does he have wonderful recommendations, he acknowledged that we might want to spend a “wee bit of time in the pubs” AND he’s taking us to the Skelligs Chocolate Factory.\u00a0 I love this guy already.<\/p>\n