When Erin first rose by William Drennan
When Erin first rose from the dark swelling flood,
God bless'd the green island and saw it was good;
The em'rald of Europe, it sparkled and shone,
In the ring of the world the most precious stone.
In her sun, in her soil, in her station thrice blest,
With her back towards Britain, her face to the West,
Erin stands proudly insular, on her steep shore,
And strikes her high harp 'mid the ocean's deep roar.
My daughter-in-law had Irish roots - one of her great grandparents was from Ireland, and I had never been to Ireland, so I decided to visit the Emerald Isle. But I did not want to drive on the left. So one of my sister's friends who was a travel agent arranged a bus tour for us
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My son's family arrived here last night.
son and grandson
Bob is taking me and and our grandson to the train station on Tuesday to go to Trenton, and my sister will take us to the airport on Thursday May 31. He is already writing in the journal that she gave him.
Yesterday I panicked because I forgot that the airline tickets were e-tickets, so spent most of the time looking for them. Today I'll have to get the remote printer working so I can print the ticket stuff out.
On Memorial Day, i finally got down to packing, and he helped by packing my suitcase for me the way they taught him in scouts. Since I can have only one reasonably small suitcase and ONE carry-on, I've put my camera stuff in a small bum bag, and the pocketbook stuff in another one.
We had some discussion about how to play his violin piece and whether one of the notes should be sharp or not, and whether to take his violin to my sister's, and we finally decided that he should take it.
May 29, 2007
Today, we left about 9:30 because my sister said that sometimes the automatic kiosk things didn't work (which they didn't)
nonworking ticket machines
and sometimes there were long lines at the ticket window (which there were). She had told me not to bother getting a train to Princeton, just to get one to Trenton and she'd come over and pick us up - not enough trains go to Princeton. And she didn't tell me, but she said she would have if I had booked it, to only get trains originating in DC and not farther south as they were often delayed. Indeed, the train before ours was an hour and 15 minutes late, which meant our train was only 20 minutes after it.
He was excited about riding on a train - he had flown before, but he had never been on a real train. In this area, a train is really the best option - fast and not too much hassle. I had a child's ticket for my grandson, and a senior ticket for myself, and the round trip for the two of us was $137.70
Bob drove us up to the station and let us get out and then parked.
Passenger Alert in 2007
My grandson got some twizzlers at the vending machine, and we watched people in the station.
Getting a Twizzler
A lady asked him if he was any good on the violin and he kind of shrugged and she told him to say that he was VERY good of course. And then she said that we could tell that she was an old music teacher.
Train coming in to BWI station
When our train was called, we went out on the platform, and I looked to see where the snack car was - it was second in line. So we walked up to the third car and got on that. I had a bit of a problem lifting my bag over the gap, so a man with a German accent picked it up and moved it over for me and then asked me if I wanted him to carry it. I felt just like mother and I said yes please, so he put it up in the rack for me.
I had thought that we could each have a window if the seat-backs would move, but they would not, so I let him have the window.
As soon as the conductor came around, we went to the cafe car. He wanted a breakfast sandwich, but they were out. So he had a hamburger which he said was good, and a Pepsi and I had a tuna sandwich on wheat (which was soggy) and cranberry juice and a choc.chip cookie which I said I didn't want heated. I said that the melted chips made a mess. So later, he went back and got a heated cookie and sure enough, got chocolate on his shirt. We went out of Baltimore, and crossed some rivers and got to Wilmington
and then got to Philadelphia.
Balloon over the Philadelphia zoo
When they announced Trenton, we got up quickly so that we'd have enough time to get off the train, and when we got off, there was my sister.
My sister taking our picture getting off the train
Trenton station temporary exit with graphics
After she picked us up at the Trenton station (which was under construction), she drove us through Trenton and past where the Battle of Princeton
Mercer Oak/Princeton Battlefield
was, and also past Einstein's former house.
Einstein's house from the car
We also stopped at the Princeton Quaker meeting house.
Stoney Brook Meeting House and Historic postcard
Princeton Meeting sign
Built 1726 Date in the masonry and closeup of the Historical Marker
Entrance gates
Small gravestones in a shady corner
Plaque honoring Richard Stockton-signer of the Declaration of Independence
We drove through Princeton University
Nassau Hall?
Then she took us to her house, and she went back to work. we were sleeping upstairs - My grandson was on a cot in my BIL's computer room
His photo of his bed
My BIL got home before my sister, and we talked to him for a bit.My grandson made a really good impression on him, talking about his Eagle Scout project, school etc. Then my sister got home, and we all went out to dinner to a place called Main Street in Princeton.
My sister, grandson and BIL on way to restaurant
My grandson had a salmon steak,
Salmon
which he said was not as good as the one his grandfather (my husband) cooked. He said it was sort of bland. I had a pasta dish, and my BIL had steak.
Brother-in-law's steak
dessert
Flowers in the restaurant
Then we went to the grocery store, and dropped his roll of film off to see how the camera was working, and came home. He has a digital camera and the old film camera with a big telephoto lens. My BIL gave me the password to get onto his wireless system, but then I ran into a huge problem. My digital camera software won't work. I've tried downloading and repairing, but to no avail. Not sure what I will do about that.
Meanwhile, my sister and my grandson worked on the piece of music that he's practicing on the violin and they came to some conclusion which seemed to satisfy them both.They went out and copied my grandson's passport just in case, and picked up the photos that had been developed and most of them came out well. There were a couple that were too dark. I took a couple out of the car window at dusk, which were also too dark and not in focus. Forgetting that I was not taking digital photos.
My sister asked me what we wanted to do tomorrow, and if we wanted her to take off work to go with us to New York City, and I said we wanted to go to Ellis Island, and to see the Statue of Liberty, and yes we did want her to come with us.
