Many of you were asking how Ahren liked his quilt, which we were delivering to him in person. It turns out there is a bit of a story concerning that.
We chose a non-stop flight going straight from San Francisco to Dublin. We love non-stop flights. it is easier not to have to make any connecting flights, the trip isn't as long, and there is no chance for your luggage to get lost. Hah.
We carefully chose a larger suitcase for my husband to use, and the quilt was wrapped and lovingly packed in it, along with his clothing. We got to the airport early, and checked our two pieces of baggage without incident. We had plenty of time to wander around in the international duty free area of the San Francisco airport, and even enjoy a cup of coffee and a muffin before the flight.
The flight was ok, nothing unusual, except it seems like the amount of leg room and size of the seats is shrinking every time I go anywhere. My husband needed a lot more room to extend the leg he recently had the knee replaced on. However, we got through the 11 hours, and may have even slept a bit.
When you arrive at the Dublin airport, there is quite a long walk from one's flight, through the passport checking area, then on to baggage. I call it the Hall of Doom, because it seems like it goes on forever. And if a lot of flights come in at once, you will stand in a line that forms along the entire mile long (it seems) corridor. However, there wasn't much of a line until we got to the passport check in section, but we patiently waited our turn. It was so funny to see all the foreigners tapping away on their cell phones, right under huge signs with pictures of cell phones with big red lines through them.
But I digress. We got through the passport area, no problem, and were on our merry way to baggage to collect our suitcases and meet up with Ahren. We found my suitcase without delay and then stood and stood and stood, along with a big crowd of other passengers who were all waiting for their bags, which hadn't come off the flight yet. Soon a representative from Aer Lingus turned up with a sad announcement. Back in San Francisco, there had been a massive breakdown of the main baggage carrying apparatus, affecting thousands of flights out of SFO, including 50 passengers on our flight. The apparatus must have broken just after my bag was loaded on the flight!
My husband's suitcase was still in San Francisco, mixed up with so many other pieces of luggage it boggles the mind.
We just looked at each other and said at the same time, "The Quilt". The fact that my poor husband had no clothes, shoes or toiletries was a secondary issue. So we stood in more lines to fill out lost luggage paperwork, and then finally met Ahren with our sad story.
After filling out the paperwork, all communication is electronic, so there was no way to talk to a real person to see what the status was. Two days later, Ahren received a text message that the suitcase had arrived at the Dublin airport and was out for delivery. So we stayed home and waited for it instead of going sightseeing. But it didn't come. The following day, Ahren received another text message saying the bag really was out for delivery. Sure enough, a nice man drove up to the house around noon and delivered the suitcase.
We opened it right up and right as rain, there was Ahren's 1000 Pyramids Quilt, just as we had packed it. He loved it of course, and said it was just as he had envisioned. After admiring it sufficiently, he ran upstairs with it to his room and spread it out on his bed. The quilt is quite large, and I was happy to see that there was plenty of overhang on both sides of the bed. It was a great fit. He wouldn't let me take a picture of the entire messy bedroom, but allowed a shot of just the quilt in its final resting place on the bed itself.
So I guess this is an example of the old adage "All's well that ends well". Our quilt had a bit of an exciting start to its Irish life, but ultimately made it unscathed and is happily settling in it's new home.
