Irish Eyes are Smiling!

Sláinte! Céad míle fáilte romhat! (In Gaelic, that's "A hundred thousand welcomes to you"!)

Let me back up and first of all say thanks for the messages about my return to blogging. I can now confirm I have at least ten readers! :) Thanks for the affirmation!!!

This week I headed off with POTUS on a European vacation, I mean, work trip. Honestly, I can't even joke about this because there was absolutely no vacation and a TON of work. This wasn't originally scheduled as my trip but I was happy to do it when asked. I'm breaking the blog/journal entries into separate days so that I have a chance that all ten of my readers will read the entire entry! :)

Our first stop on our weeklong journey was to Ireland. I have never been there before but have always wanted to go. I was in travel pool for the day and boy, what a day it was!!! POTUS was going there to visit the President, and then the Taoiseach and to find his long lost relatives. He also mentioned that the many millions of Americans who, like him, trace their roots to Ireland. I am not one of them apparently. I have some Northern Ireland in me but I'm about as Anglo-Saxon as they come. But I was happy to trail along with POTUS to see his adventures.

We got to Dublin on Sunday night but POTUS flew in on Monday morning. (On Sunday, my main goal was to find an Irish pub to shoot my reporter's standup in. I achieved my goal quite easily. There were many choices.)

On Monday morning, we swapped with my friends from CBS who had flown over on AF1 with him. While we waited for his arrival to the President of Ireland's house, it started raining. And raining really hard. I said a quick prayer that it would stop raining because that would make for the most miserable travel pool day!! Moments before he landed, that prayer was answered and blue sky emerged. At least for a few minutes. Luckily, our first assignment was a guest book signing inside so we were out of the elements. POTUS and FLOTUS came in with the President of Ireland and her husband. The Obamas signed the book and were out of the room before most of the press got situated.
We immediately had to run (literally sprint) around the back of the building for a tree planting. For the record, POI's white house is much bigger than POTUS's WH. After we sprinted and caught our breath, we watched POTUS plant a tree. It was right next to the tree that the Queen of England had planted a couple of days earlier. The wind was blowing so hard that I didn't think either tree was going to make it. POTUS came out and shoveled some dirt into place. He didn't actually do any planting. He took a pile of dirt and put it on the base of the tree. Then a bell rang and the trumpets played and he chatted for a few minutes with President McAleese and her husband and the three kids who rang the bell. Clearly, I wasn't in the best position for the tree planting because all I could see was POTUS's rear end. And clearly, all this was for show because they told us that the tree would be moved elsewhere on the property. I'm not really sure about this because he didn't really plant it and it's going to be immediately moved?? I'm not really getting the point of that but we didn't have any time to ponder that because the moment that was over, we had to sprint the half mile back to the vans. I'm not sure how far it really way but we were running for at least 10 minutes. I know I'm not a runner but even the people who I consider to be completely in shape were out of breath by the time we got back to the front of the building. We were almost immediately off to our next stop to see the Taoiseach (prono TEE-shuck) of Ireland. I don't really know what that means but he comes to DC every St. Patrick's Day and shares a bowl of shamrocks with POTUS. I've never understood why the leader of Ireland would be in America on St. Patrick's Day but then again, I'm not Irish.

But I digress. When we got to where we going to see the Taoiseach, it was another case of hurry up and wait. So we ran to some room and then waited for about thirty minutes. At some point, we start moving to the place of the bilat between the Taoiseach and POTUS and of course, it starts raining and we get drenched. And then it stops a few minutes later. And then the whole rain process repeats itself (numerous times throughout the day!!!). We eventually all pile (the travel pool and the Irish press pool) into a room where I can't see a bloomin' thing. They exchange words about how great it is that our countries get along and exchange some gifts and then we run some more back to the motorcade. After this, we went back to POTUS's hotel for a little break and then to the US Embassy for a little meet and greet. As we drove through the streets of Dublin, it was amazing to see how many people were packing the sidewalks to get a glimpse of POTUS. Those Irish people really do love Mr. Obama. From there, we went to catch a ride on helicopters to Moneygall, the tiny town about two hours away where POTUS can trace his ancestors back to.

The idea of a helicopter ride over the Irish countryside sounds idyllic but in reality, it was probably the worst helicopter ride I've ever had. While it wasn't raining, the wind was whipping around at about 30-40 mph. I don't have a tendency to get motion sickness but I was about as green as the beautiful Irish countryside that I could see if I briefly tried to look through the window. It was absolutely the bumpiest ride of my life. Every few minutes, we would just drop a bit. I kept looking at the faces of those around me, including the soldiers. No one looked at ease. Because we were flying into the wind, this bumpy ride went on for about an hour. We were all just trying to avoid being the first person to throw up. Amazingly, none of us did but I tell you, I have never been happier to see the ground in my life. As soon as we got out of the helicopters, the rain started again and we made it to the buses for the motorcade into town. Talk about the Irish people loving Mr. Obama. All 300 residents of Moneygall and then other nearby towns were waiting for the chance to see him for hours and hours. He pulled up and you would have thought it was the Second Coming. The cheers were incredibly loud! We had to sprint from the end of the motorcade to where he started shaking hands along the ropeline. Of course, there were so many people around him that I very rarely actually saw POTUS but I could tell from the cheering and screaming where he was at any given moment. These people were so incredibly thrilled to see him!!! It poured down rain at least once while we were in the street while he shook hands. Say what you want to about POTUS (actually don't because I'm not here for anything political) but that man spent about an hour shaking hands, holding babies, and giving kisses on the cheek to thousands of people in the rain. I would have called it a day after the first storm but those people had been waiting for so long to see him. Eventually, he stepped inside one of the two pubs in town to meet his relatives. We were crammed in the back of the room and once again, being 5 feet tall proved to be a big disadvantage. Even if I had been a foot taller, I'm not sure how much I could have seen since we were packed liked sardines into a small, small area. He had a pint with his 8th cousin, Henry and a bunch of others. Eventually, I am going to need to see the tape and pictures of the event because it sounded like it was pretty funny. After finishing the rest of the ropeline, we raced back to the motorade and then off to the helicopters and just like that our time in Moneygall was over. The flight back to Dublin was just as bumpy but luckily we were flying into the wind which made the bumpiness last half the time.
Once back in Dublin, the next stop was a speech in downtown Dublin on the College Green. I'm not positive it was green because it was covered with thousands and thousands of people. As far as the eye could see. It was a little crazy because it felt like a campaign event except that none of those people could actually vote for him. I had to remind myself that we were in a different country. The fact that there was a high percentage of redheads reminded me that we were in Ireland but that was the only thing. Lots of people waving American flags and screaming. Bands were playing and it was as loud as a rock concert. Except this was an official speech by the President of the United States. It was pretty crazy. After the speech, we were on our way to the US Ambassador's house so POTUS could have dinner with them (the press had bologna sandwiches). But before that, we found out we were leaving Ireland early to go to London because of the volcanic ash cloud. I admit, I was so wrapped up in trying not to puke on the helicopter that I had absolutely no idea that there was an ash cloud, much less that it could alter our travel plans. So like that, I found out that we were going to London that night and since I was in travel pool, I would be flying Air Force One.
I usually don't mind a ride on AF1 but I had one really big problem. Since we were supposed to stay in Dublin a second night, I hadn’t packed my bags. And since I was travel pool and couldn’t run late, I had just taken a lot of stuff out of my suitcase and it was all over the place. I wasn’t even entirely sure I had put my dirty clothes in my suitcase. Since I couldn’t return to my hotel, the White House staff had to pack my bags. Talk about being embarrassed. I am not usually that unorganized but this time was the exception. I just prayed that whoever did it wouldn’t leave stuff behind and would forgive me for being a temporary slob. Luckily, I actually knew who the WH staffer was which calmed my fears greatly. But I was still embarrassed!!

Once we got to my honorary Motherland, we motorcaded to the US Ambassador’s house so that POTUS could get a good night’s sleep before his big day of hanging with the Queen. I was never so glad to get to my hotel even though I had arrived several hours before my bags did. Once I eventually got them, nothing had been left behind and there was even a nice little note from the WH staffer: “Hey Becky, enjoy London!!” Total sleep for the first night: Three hours.