Writing this jet lagged in the middle of the night as my body tells me I should be getting up for another day of adventures in Ireland not realizing that I’ve landed back home after a day of flying.

Oh Ireland and Northern Ireland… I left loving everything about you. How your Guinness tastes so much better than what is served here. How the waves sounded crashing ashore along the Atlantic coast. How a conversation with the person sitting on the barstool next to you could brighten a rainy day. How you treated a now prairie boy to day after day of amazing seafood. How even a terrible storm and the loss of power for a day became a reason to hunker down and enjoy many a whiskey from Galway with my favourite person in the world.

Beaches, cliffs, cows and sheep. Single pot still whiskeys, all the Irish red ales I could find, and cheering for the home team at a soccer match in Dublin. The soda bread, a night in a Galway pub with new friends from Quebec, and driving the twisty roads in county Donegal.

It was all perfect and as the two weeks went on I could feel myself falling in love. I got everything I hoped I would from this trip, but it wasn’t enough. Ireland…. I’ll be back for more some day down the road.