The Irish Honeymoon Commences: Day #1 - The Flight

Since there is a 5 hour difference (6 before the time change) between West VA (our current location at the time) and Ireland, and since we did not want to waste a "day" traveling, we took the red eye from DC to Dublin via Boston. The unforeseen, slightly stressful, issue with this was that the Ireland Airline (Aer Lingus) connects in Boston, and since it was an international flight, we had to go through the check-in and security process in BOTH DC and Boston (this was something we should have followed-up on a little more carefully).

When we landed in Boston, we were definitely NOT in the international terminal and had less than an hour until our gate closed (not starting to board - closed). Kudos to my quick-thinking hubby though, because we Googled the gate for international flights while waiting to get off the plane and at least knew we had to get from B to E. So, we exited the plane and proceeded to exit the B gate completely...which took us outside...where we had to catch a shuttle to E [Scott: Note to anyone who happens to be reading this and also works at the Boston Airport; you need to seriously reconsider your signage from B to E...or lack there of.]. When the shuttle arrived at E, we then proceeded to the Aer Lingus counter to check back in. The one "bright light at the end of the tunnel" was that our checked bags were automatically transferred, so that was at least one thing we did not have to worry about. After checking in we had to wait in line at security - again.

By this time it was getting pretty late and we were starving. Due to another unforeseen, minor lack of  planning, we did not realize that the red eye flight was actually going to serve a meal, so while Scott was standing in line for security I grabbed some sandwiches. Please note here that I picked the slowest sandwich making place in the world to order from and I definitely almost left them. The security guards moved our flight to the front of the line for the check-point and Scott definitely had to yell across the airport to get my attention - which was pretty awesome [Scott: Note to anyone who happens to be reading this and works for Boston Airport Security; though people complain about security, you guys are awesome. Thank you for being so considerate. Needless to say the stress on my marriage would have been significantly greater had we missed this flight.] 

Long story short...we made it to the gate, and although a little sweaty and rushed (unnecessary sandwiches in hand), we had plenty of time to find our seats and get settled. The flight was a lot shorter than we also anticipated (only 5 1/2 hours), so unfortunately we did not get much sleep. That was kind of my own fault though because Game of Thrones was on the personal TV guide and yeah...I'm a little obsessed with that series right now [Scott: It is also a little weird when the semi-porn scenes from that series pop up and you start to worry about the age of the surrounding audience].

So, our what did we learn/Couple Travel Tip of the post is:
- Boston Airport security guys are amazing and they really don't want you to miss your flight either
- you in fact do NOT need food on a flight from DC/Boston to Dublin because they feed you
- the flight from DC/Boston to Dublin is fairly short, so don't expect to sleep much

Anyway...Day #1 will be continued...

 Such a pretty plane!