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Hello, traveling friends, Come along with us. There’s never a quiz so take it at your own pace, or just look at the pictures. I’ll try to post plenty!

We’re off again to new places, toting both golf clubs, and warm sweaters. Our plan is simple but ambitious— do it all!  We’re going to start in Ireland, see Dublin, and play two famous and one not-so-famous courses, then go south to gorgeous scenery, then back to Dublin. Week One done!

From there, we will travel to Liverpool where we’ve never been! Abbey Road? Who knows! But we’ll have a car to drive north past the Lake District and Hadrian’s Wall, to the Boards, where we’ve never been, then across the great divide (or non at all) to great and glorious Scotland.

Day 1 started at home (Thursday 8/27/26) with the notion that we might need visas this year. John mentioned it, so I got right on it, Googling to verify and then going to iVisa, an app. For expedited service, I paid $319 with the promise that we would have visas in 4 hours. That didn’t happen. 6 hours later, 8 hours later, still no visas. 

So what’s the anxiety? We’re not going to be in the UK until next week. Ah, but our plane lands in London first. We change to a domestic flight which means we’ll need our visas to get on the plane from Los Angeles. Try not to panic, but take note, travellers. This could have been easy if we’d gone directly to the UK Visa site.

John distracted his anxiety by taking care of some work and packing. Then, when it was about an hour before leaving home, and we still didn’t have visas, his “anxio-meter” rose to the red zone. No more ignoring the situation. He took charge, applied on the official UK government app, UKETA, paid £20 each, and received both visas in 5 minutes!  So all good and our credit card company will work on our disputed charge. I have to say that, even though iVisa did not deliver, they sent the most lovely sympathy notes all day long (I won’t share)—very nice people— just in over their heads.

So here we are, waiting to board a late flight and have a cozy trip to London, then Dublin. See you all tomorrow in a brand new world!

Happy times ahead, and maybe a little rain!

Patti and John