I'm hugely honored to be contributing to our shared travelogue. I never thought I’d make the cut!
Meg and I went our separate ways on November 7th, 2020, with me flying from Portland, Oregon back to Dublin, Ireland via Chicago O'Hare. I felt incredibly fortunate to be able to make the trip with international travel severely limited, and far fewer flights operating. It was my first flight since the start of the pandemic, and as expected, was my most unusual flight experience to date. Masking was of course mandatory, but the stranger part was how few people were traveling. A usual flight back to Ireland for Christmas is jammed with well over 200 people. This flight had no more than 30. Eerie is the best word to describe the experience, though I'd quite happily go back to the speedy check-in and security experience!
Upon landing in Dublin I traveled to Warrenpoint, Co. Down, a lovely wee corner in the North of Ireland, to start Ireland's then mandatory two-week quarantine. I found myself a cozy Airbnb right along the seafront. The apartment occupied the top floor of a Victorian townhouse, with another smaller apartment on the floor below me and a local coffee shop at street level. It was quiet and spacious, and had everything I needed to quarantine safely and work remotely for the two weeks ahead.
My quarantine experience was both peaceful and productive. I was still working on Pacific Time, which meant I started my work day at 4pm local time and worked until ~1am most nights. That said, it also meant I had the whole morning to myself and could make the best of the limited winter daylight. I squeezed in some lovely beach/coast walks, got to explore Warrenpoint, and worked on a few personal projects. Though I was quarantining, I also got to see family on the weekends and enjoy some longer, socially distanced walks. This included a hike of Slieve Martin in Kilbroney Forest Park with my Dad, my sister, and her partner, Anthony, to celebrate the end of my quarantine and time in Warrenpoint. A very COVID experience all around, but for the positive -- the beginning of more than usual quality family time.
My return home to Carrickmacross marked the start of an extended period of time off -- from the start of Thanksgiving week until the start of the New Year. In other years, this time would quickly fill up with visits and nights out, but due to COVID restrictions this year was sure to be very different. I knew I'd need a big project to focus my time, so I decided to dive into digitizing all my family's photos. This started with a lot of hours researching digitization techniques and tools, which led to me purchasing the Epson Perfection V800 Photo scanner, an excellent prosumer scanner which supports scanning prints, film, and slides. With that in hand, I dove in head first, spending many hours scanning thousands of images. It’s impossible to narrow down to a small collection of favorites, but here are sample of my siblings and me in a selection of impressive costumes:
I also spent a generous amount of time focused on my biggest COVID project - growing out a burly beard! By the end of my time at home, I decided it was time to finally call an end to this important and ambitious project. I was fairly happy with the end results, but felt that it was way too much effort overall, and was happy to regain a few valuable minutes in my day!
When I wasn't scanning photos or beard grooming, I got to spend some lovely time with my family, help with various jobs around the house, and squeeze in some great hikes with friends. Some highlights included giving our family dog, Timmy, his second ever bath (he was not impressed), non-hiker friends joining our hikes as an alternative to pints (not sure any were truly converted), and having my immediate family around for the major holidays over the Christmas break.
I was also lucky enough to see a little of my Granda McQuillan during this time. Though we were limited to window visits, we got in some great chats and it was lovely to see him in good form. Sadly, this would be the last I would see of him as he passed away from COVID in early January 2021. I'm incredibly grateful to have been home and able to spend time with him when so many others could not see their loved ones throughout the pandemic.
As you can see, the general theme of this trip home was family -- the importance of family, the value of focused and uninterrupted time with family, cherishing family memories, and much more. This was one of the unexpected and positive side effects of the pandemic for me, and for many others I'm sure.