Choose Your Own Adventure Trip Winner 2018
Destination: Hawaii
Choose Your Own Adventure Trip Winner 2017
Destination: Ireland
Raffle tickets….what a way to go on the trip of a lifetime.
In December 2017, I bought two tickets from a friend at work. They were for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Battlefords and the prize was a trip for two, anywhere WestJet flies. I put my name on one and my husband Bill’s name on the other one.
December 15, 2017 the draw was made by a young boy named Nevon at a local hockey game. Bill’s name was drawn from the box, and from then on, we were off on an exciting adventure. First we had to choose a destination…not easy to do when there are so many wonderful places out there to go to. It took us three months to make our decision. It would be Ireland…Dublin, Ireland to be exact. We booked our flight for Sept 13th. Six months of anxious anticipation and excitement passed, and we were on our way.
We had 9 amazing days of local culture and history – and some of the most amazing food we’ve ever eaten. We had been warned many times about the rainy weather, but we only got caught in it once. It was nothing that a quick trip to a local McDonalds for a coffee couldn’t fix.
We spent our first day resting as it had been a long trip. Day two, which also happened to be my birthday, saw us take a tour of Trinity College with the main feature being the Book of Kells, a hand written and ornately drawn Bible from the 9th Century, and the Long Room, a library with over 200,000 old books – some of which are over 500 year old. We also watched students play soccer and rugby and toured the science centre.
In the days that followed we toured Dublin by rail, the downtown district by busy and on foot, and went to the famed Temple Bar area. We went up and down the river Liffey on a tour boat and learned a lot of the history of Dublin along the river. We learned of the Irish famine from 1845-1852. Over a million people emigrated to the USA and Canada to escape the famine.
An absolute must for us was a trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We went by rail to Limerick and from there went by bus. We traveled along the Atlantic Coast for a ways and got to witness the angry side of the ocean. They were expecting hurricane force winds and we were told we couldn’t go right up to the top of the Cliffs of Moher. But we did get to see the cliffs and they were truly magnificent. The trip back to Galway, where we would catch the rail back to Dublin, showed us the magnificent countryside and truly explained without words where the expression Emerald Isle comes from. Everything was so green and beautiful.
The people of Ireland that we came into contact with were absolutely wonderful. Everywhere we went people were so friendly and helpful. If they saw us standing there looking at a map, they would stop and ask us if they could help us. If we asked for help, we got it and then some. Even on our last bus ride when our bus pass didn’t have enough to cover the fare back to our hotel we were told it was “on the house.” When I tried to give the bus driver a Canadian pin he thought I was trying to tip him, so he wouldn’t even look at what I had in my hand. He said “me mother would have me head if I took that.” I had to chuckle. When he realized what I was trying to give him, he was so happy you would have thought I had given him a huge sum of money.
There was so much more that we saw and did, but it almost impossible to put it all to words without writing a book. Suffice it to say, it was a very memorable and enjoyable trip. Hopefully we can return some day and see more of the beautiful country.
We would like to thank Tammy S. for selling us the ticket that made this trip possible. We would also like to thank WestJet for providing the prize of the airfare to the destination of our choice. And thank you to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Battlefords for this amazing opportunity. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Nevon for drawing the winning ticket. Your lucky draw gave us some wonderful memories to re-live over and over again. – Lorraine & Bill Dean