2026 Ireland’s Coasts from North to South - Day #A - Group Pictures

A selection of group photos that the program director, Eileen Cameron, took during the trip plus one selfie.

Muckross House
At The Burren
Cobh
At the home hosted dinner in Cobh
Navan Fort

Song for 2026

Fifty years ago this month, I was a sophmore at UC Davis. Although I lived off campus my freshman year, I lived in the Malcolm dorms as a sophmore. My roommate was Cortland Greer.

Over the course of the year, there was a lot of music played loudly on the dorm floor. Cortland liked Jethro Tull, a band that I hadn't been exposed to before.

My song for 2026 is Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull.


You can find the work in progress Soundtrack for My Life here!

What is this?

Footnote. This is roughly when I started dating Laurie. This kicks off an interesting six year period in my life that I outline in detail in novella...

Jack back to the City

Sunday night after the bocce tournament, I took Jack to the Amtrak station in downtown Sacramento. He caught a 8:50 pm train back to the city.

Annual Rebecca L. Frame Memorial Invitational Scottish Rules Bocce Ball Tournament

Sunday, Jack, Sharon and I spent the afternoon at the fourteenth not-so-annual Rebecca L. Frame Memorial Invitational Scottish Rules Bocce Ball Tournament at Tom's house.

The group was a little bigger than past years. It included: Tom, Eric, Kevin, Leah, Lydia and Amelia, Terry and Steve, Will and Eileen, Cormac, Erin and Mave, Tim and Kathy, Mary, Ernie, Jim, two of Eric's friends (Trevor and ?), Jack, Sharon and I.

Jack, Eric, Tim and Trevor were in the finals. Tim prevailed as the winner.

Shangri-la

Jack, Sharon and I went to dinner at Shangri-la on Saturday night. We split CRISPY BRUSSELS SPROUTS W/PARM and Burrata. For entrees, Sharon had MARY’S ORGANIC FRIED 1/2 CHICKEN [buttermilk chicken, chili honey, slaw, house-made cornbread], Jack had SHANG BURGER [brisket/chuck/short rib blend, American cheese, pickled onion, tomato, lettuce, Shang sauce, local bun, fries] and I had an interesting scallop dish.

Sharon's fried chicked was not good... She said "I am never going back."

Survivor 51 Draft

Friday night, Tom, Eric, Kevin, Jack, Sharon and I got together and watched episode #2 of Survivor 51. Afterwards, we did a draft of the remaining players.

	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Eric	Patt Cannaday-33 Federal prosecutor (1)	Carter Krull-24 Livestock farmer (2)	Jenna Doore-30 Wedding photographer (2)
Kevin	Christian Chavez-26 Head of HR (5)	Angelica Loblack-29 Sociology professor (5)	Devin Way-33 Actor (1)
Jack	Mike Pinsky-32 Baseball executive (4)	Linnea Capoblanco-25 Entrepreneur (1)	Eric Macksoud-34 Mental health counselor (4)
Mark	Maggie Nestor-40 Farmer (6)	Alexis Levine-34 Criminal defense attorney (3)	An Nguyen-24 Medical student (3)
Sharon	Sharonda Cox-34 Resident, OB-GYN (2)	Ori Jean-Charles-27 Personal trainer (6)	Brady Booker-27 Professional wrestler (6)
Tom	Lewis Kelly-28 Farmer (3)	Danny Kilby-30 Game designer (4)	Kristen Flickinger-49 Crisis management (4)

Tom also got Rob Antonson-40 (Airline Gate Agent) for correcting picking who would be voted off of Episode #2.

The draft order was redrawn after every round.  The draft order for each round is shown in parentheses.

Michaelmas Festival of Courage

Not feeling too jetlagged, I went to the Cedar Springs Learning Center to watch Lee in the Michaelmas Play. It is always odd for me to go back to this campus. From 1994 to 2001, Morgan and Drew went to school here. It was a Waldorf school then.

The Michaelmas Festival of Courage (celebrated annually on or around September 29th) is a traditional autumn festival that marks the seasonal transition from summer to fall. It centers on the story of Saint Michael conquering the dragon—a symbol for overcoming fear, facing darkness, and cultivating inner strength as winter approaches.

While it has deep historic origins as an harvest quarter-day, it is widely celebrated today within Waldorf (Steiner) education communities worldwide as a festival of inner resolve, courage, and community cooperation.

2026 Ireland’s Coasts from North to South - Day #21 - Carmichael

Day 18: Program Concludes

Depart From: Dublin Airport (DUB), about 8 miles (13 km) from the program hotel. Refer to your personal air itinerary for specific flight information.

Breakfast: Hotel buffet. This concludes our program.

Morning: If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!

Note: Hotel check-out 11:00 a.m. See your program’s Travel Information regarding transfers.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Heading home! Two pieces of good news. First, we don't have to get up in the middle of the night to get to the airport. Coming back from Eastern Europe, we got up at 1:30 am in the morning. Second, we have only one flight home! Usually, we have at least two flights to get home.

Sharon and I were up and moving at 6:00 am. Oura is showing major signs of strain. Nevertheless, I did a five minute Peloton core workout.

We went to the buffet breakfast at 7:45 am. Our transfer to the airport showed up a little late about 9:15 am.

We shared a cab with Tom and Linda. Tom's interactions with the group have turned very odd in the last week. I will explore this subject more in a follow-up musings post.

We got to the airport a little before 10 am. We checked our bags. Sharon's bag was 10 pounds heavier than when we came!?!

We went through Irish security and then walked to another gate to go through American security. The United States began offering full U.S. Preclearance operations—including complete U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) immigration, customs, and security screening—at Dublin Airport on January 19, 2011. We were able to use our Global Entry. This means that we will land at a domestic terminal in San Francisco and go straight to baggage claim. Apparently, this is offered at 16 international locations across six countries.

The Aer Lingus flight started boarding just after noon. Sharon and I had 36H and 36K. In a 2-4-2 configuration, we were against the right side window. The flight wasn't as full as the flight when we came.

It took off on time. Using the wifi, I spent a lot time before and after lunch working on yesterday's blog entry. Afterwards, I watched Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. I had finished episode III on the trip over. I read my book about Benjamin Rush for a while and then started watching Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

It was a relatively easy flight. Sharon felt like we made more seat space than when we came.

We were on the ground about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We met Jack at baggage claim.

It took about 45 minutes to get our bags. We dragged everything to the Airtrain and rode to the long term parking.

Jack drove home. With a short stop for Taco Bell, it was a three hour drive. It took an hour to get from SFO to the Bay Bridge?!? We were home just after 8:00 pm.

It was 17 hours door to door.

It was a great trip. It exceeded both Sharon and mine expectations. I am going to write a follow-up post in the next week.