SOMEWHERE Over the RAINBOW

Let’s Go!

When it comes to travel, the planning of a journey is half of the fun. No matter if it’s for a quick weekend getaway or an extended trip, the excitement and anticipation lift my spirit just thinking about all that needs to be done before making the great escape from my daily life routines. And, after being grounded by the pandemic for two years or so, who doesn’t need a good getaway?

A jaunt across the pond to Ireland this past fall was my first international trip since 2019. I was more excited than usual to visit my home away from home—the untamed region of Connemara in County Galway—a four-hour drive from Dublin. Though the Irish highway network has been greatly modernized over the past twenty years, the tight and curvy country byways will elevate the heart rate of even the most experienced Yankee driver. And what breath the drive doesn’t take away, the raw natural beauty of the Connemara landscape will steal. It never gets old, no matter how many times I have seen it: the inspiring and majestic quartzite summits of the Twelve Bens that preside over expansive vistas of rolling hills carpeted by thick wire grass and valleys sprinkled with glimmering lakes and whitewater streams. The closer I got to my destination, the more relaxed I became. My worries and cares were shed with each breath of the clean and exuberant air. The lush greenery, blue skies, and untouched beauty can only be described as something like a scene from Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. It’s my happy place.

The trip—a girl’s getaway to Connemara with my sister Marianne—was just what the doctor ordered after a very grueling few years of keeping the business operating during, and in the aftermath of, the pandemic. I fell in love with this region when I first visited it as a teenager with my other sister, Laurie. The fact that the stunning Connemara countryside remains relatively unchanged after all these years is one of the reasons I love it so much. I feel like I have been transported back in time to when life was simpler. The local natives are the friendliest I have encountered anywhere in the world, with friends and neighbors saying upon our arrival, “You’re welcome home.”

Connemara is a place where I can be carefree and feel like a kid again. It is where I can breathe the invigorating sea air, talk to all sorts of farm animals while on long walks, explore new sites, hike Diamond Hill, enjoy horseback rides on the beach, and truly linger in a quaint bookstore. These are just a few things that give me pause and make me thankful for the short space of time to do so. That is what is most fulfilling about traveling afar. It is the best way to recalibrate and get realigned to enjoy the sweetness of life—and that is the great blessing of what traveling can do for us all.

Somewhere over the rainbow, the skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

To Life—and Adventures!

—Lisa Marie CEO/Editor-in-Chief