Local traveler and philanthropist got to enjoy a trip to Ireland and quality time with her new grandson
By Pamela Dozois and Linda Johansen
Special to the Santa Ynez Valley Star
NOTE: This is the uncut version of the story of Linda Johansen’s trip to Ireland with her family. A condensed version of the story can be found in the July 16 print version of The Santa Ynez Valley Star.
“There is something to be said about turning 75 that feels a bit like liberation,” said Linda Johansen, world traveler and local philanthropist. “When your children ask you if you want a large birthday extravaganza like you planned for your husband the year before, you can honestly tell them ‘absolutely not’ and not remotely feel bad about it.”
“My birthday wish was to go on a family vacation with my immediate family of six including my only grandchild Canon, who was 6 months old. I told my children they could pick out any destination they wanted and the stipulation was, that I was not going to make any arrangements for the trip at all, because that has been my career for over 50 years,” said Johansen. “I relayed again to them that I didn’t want to be responsible for one thing except paying the bill and handing over my credit card when the time was right!”
Her sons and daughter-in-law agreed and invested countless hours and months in the planning.
“They decided Ireland was the perfect spot for us because we all love beer, especially Guinness, whiskey, and fresh seafood,” said Johansen. “My youngest son and wife were scheduled to attend a wedding outside of Dublin as well sothat all figured into the choice of venue. So, from Jan. 16, which is my actual birthday, up until the day before we left on our trip, my youngest son Adam and his wife Mariah were attending to trip details along with suggestions from my son Erik.”
“I did answer one question for Adam and Mariah dealing with airline ticket penalties,” admitted Johansen. “Because we were traveling with a baby and due to the fact that my husband Danny and I are aged seniors, I agreed with Adam to buy the more expensive flexible airline tickets which we ended up changing the day before departure. A traveling tip: It is really important to know the rules of your ticket fare as many are nonrefundable and with big penalties.”
The Johansens set out on their journey to Ireland, but not without a minor delay inconvenience.
“Because of the Memorial Day weekend, travel was difficult and unreliable at best,” Linda said. “Our originating flight from Santa Barbara to Dallas had been 1½ hours to over 2 hours late for 10 days in a row, so we opted to leave Santa Barbara Airport at 5:15 a.m. That meant we shuttled to the Santa Barbara Airport at 3 a.m., which was not optimal butit gave us the assurance of not misconnecting with our flight to Dublin. Thank heavens the kids changed the flight as it was over three hours late that day.
“Welcome to the world of travel and the stress that comes along with that and which I have experienced my entire adult life as a travel agent for our family business, the former Viking Travel Service, and now working exclusively with Collette booking group departures for the last 15 years.”
However, once the trip started, it was a great experience.
“What a wonderful belated 75th birthday celebration! Two weeks in Ireland in May!,” Johansen said. “It was truly magical and wonderful from start to finish and the kids did an amazing job at coordinating all the specific details of the trip. They definitely inherited my organizational skills and the love of travel, enjoying new cultures and meeting new friends along the way. The bonus in all of this was that Prince Canon was absolutely perfect the entire trip!
It went well with Johansen’s kids making the arrangements.
“They organized all the flights from Santa Barbara to Ireland, all hotels or VRBO rentals, two car rentals for the entire trip as it was $2,000 cheaper to have two smaller cars versus one larger vehicle, some reservations at famous restaurants, beer and whiskey tours and tastings and all the notable sightseeing you should see along the way as well as some golf,” said Johansen. “There was even a few ‘surprise reservations’ for the birthday girl!
And the weather mostly cooperated, also.
“We were very lucky in that we seemed to bring the California weather with us most days,” Johansen said. “There was very little rain which is very uncommon, and only a few light showers mostly at night. This certainly made the drivingon the opposite side of the road much less of a challenge. I think that was the most stressing part of the trip, trying to teach my 76-year-old husband to consistently stay on the left side of the road and out of the bushes. Other than some scratches from trees and bushes, it was a miracle that his car was returned intact.
“Adam and Mariah definitely planned that perfectly, putting Mariah in the front seat with Dan to help navigate and putting me in the car with Adam and the baby. When I occasionally sat in the car Dan was driving, I was promptly toldI needed to be quiet and not add any stress to the driving by making backseat driving comments. I much preferred staying in the car with Canon, so Erik and Mariah had to deal with Dan’s driving. All I can say is that my beautiful daughter-in-law is a saint and the perfect addition to our family.”
Johansen described her stay in Dublin with enthusiasm.
“We stayed in the lovely Leonardo Hotel in Dublin where we bunked for two nights in three separate rooms,” she said.”We enjoyed a few pubs that the kids had researched for having awesome Guinness, Irish beer, and whiskey. We enjoyed amazing Irish stew at the Brazen Head restaurant in the Temple Bar neighborhood close to our hotel and loved delicious coddle at Hairy Lemons as well as visiting the Christchurch Abbey, which was directly across the street from our hotel, and was the beautiful view from my room. We toured Trinity College and their library with over 300,000 books which was incredible and of course did the Guinness Beer Brewery Factory tour which was amazing.”
Their next stop was Galway about a 2½ hour drive from Dublin.
“Once we navigated out of Dublin, the roads were easier and the scenery was so beautiful,” said Johansen. “We stopped at Sean’s Bar in Athlone, which is the oldest bar in Ireland and possibly the world’s oldest operating bar recorded for 1,000 years. We tossed back a few pints enjoying all the staff, other guests, and the amazing memorabilia. What a historic venue with an ancient castle remnant across the street.
“After a short drive from Athlone, we stopped for lunch at Moran’s Oyster Cottage, outside of Galway, established in the 1760s. Moran’s Oyster Cottage was a charming home with a thatched roof where the residents lived upstairs and thedownstairs was always a restaurant. They specialize in seafood and we practically ordered one of everything. It was the most incredible meal and we had our own little room to ourselves which was wonderful.”
Each of these stops were a chance to show the family’s gratitude.
“There was never a meal, or a pub that we didn’t raise our glasses in toast to our family and give thanks for each other and our many blessings,” said Johansen. “The whole trip was truly so special in so many ways, and we have vowed to now do a yearly family trip with everyone getting to choose a destination.”
After that Johansen got a special treat.
“In Galway we had our first spacious and lovely VRBO rental for two nights. We visited the Spanish Arch and a few castles and got to experience my first birthday surprise that the kids arranged and paid for themselves. We had a 15-minute drive on the outskirts of Galway to Glenlo Abbey for my surprise high noon champagne and tea luncheon that was absolutely incredible,” said Johansen. “We all enjoyed it so much and it was such a lovely surprise and something I really enjoy experiencing when I’m traveling. It was a stunning former castle converted into a five-star property in the Leading Hotels in the World Chain. Canon joined us in his highchair for his first five-star high noon tea celebration and was a perfect gentleman. I was a very proud Grammie over his big boy behavior.
“We enjoyed another amazing meal for dinner that night at the famous Kings Head restaurant,” she said. “If you hadn’tguessed it by now my sons and daughter-in-law are total foodies! I fear Canon will be one too as there isn’t anything he doesn’t enjoy eating and he is a total carnivore!”
En route to Killarney from Galway, they had lunch at The Ivy Cottage and then visited the imposing Cliffs of Moher.
“I don’t care how many times I have seen them, they are absolutely stunning and again our day was bright blue skies but windy as always hiking to the cliffs. You simply can’t come to Ireland without visiting the Cliffs of Moher,” she advised. “We enjoyed another VRBO rental for three nights in Killarney which is one of my favorite charming smaller areas in Ireland.”
A good time was had by all in Killarney.
“The boys went golfing at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club, and Mariah, Canon, and I experienced the carriage ride through the stunning Killarney National Park to the Castle,” Johansen said. “It was so beautiful and our guide was fantastic and had competed in the U.S. recently in a world class mountain bike event in Santa Cruz. In typical Irish politeness he told us we could borrow his fly-fishing equipment to go fishing in the lake if we’d like. That is the bonus of travel I always say, meeting such lovely people along the way.”
She said that they had brought cards for evening play, but they were all so exhausted after each day of exploration, that the cards never made it out of the case.
“I think that says a great deal about my children and their expert planning of all the details for our trip,” said Johansen.“I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say!
“The boys had a distillery tour at Dingle, an hour or so from Killarney so Mariah, Canon and I walked the very charming seaport village and went to the quaint local aquarium at the edge of the town. Dingle was one of the most picturesque villages, so charming and one I hadn’t visited before. It was definitely worth the visit and we enjoyed some amazing fish and chips in Dingle with a pint or two of local beers,” continued Johansen.
Leaving Killarney en route to Cork, the group stopped off at Blarney Castle, where the famous Blarney Stone is located.
“The Blarney Castle and grounds are so lovely. This is another point of interest in Ireland that you shouldn’t miss. The history behind Blarney Castle is fascinating, and the lore of kissing the Blarney Stone which has been done for over 200 years, is powerful,” said Johansen. “However, once your trek the inside of the dark, steep stairwells, to get to the Blarney Stone, and see what you have to do to kiss it, you are good with doing it just once. You have to get down on your back and lean back over the wall to kiss the stone upside down to receive the powers of the gift of eloquence. They now have a grill netting one floor down so hopefully there are no more victims. Maybe that is why I’m so talkative as I did kiss that Blarney Stone many years ago but there is no way I could even begin to crawl down to do it again at my age, so I was happy I didn’t have to go through all of that again.”
Eventually, they got to their next destination and had a good time.
“We enjoyed exploring Cork and the surrounding areas for a few days as well, especially the English market place,” she said. “So many amazing food vendors that we all had something to eat. We ate our way through that area as well asmuch of the trip it seems.”
It was back to Dublin for their last two nights in Ireland and Johansen’s final birthday surprise.
“Our last two nights were spent in Dublin, and my last surprise was a tour of Bru Na Boinne, Newgrange, and Knowth, which are UNESCO-recognized prehistoric monuments in the Boyne Valley,” she said. “They were constructed before Stonehenge and the Giza pyramids and are the largest ancient worship and burial sites in Ireland. It was incredible and we were able to enter a passageway to a chamber where the light would shine in to illuminate it during winter solstice for the Neolithic people in Ireland. That was a fascinating tour.”
“Our last night was spent getting delicious take-a-way pizza to our respective hotel rooms and trying to figure how to get everything in our suitcases,” she said. “Since Adam was staying for the wedding, we had one less person to schlep luggage, and when you take a baby, you have a lot of bags!
“As families go, I guess ours isn’t any different in trying to organize everyone’s various needs. Adam stayed for four extra nights for a wedding, Danny, Erik, and I flew to Dallas and then onto Santa Barbara, and Mariah and Canon flew with us to Dallas and then into San Francisco for a wedding that she was a bridesmaid for. We all made it home to our various locations with no hiccups and all luggage accounted for which was a minor miracle in itself.”
Looking back, Johansen considered it a pretty smooth trip.
“Travel isn’t for the faint at heart I will say, when it goes well it is just amazing, but when it falls apart, you are definitely on your own, so you’d better know how navigate it all and what your rights are as a passenger for the airline on which you are traveling,” warned Johansen.
“I was so grateful that on this trip, I did nothing at all except to present my credit card,” she added, laughing. “I was just a fellow passenger and it was so nice, instead of being responsible for a large group. That was by far the best birthday gift and present I have ever had, enjoying my family in the most loving and adventurous way in Ireland. I’m already looking forward to next year’s family travels and adventures and again just being a passenger and the banker!”
“Also, I would like to point out in my new role as a first-time grandmother at 75, it isn’t easy, but by far the most important thing in my life compared to having my own boys,” said Johansen. “Realistically, we will miss many important things in Canon’s life because we will be gone, so I have let it be known that I need to make my impression now and let Canon know how much his crazy, fun-loving Grammie loves him. There will be few boundaries except discipline and foundation rules set by Adam and Mariah that I will totally respect, but I see Canon globetrotting with his Grammie and on many outrageous trips for years to come. He already has a Masai name and gifts from the Masai tribe that I have been supporting for years, so if I’m not too old and he is old enough, Kenya might be in the picture again before I croak.
“I look so forward to sharing my love of travel with my precious grandson” said Johansen in conclusion. “He is off to Mexico with us in November so he will have another country and culture under his belt. He is one lucky, beautiful little boy with so much joy and an adventurous spirit. I’m so proud to be his Grammie and to share the world with him.”
