Ok, here is the story of my winning a trip to Ireland!
Around St. Paddy's Day, some advertisements started popping up in my news feed on facebook (as I love all things Irish) and I noticed a couple that said "Win a trip for 2 to Waterford" in Ireland and as much as I don't like giving out my info to contests, I dearly wanted to see Ireland somehow and I figured it was worth the risk to possibly win a trip there. You can't win if you don't enter right? So I went to the site and you were asked why you wanted to win the trip as part of your ballot. So I went on about our Irish backgrounds, our 6 kids, of which every other (2nd, 4th and 6th) have red hair and freckles and even our email address has 'reddyclan' in it; proof of our love of our Irish heritage! Well, it got me noticed! I received an email from the Waterford Gathering telling me that I was a gold ticket finalist and would I agree to be interviewed on their local radio station WLRFM! I was nervous but said yes. I'm a shy thing you know ; ) So we did an interview and then I waited till the draw date. It was in April and they called me and said would I be on the phone for the live draw. I figured the six finalists were on the phone so when they came on and said "Hello!" I waited for others to answer but it was just me and they told me that I had been drawn out of the hat and had won! I said "No!" and they assured me I had! And so I started corresponding over email with the project manager for The Waterford Gathering and we planned the trip! We visited in June as all the info I looked up on the best time to come over said June. The Gathering had a few things lined up for us to do and to choose from and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it but it all passed to quickly. Now I'm left longing for more! We are now personal friends with the project manager, having spent a little time with him during our trip! I'm constantly badgering him with my many questions about Ireland ; )
So that's the story and I will share some of my itinerary with you and some pictures. You can also see some of our trip at: http://www.waterfordgathering.com/news/title,34706,en.html