Thanksgiving! Last year, Thanksgiving was a bit too busy for me to fly back to the United States… classes, and general insanity, conspired to keep me in Dublin. Which, frankly, was a perfectly lovely time with friends and classmates. 2025, however, had none of those challenges… and thus, saw Andrea and I winging our way to New England for a well-deserved holiday…

Monday, 24-November-2025

We just flew from Ireland to the United States… so why would we be getting on another plane so quickly?

I mean, why not, first off.

Second off – we had to fly to Portland! Maine, not Oregon, unfortunately.

But there was nothing unfortunate about this – Andrea and I got to meet up with Daniel, hop in a small single-engine prop plane, and toodle around the East Coast for a bit of an adventure. A chance for Daniel and I to catch up, a chance for Andrea to see the sights, and a chance for all three of us to have some delicious grilled cheese up in Maine… while also earning Daniel a few extra flight hours in the process.

Ohh, and also causing a multi-plane search for an emergency transponder.

Yeah… We’re still not sure how that switch got bumped… Honestly, it was a funny whole thing: throughout the flight up, we kept hearing radio chatter about an emergency transponder that was going off nearby. Planes and ATC were searching for it, people (passively, thankfully) working to triangulate where it was. It was challenging, almost as if it was moving… But no matter – we flew, we landed, and we went into town.

Then Daniel got a call. The beacon seemed to be coming from our plane. Could they enter and turn it off?

… Shit.

Thankfully all went well – no issues or hassle, as far as I’m aware. Just a funny story to add to an otherwise absolutely lovely day.

… Ohh and Daniel and I wore butterfly wings after dinner. We were glorious.