Palm Trees, Jet Parts and the Emerald Island

According to the Virginia Pilot, "a tail section from an F-14 Tomcat discovered on a beach in Ireland came from an ocean-based plane that crashed 3½ years ago off Key West, Fla.". This article reminded me of one of my favorite vacations (My favorite was my honeymoon) back in 1999 when I traveled to Ireland with my buddy Scott, his wife Laurie and Laurie's entire family. One of the things that I learned while I was there was that on western coast of Ireland there are palm trees. Some of the palms were planted by man, but most of them grew naturally. When you first here about this, you start saying to yourself, how can palm trees grow on a island that is further north then NY state and how did the palm trees get there naturally?

Although Ireland is further north then NY, it actually is warmer because it has a marine climate...Much like Seattle, WA. The coldest average temperature in the winter is 38 degrees. So most of the year it doesn't get below freezing...Thus the palm trees survive. As far as how the palm trees got to Ireland naturally..Welll, all the coconuts do is hop onto the Gulf Stream "express" in Florida and the current takes them north, north east to Ireland...And thus Palm Trees in Ireland.

So when I read about part of a plane winding up in Ireland after it crashed off the coast of Florida, I really wasn't surprised...I just wished I was back in Ireland again. Some day I knowI'lll go back and I'm sure Charlotte and Chris will love it as much as I did.