Ireland, Part 1

We’re home from our trip to Ireland, safe and sound. Wow, am I wiped out though. Time changes will do that to you. That and a terrible cold. Thank you recycled air.


I’m a little overwhelmed from this trip and honestly, not quite sure how to begin to describe the beauty of this little island country. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the landscape seemed to get greener as the week went on. Everyone laughed at me when I took a drink of water out of the tap and yelled, “The water even tastes green!”

So, yes, our flight(s) out there went off without a hitch. Our plane had screens built into the seats and they had a pretty decent selection of new release movies to watch. I watched Black Swan then took a couple of Benadryl and fell asleep. We landed at 7am and once we got our luggage, hopped on a shuttle over to the rental car place.

Have you ever been in a car that has the steering wheel on the passenger side? And then driven that car on the “wrong” side of the road? Through 7 or 10 “roundabouts,” trying to make your way out of the airport? At 7am, after hours of travel and Benadryl? Oh no, you haven’t?

I felt like we were in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, trying to get out of the roundabout. After the nice woman on the GPS said for the 5th time, “Enter Roundabout,” I had a fit of the giggles and couldn’t stop. Slap happy.

You don't realize how much driving is kind of an "automatic" thing until everything you ever thought about it was wrong.

We found the place where we were going to be staying but unfortunately couldn’t check in until 2 pm, so we went and had breakfast. Nothing special, just food in our bellies. Next we found a grocery store where Country and I proceeded to get into an argument over a pineapple. Don’t ask—I’m not even sure why we were fighting over a pineapple, but at that point everyone was tired and crabby and we just wanted to get unpacked and relax. I actually slept in the car for a couple of hours while it was parked right in front of a busy hotel and I was just too darn tired to even move the car. Finally, 2 o’clock came and we checked in.


We stayed in a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse.

The place was a decent size and it had a washing machine and a small fridge. We unpacked our groceries and then everyone tried to take a nap; some of us had better luck than others.

For dinner that night, we walked over to a local pub called Durty Nelly’s. We had fish and chips and it was fabulous. Something about their batter is different than here---it’s light and flaky and not so heavily breaded.  Now here's we need to talk about beer for a second.  You see, I am not a beer drinker.  Never have been and probably never will be (unless I move to Ireland.)  Before we left, several people told me that I must try the Guinness while there.  Yeah, okay, whatever.  But just for fun, I had a Guinness here in the states before we left so that I had a reference point.  It was just okay to me.  But WOW!  Guinness in Ireland is a whole 'nother story!  It is delicious!  Don't believe me?

The next day we got a late start (there is a 5 hour time difference) and jumped in the car. We headed to a tourist spot called the Cliffs of Moher. 

Beautiful, right?  Afterwards, we went to a town called Ennis and had some lunch (and also the best red berries tea I have ever had in my life.)

Wednesday we slept late again (well, considering the time difference, we actually woke early) and got out of the house at about 11 am.  Before we left for Ireland, I had purchased a book called The Backroads of Ireland or something like that.  We knew we wanted to head towards the coast and in the book there was a picture of an old stone mill on the way to Killinabaoy that we thought looked pretty cool.  Country drove us over there and when we got there, we realized that attached to the mill there was a house where someone obviously lived.  Oh, and a Private Property sign.  We were bummed out. . . .until Country talked to worker on a neighbor's roof that said the man who owned the mill was nice and we should go knock on the door.  And that he had a really, really big dog.

We ended up chatting with the owner, Dick, for a couple of hours and had coffee, tea and bisucts with him in the house!  To say he was a pleasure meeting would be a complete understatement.

More to come. . . .

Happy New Year

I've been thinking about this post for a few days now.  I thought about posting about the highlights of the past year, listing my resolutions; you know--a new year, fresh start and all of that.  But I really just want to recap the past couple of weeks, ummmkay?  So here are a few tidbits.

1. In my dark cloud of pregnancy woes (or rather, lack of pregnancy woes), I failed to announce the arrival of a new little bambino in the family.  Yes, Brother # 2, Neil and my sister-in-love Gina have a new little bundle of awesomeness.  His name is Leo and he is perfect.  Throughout the pregnancy, they thought they were going to name him Kyle, but once they saw him, the did not think he looked like a Kyle.  Where the name Leo came from is anyone's guess, but I like it.  On a side note--I am pretty sure that if or when I become pregnant and Country and I pick out names, I will probably want to keep them to myself.  It seems everyone has an opinion and expecting women do not want to hear that you knew a kid in 4th grade with that name that beat you up on the playground.  Moving on, I am super happy for them.

2.)  I just finished reading this book: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

In a nutshell, we all have 168 hours per week and it poses the question:  Are we using those 168 hours the best ways we can?  Obviously we need to work, eat, sleep, perhaps take care of children.  But after that, this book makes us think about how we really want to fill those remaining hours.  Do we really want to be scrubbing the toilet every Saturday, or is there a better way?  In this new year I intend to apply what I learned from this book; that I want to spend more time exercising, reading, meeting up with friends and family, and crafting.  Some ways that I can put this into motion is by bringing my reading to work.  I get an hour for lunch and usually am done eating after about 15-20 minutes.  Usually I wander around the Internet aimlessly for the remaining time but if I bring my books and magazines with me, I can squeeze in some extra reading.  I also recently bought an elliptical machine.  I know that I am not a morning exercise person, mainly because my long hair is a pain to dry so I usually like to shower at night.  I am now making a date with myself to exercise when I get home from work at least 3 times a week. 

3.)  Weeds is our new obsession.  Country and I recently downgraded our cable and signed up for Netflix.  At the suggestion of my co-worker, I started watching Weeds from Season 1.  I think this has to be one of the best shows I have ever seen.  Country agrees.  We have been having Weeds marathons, watching hours at a time.  Good think the elliptical is parked in front of the TV!  Oh, and for New Years?  You betcha, we watched while bringing in the new year.

4.)  And finally . . . .we're going to Ireland!  This has been a dream of mine since before I can remember (and especially since I watched the movie P.S. I Love You).  Well, a couple of weeks ago a package deal came up on my favorite website, Travelzoo.  It was such a good deal.  Across town, my dad had mentioned to my mom how much he wanted to go to Ireland.  After my mom fell off her chair and got back up, she told him that there was a deal posted that very day.  So, Country and I are going with my mom and dad!  We leave at the end of March, so it will still be cool there, but hey, we're not going there to hang out at the beach. 

So now, off to read a book about Ireland while I work out on the elliptical.  Happy New Year everyone.

Roughin' It 2010

We had  big plans to head out west to Colorado.  Just the two of us. . .hiking, exploring, having a good time.  But then life, and namely Justices' cancer got in the way and we had to scrap our plans.  We know our time with him is limited so we couldn't bear the thought of being away from him for any longer than necessary.

But really, who would want to leave this little Chocolate love for a week and a half?  Not me!  Not Country. 

We decided to pack up the RV (no, not ours unfortunately!) and head out on a six day adventure with our favorite canine companions.

I mean, what dog doesn't love to camp?  Outside for hours and hours, lots of walks and hikes, hot dogs and marshmallows. . . .

. . . . . .or their regular food in their Fiestaware bowls.  But it tastes better because they're outside eating it!!

And hanging out with Mom and Dad. . . . .



Okay, okay, here's a nice picture where we're not acting goofy:

Pay no attention to the "Leisure Travel" printed on the RV.  I mean, we were roughin' it.  Keeping it real.  No comfy bead to lie our weary heads.  No air conditioning.  No running water or flat screen TV to snuggle up in front of late at night, after the campfire died down. 

Do you believe me?

You don't?

Well, believe this--Turkey Run is Bee-you-tee-full.  I mean, straight up awesome.

How cool is this cabin?!  Look at the size of those logs!

Country attempted to carve our names in this tree but didn't come equipped with the right knife.  Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Me, just sitting on a rock. 

Country is our navigator.  Always.  Trust me.  I try, really I do, but maps look like a foreign language to me.

What a show off.  I kept telling him he did not have to move mountains, or trees, or whatever to be with me; that his love was enough. 

I wished my picture did this justice.

From there, we headed slightly east, over to Cayuga, IN.  We stopped in and visited with some friends who recently had a beautiful baby boy. 

I don't really know this couple all that well. . . .we've only met a handful of times, but by the time Country and I left their house, I felt like I had new family members.  I love when that happens. 

The boys went exploring while she and I hung around the house with the baby.  Of course, they requested that we take some pics with them and their toys. 

What's that saying?  Boys will be boys?  Oh yeah, I think that's it.

I assure you that these gentlemen have very high safetly standards when it comes to their guns.

Then we took some "serious pictures" out in their backyard.  (5 acres!!!  I want 5 acres!!)

This is one of the best behaved babies I have ever seen.

A tree swing!  Eeek!

Then we loaded up our camping equipment  selves in the RV and headed a bit north to

Prophetstown State Park. 

Justice was ready to go.

So, instead of the woods, Propetstown was pretty much mostly prairie.  Which means that I took 4,590 pictures of wildflowers and butterflies with my new camera.  I mean, a girls' gotta practice, right? (And besides, I already have 5,692 pictures of the dogs so it was nice to have a change in subject matter).

I'll spare you all but a couple of prairie pics.

I have always had a fascination with butterflies. . . . beautiful, right?

I'm gonna level with you.  This next picture makes me kind of sad.  Don't get me wrong, I love the picture, but that leaf was a big 'ol reminder that the sun is almost setting on summer.

Well, it certainly wasn't Colorado but we sure did love our little trip.