Our Flight Back & Reflections 6/28

We got up at 5am to get ready and catch our Taxi by 6am.  The hotel called a "large" Taxi for us, so that we could fit our suitcases and all four of us.  The driver was there early and was very helpful.  There was no traffic so we made it to the airport in good time, easily there by 6:30am.

We were wondering why it had been recommended that we get there 3 hours ahead of time, when even in the US, it was generally ok to get there 2 hours ahead, especially since you don't go through customs until you get to the country.

Well we found out.... first the US Air counter took quite a while to get through that line.  Security the first time was very quick, I didnt even have to take off my shoes!  But then as we headed to the gate, we noticed we didnt have a gate number yet, and found an area that said "USA Prescreening"  Eric decided to check it out, and it looked oddly like a customs area.  Sure enough, we were supposed to go through customs at the airport in Ireland!  If that wasnt odd enough, we went through customs, they had photos of our bags, asked us a question or two, and sent us through... to ANOTHER security checkpoint... at this one, we didnt go through a personal screener (no metal detector or puffer) but they scanned our bags again, and this time we had to take off our shoes!  Bizzare!  None of it really made much sense... but I guess it was nice that we wouldnt have to pick up our bags and go through customs when we got to NC.  We made it to our gate with plenty of time, and our plane boarded on time, though left about 15 minutes late.

I have to say, overall I was disappointed in US Air.  Once we got to our cruising altitude, they spent a good 15 minutes on the speakers pitching their dividend miles mastercard... ugh how annoying.  Then they try and sell you $5 headphones for a previewed movie that they never showed.  Eric found a way around it though... if you bring two sets of headphones, you can actually get stereo audio!!

Not sure what you do with the extra earbuds though! :)

The food was actually not terrible this time Dennis & Dad were brave enough to try the chicken, Eric & I just went for the pasta, and both were actually decent for airplane food.  They did come around with water a fair amount, and we got two "meals" on the 7.5 hour flight.  But then 45 minutes before we landed, they cut out in the middle of the movie that was being shown (the second movie, but still not the one previewed), and never turned it back on.  I asked a stewardess, and she didnt seem to know it even happened or care at all.  Ahh well!  In the end, it was a decent flight, and we were happy to be on the leg of our trip headed home.

The last leg (NC to Boston), along with the T-ride and even the drive home from my car parked in Draper all went smoothly!  It was a little rough playing suitcase tetris again (trying to fit all our bags in my civic!), but Eric finally managed to make it all work :)

Overall it was an amazing trip, and had it not been so expensive, and had we had the vacation time or been retired, I would have loved to stay two months.  Oddly, even with all we did, I wasnt antsy to get home.  Sure we missed shadow & scrambles, but the trip was so amazing, we easily could have stayed longer.  Between the Irish Hospitality, and the shear beauty of the entire country, it was just amazing.  I need to check with the rest of the crew, but here are my initial impressions:

Favorite Part of the Trip:  Visiting Family!!  They were so much fun & so welcoming!

 Favorite Ruins: Ballycarberry Castle Ruins on the Ring of Kerry

Best Pub: Porterhouse Brewery in Dublin

Best Non-Irish Bar: Kiwi's in Portrush

 Favorite Meal: Max's Wine Bar in Kinsale

Best B&B Baked Goods: CloonLara Lodge B&B in Swinford
Best B&B Host: Eamon - CloonLara Lodge B&B in Swinford

 Best B&B Hostess: Rachel - Beulah Guest House in Portrush

Best B&B Brown Bread: Cois Li B&B in Tralee

And... I'll have to add more later :)

A huge thanks to Becca for checking on the cats while we were gone, as well as Sandy (& Jody & Sarah?!) for checking on them and the garden while we were gone!!  Everything was great when we got home (Shadow was definitely a little scared & missed us a lot, but is good now!).  We are working on adjusting back to real time!  Thanks to all who read the blog!!  I hope you enjoyed the photos & sharing our memories!

Our Last Day in Dublin! 6/27

It was so hard to decide how to spend our last day in Dublin.  On one hand, there was so much we could do!  On the other, there was so much we HAD done, and wanted to just relax a bit before we headed home... since some part of a vacation should FEEL like vacation! :)

So we decided to do a little of A and a little of B!  We figured we would spend the morning seeing a few more sights, and a little of the afternoon doing some gift shopping, and then relax a while before dinner.   So we met for our usual breakfast, and then hopped the Green Bus to take to St Patrick's Cathedral.

Along the way, I got this great photo of Christ's Church:

Then we made it to St Patrick's.  As we entered, they told us we were welcome to take photos, but the strangest thing was as soon as you walked in, the back of the church was set up as a giant gift shop!  I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it since it was so odd.  This beautiful cathedral, that was still used as a cathedral, and here they sold key chains, shot glasses, postcards, CD's, sheep pens, good luck charms, etc!!  Seriously?!?!  Anyways, I attempted to ignore it and headed down through the cathedral, which was incredibly beautiful.

They had these little kneeling cushions on the back of every chair, and every single one looked handmade and was completely original!

Next we headed outside to check out the little park and see the church from the outside. 

 My dad and I wondered if the fountain in the park was actually the photo he had taken 38 years ago in Ireland that I had done in the pen & inkwash here, but it looks like the fountains were different.

But a little research later (and perhaps I should have done this before we went!) and it looks like it was St. Stephen's Green Fountain.

Next we hopped back on the Green Bus and headed for the Jail.  They told a lot about the revolution and had some great stories of the prisoners.  It was an excellent tour, and definitely had some sad stories, but you could tell how proud the Irish were of gaining their independence, especially since it was fairly "recent" history.

Towards the end, seeing the desolate hallways, children's "play yard" where they were allowed to get exercise by walking in a circle, or place where the prisoners were executed, were all very sobering realities.

We considered wrapping up with the Jameson Distillery Tour, but we were all a bit tired and very hungry, so we figured it was time to grab some lunch and get some of the shopping done.  We ended up hitting up a little place on Grafton Street, where I got a salmon & broccoli tart, Eric got the beef stew, my dad got a cajun chicken panini and Dennis got the shepards pie.

After that we hit up Grafton street and went through a ton of the touristy shops with all the tshirts, sheep gear, hats, guiness novelties, glasses, mugs, you name it... I had almost given up on finding anything other than some of the fun/corney stuff until we stumbled on Avoca.  It immediately made me think of Kati... it's like an Irish Anthropology!!  They had a ton of stuff that was made in Ireland... everything from sweaters to blankets to food items, and it was all really nice quality stuff.  Plus they had a cafe on the top floor, and a bakery with prepared foods on the bottom floor!!  I had wanted to come here for lunch, but the prices were a bit steep... if only they were open around dinner time!

Shopping pretty much complete (I never did find an actual Dublin Shot Glass), we headed back to our hotel to relax for a couple of hours before dinner.

I made reservations at the Pig's Ear, as it came highly recommended in several guidebooks, and Dennis had seen it recommended on yelp as well.  Dinner was amazing!  It was a bit pricey, but well worth it.  In their little dining room, we split the chicken terrine for an appetizer.  The apricot jam it came with was amazing!

For the main course, Eric & Dennis got the ribeye, I got the duck breast, and my dad got the pork belly.  We all could have licked our plates (boards!) clean!!  My dad wasn't as much of a fan of his pork belly as I was, but he said it was decent.  I loved it, the spices were amazing, and all of our meats were so perfectly cooked!

For dessert, my dad & dennis ordered the raspberry cheesecake and the brownbread ice cream.  They both came in adorable little jars, and my dad's came with this honeycomb almost cotton candy type crunch that was amazing!!

We loved it!! Great meal to finish the trip on!

On the way back I took a few more photos of the scenes from the Trinity College area...

Eric & I finished up the Jameson & Ginger Ale, finished our packing, and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour so we could get up bright and early the next day...

Our Evening in Dublin 6/26

We met downstairs in our hotel to head out for dinner.  The Trinity Capital has these gigantic chairs in the entrance that look like Alice in Wonderland Chairs, so I made the boys pose for a photo!

We wandered down towards Temple Bar, hoping to find O'Shea's - a pub rated with decent reviews, but after walking over a mile, we didnt find it and decided to head through Temple Bar to see what we could find.  We stumbled on O'Riely's and were pretty hungry, so decided to give it a try.

Eric's chicken was definitely really good, though it was supposedly stuffed with brown bread, and that was not very obvious.  I ordered a chicken pasta that was supposed to be in a Tomato Basil Sauce, but it turned out to be more of a vodka sauce (tomato cream). My dad ordered the Rosemary lamb, and while not cooked the medium rare requested, it definitely had a good flavor, and the potatoes were my favorite part of the meal.  Not amazing, but not a bad meal... though we decided to head somewhere else for drinks & dessert!

Next we took a wander through Temple Bar, and ran into the actual Temple Bar!

We walked back towards the water, and wandered the street along the water hoping to find Maguires, another brewpub Eric had found.  We ended up finding it on our way back, though the service and microbrews turned out less than notable. There is definitely an advantage to having servers "work" for their tips! I guess there was a reason it didnt make the guidebook.

And as we got close to our hotel, I took this shot of the Trinity Capital Sign...