Off to Donegal!

Another weekend, another adventure in Irish car rentals as tomorrow we are off to the very Northwest of Ireland to take advantage of the bank holiday on Monday. They say the roads in County Donegal are among the worst in Ireland, so it's sure to be a good time zipping down the one-lane roads.

I must be a good Mets fan - I stayed up until 4am last night watching the game because it went 12 innings and I couldn't pull myself away to go to sleep. Tough life this Dublin.

We'll let you know how the trip went when we get back and we'll put up a few pics (only if it doesn't rain the whole time).

New Pictures

We put off putting up new pics since we've been taking pictures constantly (or at least it sounds like a solid excuse) but I just put up some for your enjoyment. It starts off with my parents trip to Dublin, which my mom thinks I didn't write enough about. I figured I was doing my parents a solid favor, instead of recounting night after night of carrying them out of bars and their 3 am kebab binging habits. In all seriousness, we had a great time and they brought terrific weather with them. And then they even got a chance to visit England and Scotland!

The rest of the pics include a visit from our friends Tim and Tom, then Julie and Renessa, then Amanda, and now Susan who will be here until Saturday. We've been quite the weekend warriors, making trips to Cork, Kinsale, Cobh, Clonakilty, and Cashel, and then last weekend out to Galway again where we did the tour of Connemara and saw Kylemore Abbey. Enjoy the pics! I'm off to watch the Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skynyrd13/VisitorsGalore

Global Warming Danger!!!

There must be some sort of catastrophic weather patterns happening because Spring has finally come to Ireland, or Dublin at least. The past week has been absolutely gorgeous, with basically no clouds and even warm enough temperatures that you can go outside without a jacket. It only took about 8 months but we'll take it! My parents got to enjoy the weather (or maybe they brought it with them) and we took some nice day trips to the Botanic Gardens and to Howth, a fishing village on a peninsula north of Dublin (as always, pictures will follow).

We've been real busy with guests these last few weeks, and we have another arriving today, Melissa's friend Amanda. After work today we're heading up to Dublin Airport to pick up a rental car and then making a weekend trip down south to Cork and Kinsale and wherever the windy, single lane roads take us. We'll have a whole batch of pictures to post next week, so be sure to check back.

I received a scare this morning when I got the free local newspaper and the front page headline screamed "END OF AN ERA?", saying there was a significant announcement coming from the company that makes Guinness. The speculation was they were going to close down St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin and open a new factory in the west of the city. Fear not, at least not yet, but Guinness is only closing part of St. James Gate and they are still going to open the new factory. Maybe this is the first step to moving all operations out of St. James Gate, so you all better come out here and visit it while you can!