Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Good evening everyone and Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yeah, I know that's the title, but hey, it does only come around once a day.

It might surprise you that I don't go and drink a whole lot on St. Patrick's Day -- I'll give you a second to pick your jaw off the floor. In fact, most of my day was pretty independent of the holiday. I did make sure to wear green, and I did end up going to Denny's to game with people in the area, but that was because it was Tuesday and we're on Spring Break, rather than the holiday.

What is nice about is that I can think back to fun memories of actually being in Ireland. My mom, sister & her husband, and I went to Ireland for a week one summer and it was a blast. My aunt had promised my sister and I trips after graduating from college, and so we combined the separate outings into one adventure.

What I really liked about the trip was that we completely planned it ourselves. We didn't have to worry about tracking down a tour bus at the risk of being left somewhere, we weren't as big of sore thumbs when it came to blending in (although I'm sure we stood out as tourists pretty quickly), and we could modify our adventure whenever we saw fit. Okay, we did have a pretty good plan, but at the same time, we could still go to a random beach during one of the longer drives or find a grocery store for a makeshift lunch.

We ended cramming a lot into the week, although our original plan was to drive across Ireland and part of the UK. I'm glad we pulled back, because we wouldn't have gotten a chance to spend extra time in Dublin, and a day in the Aran Islands and stuff like that. We also had very good timing because the weather was gorgeous (only remember one rainy day towards the end), and it was towards the beginning of the tourist season. As to be expected, some of the spots in Dublin were pretty packed, like the Guinness factory and Trinity College, but it still wasn't *that* bad.

I'd just like to point out that I'm glad I wasn't born 50 years ago because I can go back and look at the 200+ photos I posted on Flickr of the adventure. (Let me know if you would want the link to the album.) The album description says that we as a group took over 2100 photos that week! Ahh! Scanning through my photos, I had some pretty nice ones, while others weren't exactly thrilling, but they help piece the memories together. (Since I've been flying much more often since about a few years ago, it's weird to see Northwest Airlines, rather than Delta.)

I realize that it's Tuesday, which is usually Random Tuesday. So, in that spirit, here are 10 random memories from the Ireland trip:

1. Getting ready for the day and listening to Sesame Street in Gaelic

2. The first few cities we stayed in/visited were really into dolphins

3. I'm so glad I was not driving because we not only had to adjust to being on the left side of the road, but also with stone walls lining the narrow roads instead of anything like a ditch or shoulder

4. The boat that took us to Inis Mor (one of the Aran Islands) was named the Happy Hooker

5. From what I remember, brown mustard had quite the kick to it

6. At the Cliffs of Moher, there is a sign telling visitors to not walk past it because of the terrain. It is clearly ignored by many, many people.

7. Beyond the aforementioned sign, there may be some private land nearby for grazing animals, and that land may be separated by fences that may be electrified. Maybe.

8. Going on a pub crawl just won't be the same without the guides acting out scenes from literary classics.

9. I'd grade the GPS' performance as an A-... even though it lead us through some back roads to have us wind up behind a school bus at this random school (boarding?) in the middle of nowhere.

10. WE STAYED IN A CASTLE OUR FINAL NIGHT THERE! You could probably spend an entire day just walking the grounds.


Today is also Campfire Girls Day as a shout-out to all of the people involved with Girl Scouts. Just another reason why green is a good color to wear today!

DFTBA