Filed under: Minneapolis
OK I’ve been a total slug about the blog since we’ve been home. Partially because I’ve been so busy with work; partially because it’s about 400 degrees here and we have no air conditioning and that does not lend to computer work. But I’m in the car and have a chance to catch up…
The Walker! We have been there a few times in our month home. They have really great activities. Aine, Kate and I went one Saturday morning to make our 3D map additions. The Walker was creating a big 3D map in the field next to the gallery. Kate and Aine each created pigs from the State Fair, which we then got to post on the map.
A different day we went to see some bands outside. It was produced by the Walk Teen Council, but there were a few families. We had fun playing with the hula hoops and thing in the outdoor space. The girls even participated in a big art project where Aine and Kate answered question about their community and told about a place they wanted to go. Kate said Cost Rica, which was no surprise. Aine said Pennsylvania. The was news to us.
We also got to hike around the Sculpture Gardens with our cousin Will – well really Will is maybe the girls’ second cousin, or cousin once removed but we’re going with cousin.
Filed under: Chicago
We’re in Chicago. Woo hoo! So on Tuesday we headed out to Millennium Park, one of our favorite places in Chicago. We started with a tour of the Taste of Chicago. We had ribs, cookies, popcorn, hotdogs, homemade potato chips, dumplings, tacos and more. We saw a hotdog eating contest at the Man Vs Food booth. We watched some Cajun cooking at the chef’s table. It was fun.
Then we went over the BP Bridge to the Park. We saw an orchestra – well, to be fair, we heard an orchestra, we didn’t really see them. Then we went to the bean and finally the water portion. The kids were a little miffed that they weren’t wearing their swim suits but they got over it and didn’t get too wet.
Eventually, despite the pig-out earlier in the day, we got hungry and walked up to Greek Town. We had a very fun dinner, including flaming cheese – two rounds of it! The restaurants in Greek Town are maybe the best places to bring a family in the world. It started with free kiddie cocktails, moving onto lots of flaming food, more bread than anyone should be allowed and ending with the super quick service.
Filed under: Dublin
Our last night in Dublin the girls met their friends at Cabinteely Park (the big park near the house). It was fun to see everyone, but sad. The girls have made some good friends were sad about leaving them.
Filed under: Dublin
On our last day in Dublin we had lunch on a boat (La Peniche) on the Grand Canal. The day was absolutely perfect – super sunny, not too hot, but warm. There were 10 of us, our gang, Shay and Rochelle, Mikey, Irish Grandma and Fearghal. We all ate upstairs in the sunshine.
They don’t usually cruise down the canal on Sunday, but we got lucky and they made an exception. It was so much fun to see how the boat moves through the various locks and dams. It’s a system of getting through one door, closing it until the canal fills with water, then going out the other door where the canal seems to run higher. (I know high doesn’t make much sense but that’s what it seems like.) Also we got to cruise under very low bridges. I think even Aine could touch the top/bottom of the bridge as we went under.
The food was gorgeous! I had duck pâté and sea bass. (In other words fancy food.)
Then we had some excitement towards the end of the meal. We were docked. There was another family on the boat. They had two girls about age 8. They were running around the boat and one of them fell in. Luckily her sister screamed. I started to run down the stairs but Shay jumped off the boat unto the land and was able to reach her in the water.
The water wasn’t super deep. She appeared to be able to stand or swim well enough but it was scary. I suspect the greatest real danger would be that she would get crushed between the boat and the dock. Also the captain said it was lucky that it hadn’t happened at we went through the locks since the water there would have been too deep to do anything. Since everything turned out OK it just added to the excitement of the day.
Filed under: Dublin
While many of the O’Donnell’s were in town we hiked up Killiney Hill and down to Killiney beach…
Filed under: Dublin
We were busy in our last week in Dublin. Patrick and I went to see two plays. First – Bookworms; it’s the story of a book club that invites the husbands to join one month. I loved it. It was very funny. It’s kind of how you would imagine a book club with boys – well if your book club actually discussed the books. In fairness, the book discussion happened off the stage, which is kind of what happens in my book club. It’s also a look at post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.
The second show we saw was more closely and obviously a commentary on post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. It was called Outsiders and was more of a monologue by David McWilliams. He’s an economist. And not to kill the ending but my favorite parts were when he talked about the economy of the good room. The idea being that everyone in Ireland grew up with a good room – the room that was way too good for family but where you had to sit when old relatives, priests or other important people came to visit. (In fairness, I think it exists in the US too but more in a grandma’s house.) Well the problem was that idea of the good room or keeping up appearances led the diplomats in Ireland to keep a façade of being able to afford the good times for longer than they really were.
He throws out a solution of encouraging Irish creativity and entrepreneurial spirit and relying on the Irish diaspora living all over the world to promote Ireland and Irish businesses.
Filed under: Dublin
One of my favorite things about the girls school here is the impromptu events. The principal went to hear Lily’s class sing in French She enjoyed it so much she decided the parents should be invited to invited to a concert the following week.
Nothing beats a 20 minute concert that features your kid in every song!!
Filed under: Dublin
Patrick went to a bunch of events at the Dalkey Book Festival – such is the life of the full time student. I managed to get to a one talk. It was fun – and we met up with some friends of Patrick after the event. SO that was definitely fun. Also we went on Sunday morning to the general events. We even got a painting.
On the way to the event we walked through a hotel with a host of Angels – which accounts for most of the pictures.
Filed under: Dublin
One of our favorite things in Dublin is the Street Performer Festival – and the weather this weekend was amazing. We went to the Festival both days. Our highlights were the break dancers and the quick change artists, which we had seen on American’s Got Talent. The were kind of fun on TV – but amazing live. We were very close – as you can see from the video and I still don’t know how they could change so quickly. It was great.
There was a big world record set during the festival – the 1550 people on hippity hops. Sadly we were not a part of it. Patrick’s brothers are heading to town so I sort of knew we would have a difficult time getting there on time – but that was OK. It was packed so it was probably more relaxing to not be bouncing.
Instead of the hippity hops, we went to the Garden of Lights, which was a big structure almost like a bouncy castle but with tons of light coming through. The pictures from in there were very fun. If the girls become rock star we’re ready with their album covers. There structure was created by 5 French architects; there are a handful of similar structures touring for the summer. This was the smallest. It’s funny how relaxing it felt inside.
We did some of the art projects and played a ton of the wooden games, which was fun too. The best thing about the festival is the size. There are 11 stage areas, a giant whale, the Garden of Lights all centered around Merrion Square.
Filed under: Dublin
Last weekend we had a fun and eclectic day. It started with Shakespeare in the Park – well it was light on Shakespeare but it was a perfect day for a picnic. After the picnic we headed to Thailand Day at the Chester Beatty behind the Dublin Castle. The dancing was very impressive and they were giving out free food – ribs and sticky rice. What could be better!
That night Patrick and I went to the Taste of Dublin in the Iveagh Gardens (in other words, outside). It was a ton of fun. It was expensive but loads of good food and wine. It was a glimpse of a demographic that has not been hit by the recession – or at least had chosen to forget it for the night. Lots of champagne and strawberries – or mojitos.
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