Filed under: Dublin
So what would make going to see the Stone Roses outside even better? Going with the same person you would have gone with 20 years ago! So I was thrilled to learn that my old friend Janet was going to the show too. She reminded me that we had seen Happy Mondays together back in the day. And amazingly enough the good weather held out for the show. So we went with 45,000 of our best friends to see the show in Phoenix Park.
It was lucky that the weather was good –because no matter how you slice it – it was 2-3 miles to walk to the part of the park with the show, which is a fun walk if the weather is good but could have been miserable it if had been raining. The show was good – it could have been louder – but everyone was singing along and they played all of the top hits from back in the day!
Filed under: Dublin
The weather has been dicey at best this summer. So we hoped that we’d get some good luck for Aine’s birthday because I knew she’s want to go for a picnic at Sea Point, which has become a tradition. And luckily we did get a decent day for her birthday. We had a nice picnic with the whole family and then the girls and I went for a walk down the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire. We didn’t see any seals, which was too bad – but we had a really nice day. Celebrating your birthday in Ireland isn’t always the best – so I was glad that it worked out for Aine. And really we chose to celebrate over 3 days to make sure that we’d be able to get to the beach.
Filed under: Dublin
Our best event so far was the sneak preview of the Hack the City exhibit at the Science Gallery. I love the Science Gallery and the Hack the City is my favorite exhibit there yet! Maybe the coolest things about the exhibit is the list of events they are planning throughout the summer. One highlight for me is a discussion with Susan Crawford. But clearly that’s not what we saw on Thursday.
We saw an exhibit where various photographers attempted to take pictures in public places where security cameras were clearly marked and where there were security guards present. It was interesting to see the reactions of the security guards, which ranged from following the photographers to telling the photographers that they weren’t allowed to take pictures. The underlying question being – who has permission to photograph or not photograph public spaces?
There were a couple of graffiti-related exhibits. The girls got to make graffiti sheets in one – the other showed computerized recreations of famous graffiti artists.
There was a display from 3D printers, which was kind of cool. There were whole small scale villages made from the printer – the idea promote rapid prototyping – although not for products that require any great accuracy in specification. Still cool for early process product developments. I was talking to the student presenting the project and it seems like with Google Sketchup and a 3D printer you could go pretty far.
We saw flying drone, which were cool too. They had planned to fly them outside – but shock of shocks – weather would not permit. So they flew them in the auditorium. So they were flown manually (and opposed to via satellite) but it was still cool. Apparently the artists/scientists demonstrating the drones spent a good deal of time at Heathrow explaining them when they went back to London.
Many discussions are planned on use of public data, privacy and government transparency. I’m very excited!
Filed under: Dublin
One of the things I like about Dublin is the seemingly hundreds of events hosted around town. This last week we attended part of the Love Live Music day. There were all sort of bands playing in various locations around town. We caught a traditional band playing (Buffalo in the Castle) in Meeting House Square – which has been very fixed up in the last year. It is an open square – one of our favorite places to go on a Saturday for the market – but in the last year they have put up giant umbrella sort of things, which are perfect for keeping the incessant rain off for events.
We also saw a fun rap band on Curved Street. Unfortunately no one else in my family has any appreciation of new music. So our time there was short lived.
We didn’t really bring any good weather with us this year – at least not so far. It has rained pretty much every day. One day I sat in the kitchen inches away from the heater all day because I was freezing. But I guess you don’t some to Ireland for the weather. Although you’d hope that you wouldn’t be sad about leaving your mittens at home!
That being said, we’re tough and we’ve been talking lots of walks. We walk around the parks in Cabinteely. We walk down the pier in Dun Laoghaire. In fact (and I know this is meaningless to most readers) we walked from Dun Laoghaire to Cabinteely one day. And we’ve walked in town. And I’ve taken pictures are we’ve trekked.
So our first full day Patrick and I headed to Taste of Dublin – it’s a fun event in the Iveagh Gardens where lots of restaurants sell (and sometimes give) samples of their best dishes. We have a few years in the past. SO this was the worst weather we’ve experienced – but it did seem as if there were more free tiny tastes of food and drink. Especially tiny tastes of wine, which is fun. Also we connected with old friends – Karina and Bernie. I haven’t seen Bernie in almost 20 years. I worked for her at a cafeteria at Mother Redcap’s Market. It was fun to talk to her; I have always been amazed at how smart Bernie is especially in terms of current events. We spoke a lot of time talking about fracking.
On the way out of the event we got free drink tickets for some pub – so we got a bonus free sample in a pub that Bernie mentioned did not allow anyone over 25 in when they first opened. Apparently we were looking good or they have become less fussy.
Then Patrick and headed to Glasthule to catch the tail end of a Bloomsday Party. It was fun to walk around and see the James Joyce fans.
We spent one last day in Florida with Patrick’s family. I enjoy them very much – but there’s a lot of inertia going on with making a plan there. All I’ll say is Joe’s Crab Shack is never going to make my 10 Ten Must-See List in any city. (Partially because you can find them in any city.) But it was fun to talk to all of his family and celebrate his mom’s 80th birthday. Did I note – 80 years old and spent 10+ hours at Disney World?!
Saturday morning we got up very early and poured the kids into the car. We drove *all day*. It turns out that Tennessee and Kentucky are really pretty states. The mountains are beautiful. We stopped in Macon Georgia for lunch. I found someplace on Trip Advisor that was well noted for pizza. It was good – and fun not to go to a burger joint for a change.
Then I decided that we had to have a break of some sort and we stopped in Atlanta. We went to visit the Martin Luther King Jr History Center. It is amazing! I think I mentioned that Lily had been working on a paper on MLK and Malcolm X – so it was timely and we had all been talking about racism and life back in the 1960s. The Center is an emotional and inspiring place. They have a nice timeline of events in MLK’s life, which was helpful in talking to Aine about who MLK was. She knew who he was and knew about his assignation – but not so much about his life.
Also the whole area is peppered with quotes about nonviolence and standing up for what you believe. Obviously good lessons for everyone!
States visited: FL, GA, TN, KT, IN
States visited next day: IN, IL, MN!
We woke up in Pittsburgh. Kate realized that Dance Moms was filmed in Pittsburgh – so we took a detour, an unexpectedly long detour to the Abby Lee Dance Studio. Luckily for some of us it was closed – but it didn’t stop us from getting pictures. And I suspect it may be a trip highlight for some travelers. It was kind of interesting to drive through suburban Pittsburgh. There were lots of windy roads, pretty narrow roads and some nice houses and some not so nice houses. But it definitely didn’t feel like driving through Mac Groveland!
Then from Pittsburgh to Hershey PA. The World of Chocolate was fun. We started by making our personalized candy bars. We got to choose our flavors and design our labels. I realize that I was in the minority in choosing white chocolate (turns our white chocolate really isn’t chocolate – but it’s still my fave). It was fun to get an idea of the process of making a candy bar.
We took the free tour of the history of chocolate, which was cheesy but fun – and a perfect filler while we waited for our next activity – a chocolate tasting class. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting to learn as much. We learned that it takes about 10 days to make a regular Hershey bar – from field to wrapper. The darker chocolate and higher quality bars take longer. The Bliss chocolate takes 30 days to make. I was surprised how much I liked the darker chocolate when I took the time to taste it. Although really – white chocolate is still much better – to me.
From the Chocolate World we headed to Richmond. We drove near DC – but it was dark so we basked in the glory of being near DC and enjoyed dinner in a nearby suburb – then on to Richmond where we stayed in a super ritzy resort and conference center. (Thank you Priceline!)
One of the fun parts of the trips has been to see the different terrain as we drive. I took a few good pictures and have included them. And I learned that I shouldn’t live in the mountains – my ears were popping the whole time. I guess that’s the Great Plans upbringing.
State visited today: PA, MD, VA
Filed under: Dublin
It’s Sunday and we just enjoyed our last Sunday lunch of this trip. Fearghal – for years – has been so great to come out on Sundays *in a car*. When you don’t have a car, it’s really a treat to get out to see things that just aren’t accessible by foot, bus or train. Today we got to go to the lead mines. In the early 1800s the lead mines was a working lead mining and smelting center. Now it’sa tower that looms from the Dublin mountains. Patrick and I have tried to walk up to it – but it’s relaly just too far.
Anyways – we drove most of the way there – got to climb the last bit and the leadmine is very cool. There are stairs on the outside that lead to the top – now too many steps are broken to really climb up them, but they are cool. And the views are fantastic. One thing we kind of miss at home are the views. I just think it’s kind of amazing it being able to see certain things – like the leadmines, Bray head, smokestacks, ferris wheel and Howth from nearly all corners of Dublin.
Filed under: Dublin
The girls love a picnic! So on Saturday we trekked down to Kilmainham – one of the best gardens in Dublin. Patrick called it in the heart of Dublin – I might not go that far – but it’s pretty close to town. And it is beautiful. We had a nice picnic, walked through the gardens and popped into the Irish Museum of Modern Art. We saw a really interesting video by Orla Barry. Patrick doesn’t like modern art – but I drag the girls to a lot of modern and performance art stuff because I like it. Well it all paid off when I had to eventually drag them from a video by Orla Barry – about a man who wanted to live on an island and a girl who appeared to live in a cemetery.
After we walked into town along the Liffey. The Liffey can be a little rough looking in places – but it’s always a good walk.
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