Toady we’re making on our way back to Dublin. First I have to give props to some of the best traveling kids in the world. It’s one thing to travel in a car all day (which I fully admit is where we would fall down) it’s another to go from town to town via trains, boats and buses. We started the day in Edinburgh; we were sad to leave but all felt like it was a great vacation.
We took a morning train to Glasgow (about an hour) and had lunch in Glasgow. We had lunch, went to the Museum of Modern Art, saw the Firth of Clyde, saw some great pipes and bags buskers and got back on the train a little earlier than necessary. Glasgow is a very different city from Edinburgh. Now part of it may be the areas we visited but I don’t really think so. As Lily said it’s like Glasgow is the evil city and Edinburgh is the good city. That doesn’t mean we didn’t like it. It was just a very astute observation.
So we left Glasgow and headed to Ayr – where we found our we’d have 2 hours before the next train to Stanraer, where we could get the boat. So we got to see a little of Ayr. We walked through the town and ended up on the beach, which was really the place where the River Ayr enters the sea. So it’s very sandy, shallow beach. Patrick sat by the bags – I forgot to mention that each of us had a carry on type bag, mostly carrying our favorite electronics – and we had one genuine e suitcase for the 5-day visit. (Not bad – but gets heavy when you’re walking aimlessly through the third city of the day.) The girls and I walked on the beach. It was a beautiful day. The girls were barefoot. They found a live hermit crab in the water and several dead crabs on the beach.
We hung out there just long enough to have to walking very quickly back to the train. Then a quick (90 minute) train, (2 hour) boat, (3 hour) bus and taxi later we got home at 2:00 am! But if I had to do it all over again I would – I would just pack less!
I nearly forgot – the last picture is of the wake from the boat as we launched. I thought it was amazing to see.
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Well the toughest thing about coming back to Ireland after 10 days back home is coming back to the cold. At least it was nice and sunny and probably I would have thought it was warm except that it’s 80 degrees back home and now I know it.
For Easter Uncle Fearghal brought us all to the Hungry Monk in Greystones, which is a little town/suburb on the sea about 30 minutes from Cabinteely. If you’re ever in Greystones, you should check it out. The name actually comes from a cookbook, but they have monk paraphernalia all around the restaurant. The restaurant itself is like a converted country house. We had profiteroles that were nearly as good as Uncle Billy’s. The big girls shared scallops. After lunch we took a quick walk along the beach.
Hello, Our mom is in mn. We have done some things while she was gone. 1) We went to the national leprachaun musem. When you walked in there you went through a tunnell that was like supposed to make you feel like you shrank in to leprachaun size. Then you walked under the giants causeway. Which was cool only a little boring. Then you went to this room with GIANT furniture. It had a giant love seat and giant table and chairs that you could climb on. Then this room with a map of ireland and told like where in ireland faries lived and so on. then you went through the rain room. This room was a little cheap. It was just a room with umbrellas stuck everywhere. then the rainbow. This was a hallway with multi colored strings hanging from the ceiling that you ran through. Then of course the pot of gold at theend. Which was a tiny pot of gold painted rocks. Then an orange room. It was like a celtic tiger room or something. Then a hallway with a story on the wall and trees on the otherside of the wall. Then it ended with a room where they told stories and you could draw pictures. 2) We also went to my dance recital. It was it Johnstown (my school). 3) We have seen LOADS of movies and flown tons of kites.4) Ate at a restaraunt called seapoint which has the best french fries ever!
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I don’t think I’ve mentioned the Google Sketchup class yet. Kate and I went one Saturday. It was run by The Walker but held at the University of Minnesota. Google Sketchup “is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like.”
It’s surprisingly easy to use – especially if you have any ability to appreciate 3D. (I don’t feel like I’ll all that good in 3D, but Kate was.) We ended up creating 3D pictures of dream homes in the class.
Also it was fun to hang out on the U of M campus. It is huge! The buildings are huge the campuses are huge. We walked around a little bit. We walked by the Weisman Art Galley and over to the West Bank. We walked over the Mississippi, near where the 35W Bridge went down. We were able to see pieces of the bridge that they are apparently trying to put together. (You can see the picture.) It’s a little creepy but kind of amazing to see how they can recreate the bridge.
Finally we saw a wild turkey. I tried to get Kate to get near it for a picture, but she wouldn’t. I was able to get a picture of the turkey though.
Over the weekend the girls and I went to Nelson’s pumpkin patch in Litchfield. It’s our second annual trip. We love it.
Grandpa and I love the pumpkin chucker flinger thinger – a trebuchet they use to catapult pumpkins into the lake. I have included 2 video because it’s so much fun to watch.
The girls loved the baby kittens and the carts. We have a picture of the carts; they are kind of like soapbox cars. You ride them down the hill. They were fun.
We took a hay ride aroudn the fields. The girls got to swing in the hayloft, which looked like fun too. They fed animals, had hippity hop races, climed up hay stacks, participated in the farm olympics and more. It’s treally kind of amazing how many very simple thing they have at the farm and how much fun a kid can have. We thought we’d be there for 2 hours; we were there for 4.
On the way home we popped in to see the world’s largest ball of twine and the the girls’ greatgrandparents’ grave in Darwin.
Finally here are the pictures. We had a great time. We had tons of swimming. We didn’t have dessert at lunch so we felt like we were really on a health kick.
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Everyone in the family (except me) joined in the Fair Hills Talent show. I’m not really sure where everyone got the courage but they did a great job!!
We met Irish Grandma, Caroline & Rochelle for lunch. It was great to see Caroline and Rochelle one last time before they go. Then we picked up Ailbhe – well really she got dropped off and we went to the King of Concrete – a hip hop, break-dancing, skateboarding, graffiti
Some of what they do is amazing. I loved the dancing and some of the graffiti. Of course I like the graffiti that looks like things more than just the tags. Lily took some video of the dancing. (I’m working on getting that video up – will add if I get it working.) I am going to try to upload it (on top of all of the U2.) The girls got to make T-shirts, which was fun. Everything happened behind Christchurch, which is very near to where I used to live. I’ve always liked that part of the city so it was fun.
Just when that was winding down we got a text from Sheila. We met up at Captain America with her. Pat, Alex, Daniel, Maxine and her daughter Tiger Lily. (Maxine used to live in St Paul.) We had a fun dinner. The girls and I ended up getting home on the train about 10:00. They had their midnight feast and went to bed fairly early – for a sleepover night.
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One day last week we met up with Sheila, Alex and Daniel, friends from home. We had talked about going to Howth or other activities but really it was a pretty crappy and rainy day. So we went shopping. I bought a ton – including Doc Martens. You’ll all be glad to hear I have retired the old pair after 10+ years of service. We ended the day at Captain America’s. I don’t think I had been there in 20 years.
This weekend we met with our girl cousins in Madison. We stayed at a Holiday Inn with a small water park. All we did was swim and relax. We ate pizza on the pool deck. We tried some local beer and it was good. Of course Wisconsin knows beer. We watched TV at night.
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