Filed under: Uncategorized
This is a test to see if Patrick reads the blog. I’m in St Paul. I have been here since last Monday and I am here until this Monday. I came home for the Blandin Broadband conference. I have gotten a ton of work done since I’ve been here and I’ve been able to see a lot of people. I have eaten at Chipotle twice – actually I think I have had just about every meal at a restaurant.
Today I met my friend Jan at Dunn Brother’s downtown Minneapolis. While there I ran into Joe Dowling. I said hello and introduced myself. He gave his regards to Patrick and Tony Roche.
Patrick is doing his PhD on the Irish roots of the Guthrie Theater and Dowling is one of the major players in that work.
We had another wonderful breakfast in Donegal. (We stayed at The Arches by the way, which we highly recommend.)
We wanted to take a boat tour of Donegal Bay but sadly the water was out so the tour was happening in the afternoon and we couldn’t wait. So we took off for Bundoran – a really nice seaside town. The weather was perfect. We walked along the beach. The girls found a ton of cool shells and the boys kicked the soccer ball a lot.
We saw some surfers – yup people surf off the coast in Ireland. In fact it’s pretty popular.
After a while we started on our way back to Dublin. We drove straight through the country rather than the long route we took to get to Donegal. We planned to have lunch in Cavan but we didn’t see a restaurant so we headed to Virgina. We had a really nice lunch there at a hotel on Lake Erne.
We finally got into town about 4:30 – just in time to have a little rest and get ready for a big family dinner at a fancy restaurant in town at night. All of us (6 kids, 8 adults) ate at a restaurant called 66. The food was great and everyone had a very nice time. The restaurant was very patient as the first of our party arrived at 6:30 and the last closer to 8:00.
Filed under: Donegal
Friday I woke, got out my computer and it didn’t work. It wouldn’t start at all. Maybe it was the 7-up that Patrick opened on it yesterday.
We sat down to a very yummy breakfast – including great Irish bacon. Then I started off towards Donegal Town to get my computer fixed. It’s 3-5 miles from the Bed & Breakfast. Patrick did not feel bad at all about breaking my computer so I left him at home.
Luckily I was able to find a computer fixit place and they were able to fix the computer for me. I found a WIFI network and was able to catch up with work. Then I realized that I had to idea where everyone might be – but I figured O’Donnell Castle in Donegal would be a good guess. SO I met up with them there.
We walked around the town a bit. It’s a nice town. We saw an art exhibit by Edel Gallagher. Then we drove off to Killybegs, a fishing town not too far from Donegal Town. The funny thing was that it was very hard to find fresh fish for lunch in the fishing town. Both of the hotels in town seemed to feature meat. We ended up at Fish & Chip type place but it was good.
Then we headed off on another drive. Neither Patrick nor Michael was very specific about where we were going. So we ended up in the car for about 2 hours until it got dark and started to rain – then we found ourselves in Burtonport, where apparently their great grandmother (or someone) is from. The best this about this side excursion is that I will never have to go to Burtonport again. (When we got home Patrick’s mom’s first question is whether we visited someone she knew at the pub there. Of course e hadn’t – that visit might have picked up the trip considerably!)
We headed back to Donegal. Unfortunately we ran into the same problem as the night before – restaurants were started to close despite it meaning 7:00 on a Friday night. We did find a great place – a casual café sort of thing that actually had a computer with WIFI – so the kids all took a turn going online.
Finally we ended the night in the pub. Where the grownups had exactly one pint each because the kids were complaining the whole time.
Filed under: Donegal
We got up super early today. I had my shower before 6:30. We squeezed 8 people into a 7-seat van and set off for the endless road trip. Michael (Patrick’s brother) rented the van and we were traveling with him, Killian and Aidan.
Our first stop was Nenah in County Tipperary, not too far from Thurles. We saw the former chief friary of Ireland; it’s pretty much in ruins. We had lunch at a place called Roots – which I highly recommend. It was 10:30 in the morning and the owner/chef came out to tell us what kind of fruit she had (for a special order) and said that if Aine really wanted spaghetti, she could make it. (Luckily the fruit sounded good too.)
At about 12:30 we started off for Ennis – a 45 minute drive. At 2:30 we finally arrived in Ennis. The purpose of this trip was to visit Patrick’s Aunt Sister Celine. We met Patrick’s mom, brother Shay, brother Eamonn and wife (Erin) and son (Mikey) in Ennis. They had wisely taken the train. They arrived on time at 1:30.
The other purpose of the trip was to go to Donegal – a plan that Patrick pushed heavily by saying that Donegal is a straight shot from Ennis. Straight does not mean short. After 3+ hours of driving in the morning, we got into the car at 5:00 for 4 more hours of driving.
We drove past Galway and had dinner in Sligo. We drove by tons of historical and literary markers – Sligo is WB Yeats territory – but it was dark so we didn’t see much. We arrived at 9:00 for dinner. Sadly most of the restaurants seem to close at about 9:00.
So we ended up – all 8 of us at an Indian restaurant. Actually it was very good and we all liked it – but it was a little slower and fancier than we needed.
Right before midnight we cruised into the Bed & Breakfast.
Here’s a if you want to track our travels. We went from Dublin to Clare to Sligo to Donegal.
(You may notice that Patrick spilled on his shirt. He opened a 7 up that exploded. Unfortunately he opened it up right over my laptop! This info may seem gratuitous today – but it comes into play tomorrow.)
Filed under: Dublin
OK I’m sorry that it has taken us so long to talk about Halloween. A few have asked about it – but really we weren’t sure what Halloween was going to be like until we lived it.
The girls got dressed up. And their cousins (Killian and Aidan from Australia and Mikey for NY) joined them for track or treating. We went around the block at their Irish Grandma’s house. Not everyone was prepared but most people were and we ran into a few other trick or treaters. The kids were not required to sing or dance to get a treat; their dad had warned them that they might have to do this.
People are not as worried about giving or receiving things like apples or homemade popcorn – so that was kind of different. Lots of people (though not us) get fireworks and set them off. We were able to see quite a few small displays from the park across the street from the house.
When Patrick was young there used to be a lot of bonfires too – but they are strongly discouraged now. In fact I think if you tried to light one, you would be stopped.
What’s the best thing about Halloween in Ireland? You get the week off from school.
Filed under: Dublin
Monday we all went to Sugar Loaf – well the O’Donnells hailing from Florida, Australia, and Minnesota climbed the Great Sugar Loaf. It was cold and windy – but we were very tough. The view from the top is amazing. (OK I didn’t quite get to the top as I waiting with Lily and a sleeping Aine near the top) but even what we could see was amazing.
Sugar Loaf is in Wicklow – about 10 miles from Cabinteely so about 20 miles from the City Centre. But from the top of Sugar Loaf you can see clear to Howth – which is the other side of the city.
The pictures kind of speak for themselves – but I thought I’d use the trip as an excuse to try to show some maps of County Dublin to give you guys an idea of our stomping ground:
Here’s a quick map of Dublin (http://www.countydublin.com/dublin_map.htm). We live inland from Killiney. We often go to Dun Laoghaire. Howth is where we saw the Seals. The Sugar Loaf is in Wicklow- which as you can see if sort of off the map. The Powerscourt Ritz Carleton overlooks the Sugar Loaf. (I’ll try to add a picture of the hotel from the mountain if it turned out.)
Here is a quick map of Wicklow (http://www.irishtourist.com/wicklow/maps/road_map/). I don’t find it to be as useful – but there you have it.
Filed under: Dublin
Sunday night we were invited to a dinner party by Patrick’s advisor Tony Roche and his wife Katy Hayes. They have 2 sons – Merlyn who is 9 and Louie who is 7, I think. He was right about Kate’s age. They also invited Joseph O’Connor and his wife Anne Marie. They have two kids – James who is maybe 5 and Marcus who is 3 – so just the perfect age to play with Aine. And there was another boy named Thomas visiting too.
All of the dinner guests, except me, were writers and very friendly. (Clearly I mean I’m not a writer; I like to think that I’m passably friendly.) Joe and Anne Marie had lived in New York for a while. Tony and Katy are going to visit Minnesota in July. Actually Katy wrote a novel about Charles Lindbergh. There was a lot of talk about writer’s sheds turned offices and we had all seen many of the Dublin Theatre Festival shows.
Katy clearly throws a lot of dinner parties. The kids got pizza and chicken nuggets in one room – what could be better? Following it up with ice cream, which she did. We got a much more adult and delicious meal in the dining room. It started with fried brie – yum!
At the end of the night Tony kindly drove us home – Aine was falling asleep on her feet.
Filed under: Dublin
Saturday night 10 O’Donnells (or I guess 9 O’Donnells and I) all slept in Cabinteely. Luckily the house is big enough to easily accommodate us. Sunday morning looked like the Big Chill with kids. The first person woke up around 7am and the last person woke up after noon. Some people had cereal; some had yogurt, some had cake. Some went walking; some went running; some played computer games.
Around 1:00 we met the rest of the O’Donnell contingency (Fearghal, Eamon, Erin, and Mikey) at the Crown Plaza hotel for lunch. They have a nice buffet and the kids weren’t too squirrelly. Afterward we went to Fearghal’s and played in the park near his house. It was cold but the kids enjoyed the little park. Actually the park isn’t so little and it’s really beautiful – the playground was just their size. (I tried to pick pictures today that the kids would pick.)
Filed under: Dublin
Patrick’s brother Michael arrive on Friday with his sons Killian and Aidan. Killian is a year or two older than Lily. Killian is a year younger than Kate – so they are pretty well matched.
Kate and Aidan have had a good time playing on a computer together. It looks as if Kate may be showing Aidan how to play marbles. She might have a pal for life. Killian has been playing chess with Patrick and he almost won this morning!
Shay arrived on Saturday too (escorted to the house by Fearghal)– the uncle from Florida. We were sad that Shay’s daughter Rochelle wasn’t able to join us. Apparently her school has some pretty strict absentee policies.
Saturday evening most of us went to Marlay Park for a Halloween party. It was packed! We waited in line for about 45 minute to walk through a haunted house that took 7 minutes to tour. But atmosphere was good so we didn’t mind. (The pictures below include one of the monsters and one of abject fear in Aine’s face after seeing the monsters.)
Then we lined up to see a parade. Like lemming we followed the crown into the woods to realize that we were on parade. We really just walked around the big park – but that was OK too. It passed the time while we waited for the big event – the fireworks at 6:30.
The best thing about fireworks in October is that it’s actually pretty dark and everyone is awake.
We went home and more cousins had joined us (again escorted by Fearghal) – Eamon, Erin, and Mikey from New York had arrived too. Thirteen of us had a very fun spaghetti dinner in Irish Grandma’s big kitchen. It worked out very well.
Filed under: Dublin
I just have to add a quick note to say that I talked Patrick into going to one event that was part of the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF). We went to The Globe pub where they had some folks paying music.
It wasn’t mush but I enjoyed the music. We ran into someone from Patrick’s class on the way, which is why I’m sure he was OK with staying for more than a pint.
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