Boo’s Blog

Today we left Kilkenny and headed toward Limerick. The Rock if Cashel was on the way, and was also a site that was covered by our Heritage cards (a card that covers admission to many of Ireland’s historical sites). We didn’t feel like much touring, but I’m glad we went in and had a look around. Once in Limerick, we spent most of the time recouping our energy in the hotel room. We even felt like eating dinner, though I ask Kevin to bring mine back to the room. Our room overlooked the Shannon River, and we could see the swans swimming on the river from our window.

We we supposed to head to Doolin today, but either food poisoning or a stomach bug hit the family in the night and we stayed in Kilkenny for another day. Actually Kevin and Ari didn’t leave the hotel room all day, and we all napped for most of the day. The view from our room includes a round tower (something I really wanted to see) so at least we had something nice to see when we woke up from our naps.

Today we left the Jury’s Inn in Cork and drove to Waterford. They are no longer doing the factory tour (boo) but the visitor’s center/gift shop is open. I finally bought the salt and pepper shakers that I agonized over on my honeymoon 20 years ago. From Waterford we drove to Kilkenny, home of Smithwick’s Brewery. Apparently the brewery doesn’t do tours (except there may be tastings between 3 and 5 according to a nice gentleman we mat at Kytelers). We walked into town, then realized the Kilkenny Castle was within walking distance. We toured the castle, which has been in use since the 1200’s. It is now decorated more as a grand manor house, which isn’t something we have seen on this trip. Dinner was at Kyteler’s - a restaurant dating back to the 12 or 1300’s.

This morning we headed out to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. What fun! We all leaned way back, held the rails, and lowered ourselves down to kiss the stone. Afterwards we walked around the grounds, then hit the gift shop. After Blarney Castle, we drove to Midleton to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. We did the tour, then our guide asked for eight volunteers to do a tasting. Since Kevin was driving, I did the tasting for the Gunns. We tried a four year (triple distilled) Jameson Whiskey against the double distilled Scotch against the single distilled US Jack Daniels. To me, the Jameson was the best. We headed back to Cork, got a little rest, then headed out for some more shopping (hello Tesco).

Today we headed to Cork and stopped at Ross Castle along the way. This 15th century castle is situated on a beautiful lake where swans come up asking for a hand out. This castle was neat because it contains furniture dating to the 16 th and 17th centuries, so you could imagine how the interiors would have looked. We then headed to Cork where we did a little shopping and had a much needed nap. Oh, and today is our 20th anniversary - what a cool place to spend it!

Today we left the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis and headed to the Dingle Pennisula. Our first stop was in Adare where we took a tour of the Adare Castle (see pic below). I loved the open area where the Yew tree grows. In Adare we stopped at a grocery store where we went up and down every aisle comparing it to the American stores. The cereal aisle (or lack of a full aisle devoted to cereal) was what struck me the most. It was here we found one thing on my Ireland quest, Magnum ice cream bars. Mine was white chocolate covering vanilla ice cream - enough reason for me to move to Ireland. We then headed to the Dingle Pennisula where we mostly followed the tour in Rick Steve’s Ireland guide. Our energy was flagging until we had tea at the Stone House Restaurant. From there we drove and saw the Blasket Islands, remains of the Reasc Monastery (amazing Celtic pillar c. 500 B.C.), the Gallarus Oratory, and the church at Kilmalkedar (where we renewed our vows at the ogham stone). Whew. We drove into Tralee where we are spending the night at the Grand Hotel. Dinner was at a pub called The Abbey (see below).

We had a slow start today (we didn’t even make it down in time for breakfast at the hotel) but had a good day anyway. We tried to find Dromore Wood, but couldn’t find signs to it. We did stop at a map by the side of the road and found these friendly donkeys. We then went to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The castle was built in 1425 and the Folk Park is where they have recreated 19th century Ireland. Back in Ennis Ari was able to find a County Clare hurling jersey and jacket (we love watching hurling over here).

Our plane made it’s approach into Shannon this morning as the sun rose and the summer solstice occurred. I’m not too crazy about over night flights. Luckily we were able to get our cute little car (a Nissan Note) and head to our hotel in Ennis. After an early morning walk around town, we took a much needed nap at the hotel (well a nap until Kev sat bolt upright in bed and yelled “what time is it????”)
Lunch was at Knox’s Pub (mmm SmIthwicks) where we watched sime Gaelic football then we toured the Ennis Friary, the ruins of an 13th century Franciscan friary. One of the staff came out and took our picture together, and was able to give us a mini-tour of the site. We loved how she explained the “Ecce Homo” on the site and how the site would have looked during the 1500s during early mass.

There isn’t too much that I like better than a day shopping in NYC. Today we started back at Rockefeller Center where I found a purple blingy journal at the Met Museum store. Ari wanted to look for purfume at Saks so we headed there next. We couldn’t find purfume, but we did a lot of looking at dresses for the 8th grade semi-formal.
We meandered our way up 5th Ave ending up at Tiffany’s (big, happy sigh).
For dinner we went to Toloache Bistro Mexicali and Tequila Bar. Kevin and I each tried a tequila (I had the Cabo Wabo) and we all had a yummy dinner.
After dinner we walked to Times Square where we all found watches at the Swatch store (yea Kevin). It was sad to see our favorite music store emptied out and locked up.
Then, there is no better way of ending a day than seeing the Tarheels win the NCAA Championship. Wow! Go Heels!

Kevin found some amazing air fare to NYC over Ari’s spring break, so we decided to do a mini vacation up to the city. We are all experimenting with traveling without a laptop (sometimes we have taken 3 on vacation) and only using our iPhones for this trip.

We arrived up here around lunchtime, checked in to our hotel, then set out for Central Park. The weather is nice today, so a lot of people and their dogs were out. Our first stop was for some lunch, so we picked up hotdogs and pretzels and sat on a bench.

One thing we really wanted to see this trip was the Oblisk across from the Mertopolitan Museum of Art. We saw the sister “Cleopatra’s Needle” in London, so this was high on our want-to-see list.

We then walked back to 5th Avenue, sauntered past Tiffany’s (that will be another day) and went to our favorite atheletic store, Niketown. We were greeted with a big display of UNC gear, a sure sign who Nike is supporting in the big game tomorrow night. We all found things at Niketown for running (Kev), track practice (Ari), and tennis (me).

By this time we were pretty tired and started meandering our way back to our hotel. Then Ari and I saw a sight that stopped us in our tracks - the Juicy Couture store. There was a telepathic understanding between Ari and me that even though we were exhausted, we were going in. Poor Kev did not share in this telepathic conversation and walked right by the door. Needless to say, we went in and Ari and I both walked out with a little something.

Then on toward the hotel via Rockefeller Center. To our surprise, the ice skating rink is still open! What a cool sight.

We finally got back to the hotel (Hampton Inn - Times Square) only to find a throng of people checking in. Earlier we had dropped our bags here since our room was not ready. It was then time to regroup since we knew it would be a while before we could get to our room. Ari suggested going to a restaurant/bar that we found the last time we were up here. Vintage has a cool atmosphere, great drinks, and yummy nachos. This was the perfect rest-stop.

So the pictures may be upside down - that is how they came in on this app. If they are, I’ll update them when I get home.