Boston

Jeff had a conference for work in Boston in mid September. I have a dear friend, Katie, who lives there  and this was the perfect excuse to go spend some time with her and her husband!! I had been to Boston once before to help her wedding dress shop. We did the annual "Running of the Brides" event. What an experience!! Anyway, I had done a little sight seeing on that trip, so I had already seen some of the popular historical spots. Jeff and I flew in the weekend before his conference so we had a little time to enjoy the city together before he was busy with work.

Where else to go than where everyone knows your name!?!! =)

I've never been in any state capitol other than in Kansas. We happened to peek in right as the free tour was beginning so we decided to join. I was really glad we did. It was really interesting!

Super excited to get to go to Fenway Park and see a Red Sox game!!
Jeff had been before, but this was my first time. 

Toronto at Boston September 7, 2012. . .sadly the Red Sox lost but we still had a great time!

The Green Monster in all its glory!

Unfortunately a surprise storm moved in, causing about an hour and a half rain delay with some pretty intense lightening!! Luckily the storm subsided and we got to enjoy the game! 

How can you not enjoy ice cream in a plastic helmet while at the game?!?! =)

One evening while we were there we went to dinner with my good friend, Katie, and her husband. Then they took us out for a show at the Improv Asylum. It was really entertaining! We had a great time and it was so wonderful catching up with friends!!

Katie and I before the show

A couple weeks after we left, Katie had an adorable baby boy, so think there is definitely a trip back to Boston in my future!

Aug - Ireland Part 2

After the game, Jeff and I stayed a few more days in Ireland to see the beautiful countryside together. Up first was a special splurge. . . .staying a night in a castle, Adare Manor!! The castle dates back to the mid 1800's. The Dunraven family built and lived here until 1982. They sold it five years later to a family from Florida (of all places) that came in to fully restore the entire property. Then turned into a hotel and golf course. I wish we had been able to stay there a few more nights and really enjoy it, but glad we got the chance. It was definitely a great experience!!

This is the castle where we stayed, Adare Manor. 

The view from our room; we had the room right in the middle!
There was also a gorgeous golf course built on the grounds around the castle.

Check out our room!! It was huge and beautifully decorated!!
Jeff is standing in the huge bay window to take this picture.

There were ruins of an old abbey on the grounds of the castle, so we went to check it out.

We walked through the old church and it was so cool and a little eery all at the same time!!

You can see how this building was at least 2-3 floors high. There is a fireplace on what would have been the first floor and then one on the right for the second floor.
Do you see the hare?? =) (Hint: look through the door)

The Drawing Room inside the castle with the bar at the far end

This little nook is off the main dining room and where we had breakfast.

The grand "lobby" of the castle

Staying a night in a castle. . . . bucket list check!!

So much of visiting Ireland is finding a great pub with good food and a pint to wash it down!

Next up was more driving and taking in the countryside. We unfortunately had a fair amount of rain and clouds for a day so that was a bit disappointing, but it could have been much worse. Our next stop was the tiny town of Doonbeg. Jeff found another amazing hotel. . .this time a huge lodge on the coast. It also had a beautiful golf course. I think he was really dreaming of golfing when he booked all our stays for this trip. Maybe someday we'll get to go back and have time to golf!

Here's the view as you drive up to the property of the lodge where we stayed in Doonbeg.

View of the coastline from Doonbeg. We were just south of the Cliffs of Moher.
If you look into the distance of this picture you can see the start of the cliffs.

Another view of the coastline the other direction

After we checked out in Doonbeg, we were off to see the Cliffs of Moher. We were in luck because the weather was beautiful that day!! I have so many amazing pictures that it was hard to just pick a few! The cliffs are absolutely breathtaking and there really is no amount of pictures I could take to do them justice! We spent a couple hours just walking the coastline taking in the view at every turn!

Oh the beautiful beautiful Cliffs of Moher!!

To avoid disrupting the beautiful landscape they built the entire Visitor Center underground!!
Hard to tell, but they were flying the American flag here. We had seen it a couple other places so I finally asked about it. . . .they were doing it as a welcome to all the Americans tourists that were there for the football game.

Here you can see that it was low tide and all the exposed rocks along the base of the cliff.

The last stop on the trip wasn't about sight seeing famous locations. It was about finding where my ancestors originated. My heritage is mostly German, but my mom's mother was Irish. About ten years ago my great aunt and some of her cousins were doing a lot of family history research to put together a family tree. Some of my relatives went over to Ireland and actually found the cemetery where some of our ancestors are buried. I had never really heard much about it, but my Great Aunt Kathleen gave me the name of the little town and a picture of what the headstone looked like. Well after four wrong cemeteries, we finally found the right one just before the sun set and we lost all our daylight! I learned my lesson the hard way on the importance of the correct county when typing an address into the GPS. Apparently numerous city names are repeated across Ireland so you have to know in which county the city being searched for lies. . .minor detail!! =) By the time we finally found the headstone we were running short on time to get back to Dublin to catch our flight, but it was still really amazing to find it! It's pretty surreal to stand there and think that this is where your family came from decades before you!! It definitely sparked an interest in learning more about my ancestors.

That's the tombstone there in the front, but you can tell from the background
 that this is definitely a cemetery that's been around for awhile.

After several wrong cemeteries I started saying a few prayers to my Grandma to help us find the right place. She came through and we were able to snap this picture just before the sun dipped below the horizon. Thanks Grandma!!

Ireland was such a treat!! Definitely a place I would love to go back and spend lots more time there!!

Aug - Ireland Part 1

Oh Ireland, where do I begin?? The countryside in Ireland is so beautiful; everything is green and lush!! Everyone we met along the way was inviting and interested in our story. I really felt at home! I would absolutely love to go back and visit again some day. This whole trip came to be because Notre Dame college football team was playing the first game of their season against the Navy in Dublin, Ireland. Jeff is a huge Notre Dame fan and Adriane's sister lives in DC and has several friends that are all Navy grads. Planning a trip around the game was the perfect excuse to go =)  I went over a few days before the game with Adriane and Aubrie to do some sightseeing. Then Jeff met us over there for the game, and afterwards he and I were able to enjoy some time sightseeing across the countryside.

Some fun facts....

• The country of Ireland is only half the size of the state of Arkansas. 
• The population of the entire country is just under 5 million people....that's roughly the size of the state of South Carolina or just the two cities of Chicago and Houston. Quite small in comparison to the US when you think about it like that!
• There are about a million more sheep than people in Ireland! 
• Over 80% of the population is Catholic.
• The architect for the original white house was James Hoban from Kilkenny, Ireland.
• Ireland was the last state in Europe to pass a law allowing divorce. It was passed in 1995 and the first divorce wasn't granted until 1997.   

Stopped off at a local pub for a pint and some lunch. By the time
we were finished here we had made friends with all the locals!

My first proper Guinness was in Ireland, how fitting and delicious!!

Upon entering the park to see the waterfall pictured below, we had to laugh at this sign.  Am wondering what events took place to need a sign that states "No Antisocial Behavior"
as the first rule?!?

Powerscourt Waterfall is the highest in Ireland at height of approx. 400 feet.

Standing in front of the waterfall

So the best way to really get around Ireland is to rent a car and head out exploring. They really don't have a lot of highways to get around the country, so a lot of time you are driving on local country roads. Keep in mind two very important things when considering driving in Ireland.
1. They drive on the left hand side of the road.
2. There are almost no shoulders on the road and in many instances the road is barely wide enough for two cars to fit next to one another. See picture below!!

I should also mention they aren't a very good judge of a "safe" speed limit either!! Think how most times in the US when you are approaching a serious curve in the road that there are multiple warning signs including ones that recommend the top speed you can safely take the curve?! Okay, well in Ireland that's just crazy talk! The most you get is a sign painted on the road that includes (but is not limited to) "slow bend", "severe bend", or "dangerous bend"! No where is there any guide on whether a "severe bend" is worse than a "dangerous" one. I even think a few slow bends should have been labeled "severe"!!!  You could even be approaching one of these so labeled "dangerous" bends only to see a speed limit sign read 120km/hr. That's 75mph!!! We would be lucky to take the curve safely going half that speed!! I can laugh about it now, but it was definitely a little stressful driving over there and I even enjoy driving!!

What's really funny is that if I could drive and take pictures at the same time I could have an entire album of hilarious street signs from our trip. They don't mark their bends very well, but they give you warning of all sorts of other things you might find on the road....cattle, sheep, horses, ducks,  horse drawn buggies, jockeys horse back riding, and so many more. We joked that it was like playing a video game obstacle course and you never knew what they might throw out on the road in front of you.

This is what the typical roads looked like once you got off the highway. There is no shoulder on either side. The road isn't really marked. If you meet a big truck on the road you have to slow almost to a stop to pull over as best you can into a bush so the truck can squeeze by you! It's really quite an adventure!! 

I so wished we would have had time to check this place out for lunch. Love the name!

My first Irish stew of the trip, delicious!! Love that I got a little shamrock biscuit on top!

Beautiful scenery

I looked everywhere, but couldn't find a single one!! =(

We saw sheep grazing everywhere, but only once in the whole week I was there did we have any actually walking down the road that we had to avoid hitting.

Here were our accommodations in Doolin. It's a pub downstairs and a tiny hotel above.  It was a great little place to stay and the live music downstairs was fantastic!! 

If I were still working I think I would have to hang this sign outside my cube! =) I love it!!!

After a few days of sightseeing we were headed to Dublin to meet a group of the girls' friends from DC and Jeff for the football game. I've never been anywhere yet in my travels and saw more Americans than actual locals; however, this was the case in Dublin the weekend of the football game. It was crazy busy and I think most of the true Irish hightailed it out of the city!! hahaha Regardless it was so much fun!! All of the pubs were packed and people were just having a great time everywhere. Not to mention that Notre Dame won the game so Jeff and I were even more excited!!

We had amazing seats for the game!! This was our view. . . we were really close to the field!! 

Sporting our Irish gear and enjoying some good beer...the perks of a game outside the country =)

Okay, so I know this is a little sacrilegious, but it's still a bit funny!!

Go Irish!!! 

Could the National Championship game be in their future, we can only hope! Jeff has big dreams!! GO IRISH!!!!

Aug - Friends, Chocolate, and Cheese

August was the start of crazy busy fun for Jeff & I! I think at the start of August I counted three whole weekends that we didn't have a trip planned somewhere or company here visiting between Aug and Christmas!!! We like to be busy, but we might be a little crazy with all these plans!! Our first friends visiting from home were my good friend, Adriane, and her sister, Aubrie.

These girls are experienced travelers and love to see new places, so I knew we were going to have a blast. They came over to spend a few days in Switzerland with us before all heading out to Ireland together, but I'll get to Ireland in my next post. There are soooo many pictures from that trip!! Since Switzerland is known for their cheese and chocolate we decided to go see how it's made and do some taste testing! It was a beautiful day so the girls got to really enjoy the view as we headed out of town and drove around the lake. Cailler chocolate factory was our first stop. The tour was really informative and appealed to all of your senses. Did you know that it wasn't until 1960 that the Swiss really became known for their chocolate? Afterwards we got to taste all the chocolates we wanted....seriously delicious, but maybe trying to taste one of each was a bit too much!

Aubrie, Adriane, and I stopping for a photo op next to all the beautiful vineyards.

Jeff came along too!

The tasting room. . . can you see all those chocolates? They didn't care if
 you tried one of each or just a couple. It was worth every penny,
even if my stomach didn't like me very much afterwards!!

All of the chocolate companies in Switzerland sell their chocolate in a bar form like a classic Hershey chocolate bar. They are quite popular. After the tour of the factory there is a chocolate store to buy all your favorites. Convenient, huh? =)  This whole wall was lined with different types of chocolate bars!

Did you know the average Swiss person eats 12kg of chocolate a year? That's almost 26.5 pounds a year!! I think I like living in Switzerland=)

What better way to balance out our sugar filled stomachs than some delicious Swiss cheese?!! The Gruyere cheese factory is just about ten minutes from the Cailler factory, so we headed over there to check things out. I can't say cheese is as exciting as chocolate, but it was still a fun little exhibit to see. Plus the old city of Gruyere near the factory sits up on a hill and is still all old cobblestone roads and no cars except for locals. It is a beautiful little village. The view is amazing! There's even an old castle up there.

An attempt at a self group shot!

Just beautiful countryside all around us

The city of Gruyere...it's a little dark, but you get the idea.

The beautiful countryside