Day 1

We are here and we made it through our marathon day! We left the house Friday morning at 8:00. Drove to Detroit, and got on a plane to Boston at 1:30. Landed in Boston at 3:30 and left for Ireland at 6:30. After a 6 hour flight we arrived in Dublin, Ireland at 5:30 am (Saturday) local time.

We arrived at our hotel, the Radisson SAS Dublin, and quickly freshened up (thank goodness our rooms were ready), and went down to the buffet to grab breakfast. We found out later that our breakfast cost us 22 euro each, about $36 American, ouch! I should have had another mimosa!

We left the hotel for a city tour at 9:30. It was interesting to see Dublin and here a little about the history of the city, but I do believe we were going in circles, since the tour guide pointed out the Temple Bar area and Trinity College about 20 times each! I'll admit I did fall asleep for a minute on the tour, it was a little long (2 1/2 hours) for 40 people who had basically been up all night.

After the tour of the city we were dropped off at the Guinness Storehouse for a tour. It was a self guided tour, and I think BJ and I walked through all 7 floors in less then 15 minutes. There was free beer waiting for him at the top floor! I think it would have been a little bit more interesting if it was a guided tour, but it was fun to see the history. For the record I did try a sip, but was reminded that I do not like Guinness, or the hairy feeling it leaves in your mouth, yuck!

Finally after the Guinness tour we were able to go back to the hotel to relax. BJ didn't want to take a nap so he was going to explore the city while I slept. He sat down on the bed to watch TV for a minute and was out before I even feel asleep. We were told to only sleep an hour, so that we didn't screw up our sleep for the night, but there is no way I would have waken up after only an hour. When the alarm went off after two hours I still felt like I could have slept another couple hours!

We got ready and went to check out the city quickly. We went down to Temple Bar since it's only a 5 minute walk from our hotel and we figured we knew the area well enough from our tour earlier in the morning. I cannot believe the number of Pubs in this 10 square block area, it's amazing to me! We were there around 5:00 and almost all of them were already packed full! We stopped and had a drink at a pub (I am having a hard time not calling them bars), and then went to explore the rest of the area quickly.

Our welcome dinner for the group was at 7 at the hotel. We had a great meal, and lots of fun catching up with everyone.

After dinner we went to the Hairy Lemon (ask BJ what the name of this pub is and you'll get anything from the fuzzy navel to the hairy banana). This was a pub that Jason and Andy had found the night before we arrived, and said we had to check it out. We ended up going with a group of at least 30 of us. It was like an old house, that still had all the separate rooms in it. It was crazy in there and trying to get 30 of us anywhere is not easy, but trying to get 30 people into a bar that is already packed full was quite an adventure. Luckily we found a spot upstairs by a less busy bar where we could all hang out. I found my new drink at this bar too. Jason's dad asked me what I wanted to drink and then asked me if he could pick something for me to try. It is a cider on tap called Bulmers Irish Cider. Most of you know I can't stand the taste of alcohol and only drink mixed drinks, but this I loved! I'm glad to have found something new to drink, since I can't get lemonade here for my regular drink. I went back to the hotel around 11:30 because I was trying to figure out a way to just lay on the floor and take a nap at the pub, so I figured it would be in everyone's best interest. I think BJ came in about 1:15.

So we made it through days 1 and 2! I'll post pictures tonight.

Got to get going we are schedule to visit a castle today and then we have the afternoon to explore the city. BJ and I got some good suggestions from some of the locals, and a couple that has been here for a couple days already. It should be a fun day.

Hope everyone is doing well. Mom and dad give Samson some loving from us.