luck o' the irish

Well, Nat, here you go....a million pictures of Ireland, well, almost. Long story short, we changed our plans from Paris to Dublin, our best-bet European destination for stand-by passengers. I have to say, one of the best parts of the trip was flying Business Elite Class from the US to Dublin and back. It was amazing to have a five-course meal complete with a hot fudge ice cream sundae on the airplane! I've only ever seen that kind of thing in the movies. Not trying to boast, just incredibly grateful for Jeremy's job. :)

One of the craziest things about Ireland for me is that it's so cloudy most of the time that you can't even tell where the sun is in the sky. It's like a time warp of some strange phenomenon to not be able to tell about what time it is by looking for the sun. And it was like that all day long. You'll notice the gray skies in almost every one of these pics.

City of Dublin. Smaller than I expected - mostly 4-5 story buildings through the entire city. Very walkable and nice city. I think we only saw one vagrant our entire trip.

My next front door....Do you think it will work for my house?

Driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car was adventurous. You'll notice the posted speed limit 100 km/hr (~62 mph) on this crazy winding road, with narrow lanes and less than one foot of shoulder, next to a stone wall! Our car was about the size of a VW golf, and it even felt too big on a few occasions with cars zooming past the opposite direction. I think I only yelled out loud once, though!

Then the road suddenly ends at a "T" like this. Advice for next time - pay for the GPS unit.

Blarney Castle. Now Jeremy and I officially have the gift of eloquent speech (although I have yet to see the proof in myself), after kissing the Blarney Stone. You will see a small opening above Jer's head. This is where the stone is, and it involves leaning out over a ledge, supported by the worker man (who probably makes more than I do in a day - just in tips!)

It's a bit of an awkward position, to say the least, especially for shorties like me.

This is the front side of the Blarney Castle, Jeremy's favorite stop on the way. If you study this picture carefully, you can play, "Where's Jeremy?"

The visitor's center for the Cliffs of Moher (you might remember them as the "Cliffs of Insanity"). I love how green the building is in this protected environment - built into the hillside. Seriously, the pictures don't do this incredible place justice. This was one of my absolute favorite stops.

The wind blows like crazy here. It was supporting almost my entire body weight leaning into it. Hence the layered hoods. Reality check comes when you see the sign posted for potential suiciders to call the Samaritans to talk. Ugh.

My other favorite stop...taking my brother and his companion out to dinner. (Don't worry, we emailed the mission president for permission before we left.)

And this was his reaction to being the first one to find out he is going to be an uncle again. It was fun to tell him our news in person and see him a couple months early. Can't wait for him to come home in December!!!