Dublin Pictures!

Dublin was truly an awesome weekend.  It was pouring down rain the entire first day (those of you that know me know that this did nothing for my hair you will see the curly mess below)  The first day we did the two tours of the distillery and brewery.  

 Here is my awesome curly hair!

I believe that I have already said that this was fun but not as fun as going to Guinness.  The main difference is that the Guinness brewery was 7 or 8 floors and it was all self guided so we could go as fast or as slow through the place as we wanted.  Also the view when we got to the top was incredible!

All of the different bottles designs that they have gone through over the years and in different countries.

 These are both views of Dublin from the top! It was gorgeous!

This is the one was I was drinking when I texted you dad :)  

We are all at the top looking over the city.  It was awesome.

Everyone is already ready for Christmas....

The next day we all went to Trinity University which has the most incredible library ever.  It was fun to see the campus.  It is so interesting to go through different schools over here because they all have so much history!

 Jesse, Cate, Brian and Ray

 The river that runs through the town around sunset.

Katelyn, Katie and I 

Dublin Preview

Wow!  This weekend was so much fun. Getting away with good friends to explore a new city is just what I needed.  Seven friends and I headed to Dublin, Ireland this past weekend.  Half of us (Jesse, Brian, Ray and I) got there Friday morning at 10 AM so we were able to have the whole day to explore.  (Katheryn, Catie, and Kate got in town Friday evening so we met up with them later) We headed to the Jameson Distillery which was pretty cool but we were all blown away when we got to the Guinness Brewery.  Friday night we went out and got hooked up with a pub crawl which was a ton of fun.  We got to see multiple different pubs and went to a club for some dancing to finish off the night.  I have been dying to go dancing so this made me very happy.   Saturday, we walked around the city, by the river, through Trinity College, stopped for some awesome coffee and got to do a bit of shopping. I have pictures of everything and will get them up as soon as I catch up on some sleep :) (the Irish like to stay out late) Even though it was pouring down rain all day Friday we enjoyed every minute of it.  I laughed more this weekend then I have in a while.  The people were very friendly and helpful whenever we asked for help.  There were tons of pubs which had live music, so obviously I was stoked about that.  The city reminded me a bit of a smaller version of London.  Like I said, I will get all the pictures up here in the next few days but I wanted to give a little preview of what I did this weekend!

Tea!

Having tea in the afternoon is very important to people on this side of the pond.  Tracy and I thought it was a good idea to join in on this phenomenon.  "Great Fosters", which is Henry VIII old hunting lodge that has now been turned into a hotel/restaurant/venue for special occasions  is the place that we decided to go to for high tea.  This place is gorgeous.  It is right down the road from us so we have been driving by it and have wanted to go there.    Tim and Tracy went for dinner last week and said it was wonderful so we decided to go there . On Monday, Tracy Kristin and I went and had so much fun.  We each got a different tea and enjoyed some crumpets and tea cakes.  Needless to say we all felt very English. :)

This is the entrance to Great Fosters

"Remember remember the 5th of November"

The past few years I have gotten on Facebook and the quote "remember remember the 5th of November" is always posted somewhere.  I have never really understood why people put it up but thought it could be from a movie or something.  Well I was schooled yesterday by Zeke, a third grader, who informed me that 5 November is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks because of a man named Guy Fawkes.  This man was one of 13 conspirators who were out to kill the King.  It was said that these men dug tunnels under Parliament and carried barrels of gunpowder in so that they could essentially blow it all up on the 5th of November. This, however, was a failed attempt.  People are now encouraged to celebrate the King's escape with bonfires and fireworks.  So last night we did just that.  We went to a large bonfire and watched fireworks in celebration of the King's escape.  We went with the Nevin's family which was a lot of fun.  We all left feeling very cultured from this day.  Here are some pictures that Kristin took of the night.

 (From left to right: Mary, Tracy, Solomon, Erin, Peter, Tim and Zeke... Ella is in the stroller and Kristin was the photographer)