Top o' The Mornin' to Ya!

Well I am back! The trip was a lot of fun, but I must confess, I am very glad to be back in the USA! Where do I begin? Tuesday night I was at JFK for an ungodly amount of time since my family was on the Aer Lingus flight and I was on Delta-five hours later! Absolutely no television set was tuned to Idol. In fact I had CNN on in the gate and literally if I had to listen about Ted Kennedy's malignant brain tumor or Hillary's win in Kentucky for one more minute I was going to take a nail gun to my head! The Delta representatives actually looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked to see AI! Once on the plane I was delighted to see my whole row was empty and I had the bulkhead seat, but alas, the armrests were bolted in so I I could not stretch out. When you get the bulkhead seat you are asked if you can perform the necessary evacuation maneuvers. This to me is amusing. I mean first off, if I actually survive the plane crash, once I open the door, I'm outta there! No offense but at that point I think it is every man for himself! But I humored the good people at Delta advising them I was their gal. I mean really the only requirements are lifting forty pounds and speaking English, so I think my resume qualified me. I had a horrible flight because I was so uncomfortable and the plane was frigid. Once I landed in Ireland it cost $50 yes $50 American bucks to go 8, yes, 8 miles from the airport to the hotel. And I thought New York was expensive. We stayed in County Clare which is three hours south of Dublin, so we were in the countryside and when I say countryside I mean like cows and sheep.
On the first day we all decided not to sleep since we were now five hours ahead of New York and decided what better way to deal with going on 24 hours of no sleep than to conquer Bunratty Castle. It was amazing and we went all the way to the top! Here is Bunratty!Of course I am petrified of heights so I went up but did not want to look down. The architecture was AMAZING! The furniture inside was beautiful. I think my mom wanted to ship a few pieces back home. It was fifty very spiral, very small steps to the top and back down. I was extremely pleased that my mom also conquered Bunratty. Since she did, we celebrated with a pint in Durty Nelly's.

The next day we were off to Ennis to do some sightseeing in the "city." My Lord does our dollar suck over there. There were a lot of cute shoes but they were so expensive. Baby diapers were $25 for 58! If Preston and I lived in Ireland his two options would be toilet trained at one or pee on himself. Ennis was really cute and we had drinks at the Temple Gate Hotel. That morning we went online to watch the last 9 minutes of Idol on You Tube. My aunt's Blackberry showed David won-gee thanks Internet, but once accessing the story we learned it was David Cook and I was sooooo excited since I had heard prior to boarding Archu-loser was expected to win. That night was the rehearsal dinner at Abbey Tavern and the meal was delicious. Here is Ennis and pics from the dinner. (Yes Mel, my dad totally thinks he knows Ennis, although I was able to direct him to the grocery store).

In the background is the Abbey in Quin where Chris and Anna took their pictures the next day. This pic was also taken at almost eight. The sun sets around 9:30 at this time of year which was pretty amazing!

Friday was the wedding and we had a great time. Mom, Aunt Pat, Caitlin and I got our hair "did" at Dromoland Castle which is where Clinton and Bush have stayed when they frequent Ireland. It was beautiful! The mass was at noon and I went back up to my room at 3 a.m. after drinking way too much wine. The weddings in Ireland are done a bit differently with dinner done first, then dancing, then a cocktail hour. It was a lot of fun and Chris and Anna looked amazing as well.

Our last day there was Saturday. We really got a taste of Ireland on that day. We saw the ring fort! I loved the ring fort. The ring fort was the Caherconnell Ring Fort in an area called The Burren-or "place of rocks"-very original I may add. The limestone used to be under water. The history behind the landscape was fascinating, although I will not bore you here. The ring forts were circular limestone forts built by hand and accommodated a house, animal pit, fire pit and other areas, yet once we got into the ring fort it was the size of my parents' kitchen extension, so I am impressed with these people that they fit in this space. They would do great apartment hunting in NYC. Here are pictures of the ring fort. I truly believe my father wants to build his own ring fort in the backyard.

After the ring fort we stopped to take pictures of the landscape and then ate in LaHinge which was on a beautiful beach.

We topped off the day at the Cliffs of Moher. I have never seen anything so breathtaking in my life (other than Preston of course...who by the way I was missing something fierce by this point). The cliffs on the right side had a stone wall so you could not fall off. The left side had no wall. We opted wisely, I think, for the right side of the cliffs. The pictures do not do any justice to the cliffs. I was watching these people go up the left side and peer over. Now let's put it this way-birds looked like little white dots from up there. The view was ridiculous. It is 656 feet high! It was amazing. Earlier in the day my brother's best man Keith proposed to Ally on the top of the Cliffs! What a great way to end our trip. Well actually my trip ended being bumped to first class while my family took Aer Lingus and wound up in Dublin and then had to fly to New York. And the best part was my little monkey waiting for me at the gate and literally running into my arms. It was a great trip. I am supremely annoyed that I have to go back to work tomorrow. I leave you with the Cliffs of Moher!