Greetings from Ireland

We are writing to you now from Dublin, Ireland! Now that we've gotten a little bit of sleep under our belts, I have the energy and a few minutes to update you on our trip so far. We made it here in one piece after the boys' first overnight flight (well, Jonathan's anyway). Poor Chris got airsick a couple times on the way over but he handled it well. I think the kids slept 2 hours on the plane ride over and Brian and I pulled out about 30 minutes. Despite all that, we had a great day once we got into the city and toured around like troopers! Here are some pics from the journey...

Despite his motion sickness, Chris was so excited to be on a 787. The boy still loves airplanes! Once we got into Dublin and had some breakfast, we wandered down O'Connell Street and over the Ha'penny Bridge (the oldest bridge over the Liffey) and into Temple Bar.

We also walked around and ended up at St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park not far from the city center...

We found a great little spot called the Little Museum of Dublin which was fantastic! It is a history of Dublin in pictures and artifacts from locals and our tour guide was great. It was the perfect intro to Dublin for the boys full of history, fun facts and also some hands on stuff. And, of course, an entire room dedicated to U2!

After all of this traveling we were all a bit worn out, but only one of us could do anything about it...

Bringing the stroller was a good call! We did eventually go back to the hotel and rested for about an hour but then it was off again to the busy streets of Dublin! When I did my student teaching here it was January through March--not exactly the tourist season. Well, this time of year is quite different! We were on our way through the crowds to Chris Church Cathedral when we passed through a rally to celebrate the Irish Women's Field Hockey team who earned the silver medal in their world cup. Brian did a great job navigating the stroller through the people and also over the cobblestone streets! We made it to church though, and a beautiful church it was...

Today we started the morning off with the traditional Irish breakfast of... McDonalds! We were looking for something cheap and fast so that was the call before heading up to Croke Park, the national stadium for Irish sports (gaelic football and hurling--look up videos of each on YouTube--so cool!). First of all we took the bus up there and Chris was especially excited to sit on the top floor of a double decker!

We had yet another amazing tour. We were the only Americans on the tour so we had a lot explained to us, although I kind of already know about these sports. We got to go inside the locker rooms (where the boys got to even see the New York GAA jersey!), warm up rooms, team dinner lounge and onto the field. It was very cool! This chandelier is in the players lounge is made of Waterford crystal in the shape of gaelic footballs and hurling balls...

Later in the day, we hung out at Oliver St. John Gogerty's for a few pints (also soda and juice) and some traditional music.

Chris and I popped into a traditional music shop while J took another stroller nap. We were talking to the owner of the shop and of course Christopher's Irish dance came up in the conversation. After a little demo, the man told Chris he hopes to see him back here for World's someday, which of course made our dancer's day... We also ran into these four guys along the way so I had to stop...

We ended our touring today with Dublin Castle. We did a self guided tour which was just as well because the boys were done and we were all hungry!

Tomorrow we are on to Malahide Castle and Howth as well as a bus tour along the Dublin Coast! It will be our last full day in the city before we head out to beautiful Galway and the west coast. We will be back though, so whatever we don't fit in tomorrow, we will finish up when we come back next week!