Dublin...yes our trip from July

Bowing my head in shame that this post should have been written about 3 months ago now but I keep telling myself better late than never, right? RIGHT.

Over three months ago, Scott and I were greeted with some smiling American faces. Bill, Alex and Julie flew over from the States (Buffalo and Rochester, NY) to visit us for just over a week and with that came a trip to Dublin for the weekend!

The jet setters took off on Friday morning (bright and early) and landed in a sunny, green and gorgeous country (a.k.a. Ireland). We rented a car and drove about an hour down to Druid's Glen for a round of golf on one of their two Championship Golf Courses. The two ladies teed off together followed by the three guys. Considering the course record is a 70 I don't think we fared too badly. The leader of the pack was Alex with a 93, Scott 99, Bill 103, Libby 109 and Julie 115.

Here are a few pictures of the golfing:

After the round of golf we settled in at the bar in the hotel for a few rounds of Guinness, a few Jameson's and some delicious BBQ wings! We decided it would be best that night to eat at the hotel so that we did not tempt the fate of finding a town near bye for dinner and also to let all enjoy the drinking throughout the evening.

The following morning we drove into Dublin for the rest of the weekend and settled ourselves into the Westin Dublin on College Green. Shortly after checking in we headed over the river towards the home of Jameson.

Jameson, Irish Whiskey, was founded in Dublin and still remains there today. We all took the Jameson tour which was about 45 minutes and got to see some cool old adverts below. Along the tour we learned the process in which Jameson makes their Whiskey and were also informed that during that maturation process that the amount of alcohol that evaporates is called "Angels Share" (you can see in the picture below).

After the tour we had been told about a bottle of Middleton Whiskey, which is a Very Rare Whiskey, and that if you buy it in the store at the Jameson Distellery that your name would go into the book for the year bottle that you bought that is kept on the premises. Bill, an avid lover of Jameson and connoisseur, was busy shopping away for souvenirs to bring home. I had suggested to Scott and Alex that we buy Bill a bottle while we were there and give it to him as a Christmas gift. Everyone agreed so we purchased it and decided to give it to him there. Below is his reaction to the gift. We truly hope you enjoy it the day you open it up!

At the very end of the tour we got to taste the Irish Whiskey vs/ Scottish Whiskey vs. American Whiskey. We tasted the Jameson vs. _________ vs. Jack Daniels. I can tell you one thing....the Irish Whiskey blew the rest out of the water. We then had a choice to sample the Jameson on the rocks/meat/with ginger ale/with cranberry juice/with coke. These are the various ways that Jameson is enjoyed around the world! I tried the ginger ale and it was very good actually!!!

Next was Scott's 2nd home...Guiness.

Our experience sure did start here. We all enjoyed a Guinness Lunch (most ordered the Guinness Stew with Mashed Potatoes and Stewed Carrots) and of course a Guinness!

Here are the guys all pulling their Perfect Pint!!!

I am sure that everyone has seen the old adverts for Guinness at some point in their life and here is a little flash back through time of some of them.

No Guinness would be perfect without a Shamrock on the top!

Ahhh look at the Goodness!

On Saturday night we ventured out for a dinner and a few drinks out at a pub:

Sunday we wandered around the city looking at a few churches below:

We all flew back to London on Sunday night. Everyone stayed until Friday so Scott and I knew that there is no trip to London that would be considered complete without Fish and Chips. We took them to Gordon Ramsey's "The Devonshire" in Chiswick and below is a picture of the last night together.

From left to right: Julie, Alex, Bill, Scott and Libby

I do have to say that it is wonderful getting to know Scott's friends better and better each time that I get to see them, which hasn't been often but will be once we move home. The first time I met Alex and Bill was when Scott and I took a weekend trip to Buffalo in college and we ended up going to Canada (legal drinking age of 18) and the first place we went was a strip club. Now for all of you that know the three of them well know that was a regular routine up to Canada and of course to a local starving artist club. I met Julie for the first time at our wedding and therefore did not get to spend much time at all with her, the following time we met was at their wedding which again not much time spent together so this time was a week in London and it was a wonderful time together. I really enjoyed hanging out with Julie and truly look forward to spending many other occasions togethe and wonderful trips places! I used to refer to Bill and Alex as Scott's friends but no longer do as they are my friends now too! Love the three of you lots and am looking forward to seeing you all more often!

Slainte!

Updates to come soon

We have been busy lately and I have been traveling lots for work so lots of updates to come this week to try and catch-up:

1. Dublin - from July
2. Scotland- August
3. Greece - August
4. India- September

Stay tuned as they will all be out this week!!!

Spring Cleaning

Today marks 120 days till we make the return voyage to the US. To put myself in gear for the move home I have decided that I will slowly start to conquer cleaning out each area of the flat so that we don't ship home clothes we never wear, shoes we don't wear, things to sell here in London, kitchen items we are not taking home, etc. I think the list goes on and on. No time like the present then to start since the movers will be here before we know it and I will be traveling for 5 weeks of this time.

I started the weekend off by going through my sweaters. Once I piled them all on the floor I started to realize that maybe I should rethink when I want to buy a new sweater like if I buy one then I have to give one away sort of deal. Nah, this is much better. Going through all your sweaters and weeding out the ones you don't wear and while doing it remembering where you got it, who gave it to you, fun nights out wearing it or what was I thinking to buy this? All of these thoughts crossed my mind this weekend and by the end of the process I felt good about getting rid of about 20 sweaters. I still have about another 20 on the pile that are maybe's or maybe I will keep them till we leave then bring them to the charity shop, but I think a few would 'just happen' to make their way into the keep pile. I will have to rethink that a bit more.

What is next on the list......no idea. I am not sure I am ready to part with more clothes. Maybe books? Those seem easier to get rid of since I know that I can go to a library and borrow it if I wanted to read it again. Scott on the other hand will not part with any of his books and mainly because they are all history books and he loves to re-read them all the time. Shoes? hmmm...I don't think so. I did get rid of two pair this weekend, well actually three. Bailey was hungry and chewed through the toe of one of my Nike Running Shoes.

We have started to realize that we have been saving the American food up and now when we were looking through the cupboards this weekend we need to start using it. What can one possible make with 12 bags of Butterscotch Chips? I started by making Special K bars, granola with butterscotch chips, chocolate butterscotch oatmeal cookies and now I am at a loss and only 9 1/2 bags to go. I think we will take a break from butterscotch for a little while now. Macaroni and Cheese boxes galore. We started a one box per weekend and that will bring us into November which is perfect! Gatorade, Crystal light mix....we need to start drinking LOTS! I refuse to bring it home since it is a waste to ship it so we will start to slowly weed everything out and our cupboards will slowly start to become empty. I guess that is how we moved here so that is how we will end it.