Ireland, Day 2

 

 Our itinerary for Day 2 was a trip to a town called Doolin for a boat ride to the Cliffs of Moher!

The view from our house the first morning.  The fog was so thick you couldn't even see the water!

All ready to go!  It was cold and windy on this day!

Teddy joined us for our first full day of adventures!  This is one well-traveled teddy bear!  I wish I had thought to make him a "passport" to document all the places he has gone!!

One of the roads along the way.  We were amazed at the tiny little roads the GPS kept taking us down!  Reminder:  we were in a 9 passenger van!!

More beautiful countryside!!

 After about an hour and half, we arrived in Doolin.  It was a neat little town, right on the water.

Welcome to Doolin!

The view from our parking spot...right in the middle of town!

O'Connell's Pub, where we stopped for lunch!

Little R was ready for a fight!!  Eventually we had to put the "weapons" away...MiMi was afraid he was gonna poke her eyes out!!

Beef & Guinness Stew for MiMi & PaPa!!

Beautiful Doolin Pier.

A and Little R were the only ones willing to brave the cold with Daddy for pictures!  The rest of us waited in the warm van!

The Cliffs of Moher

They are huge, and amazing!  The pictures don't even begin to show how amazing they are!

Very neat!

Postcard perfect!!

 After the boat ride, we drove back into to a town near our house.  We had been told there was a great pub there, with great food and music.  We had reservations, and after some difficulty finding the place, we finally made it!  The people were AMAZING, and the food was great!!

Thatched roof cottage on the way to Feakle.

Pepper's Pub in Feakle.  We made silly jokes about Feakle the entire trip, discussing "Feakle matter".  Lots of giggles and "potty talk".  But overall, one of our favorite places!!

Bangers and Mash.  This was T's favorite meal of the entire trip...and we had LOTS of food during the 9 days!!  She said this was "hands down" the best meal of them all!  Why wouldn't it be?  T's dream...sausages & mashed potatoes...all smothered in GRAVY!!

R had Bacon & Cabbage....and loved it!

 We weren't able to stay for the music at the pub.  It didn't start until 9:30, and several members of our party just weren't going to make it.  So we headed back to the house to settle in and rest up for another busy day!

Ireland, Day 1

Our trip to Ireland was amazing!!  My dad has dreamed of going to Ireland his entire life, but never really thought he would ever go.  I've always thought Ireland was pretty, but never really thought I would go either.  But when we started planning a trip to Germany for Mom & Dad, we decided to add Ireland to the itinerary!  And we are SO glad we did!!

We flew into Dublin on Friday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport.  On Saturday morning, R picked up our 9-passenger rental van (which we fondly named Big Bertha during our week with her).  We had a 3-hour drive from Dublin to our rental house, so off we went!!

On the plane to Dublin.  It was a direct flight, and only a little over 2 hours long.  But it was a rough flight...some pretty crazy turbulence near the end had us all scared!!

Safely on the ground in Dublin!  Praise the Lord!

Riding in "Big Bertha" for the first time...our 3 hour trip to the rental house...on the wrong side of the road!

A late night + an early morning + a 3 hour drive = a good long nap for our littlest two!!

We stopped for lunch at this neat little restaurant.  The food was delicious, and the people were SUPER nice!  We didn't know it yet, but this was going to be a trend during the entire trip!

Some of the beautiful countryside on the drive out to the rental house.

A beautiful day for a drive!!

And this is our beautiful house we rented for the week!  It was perfect for us!  Enough room for everybody to spread out and enjoy themselves!

And even more beautiful than the house was this amazing view!!

I could just sit and look at this for hours!!  And throughout the week we got to see it in many different forms...sunny, cloudy, rainy, foggy...you name it, we saw it!!  But it was just as beautiful each time!





Paris, Day 4...our final day!

On our last day in Paris, we wanted to show MiMi & PaPa a pretty park we discovered last time we were there.  It also has a great playground that Little R enjoyed LOTS on our last visit, so we thought we would let him run off some energy before we got on the train home.

Ready for our last day of adventure!!

Little R and PaPa...ready to go!

We hopped on the tour bus and off we went! 

R is our official navigator!  We relied heavily on his excellent navigation skills, and he didn't let us down!  Although MiMi did question him quite frequently! : )

After a long bus ride in crazy traffic, we finally made it to the park.  We took a stroll through the park (it's beautiful) and off to the playground.



We discovered these trees last year.  We call them buckeyes, but I guess they are chestnuts??  There were people in Paris roasting them and selling them on the streets!  We just liked collecting them, and A found twins!!

After playing for just a bit, it was time to head back to the apartment, check out, and then make our way to the train station.  But first, we had to recreate our "Jump for Joy" pictures from our last visit to Paris!!  Yes, people stared...but we had a blast!

The girls jumpin' for joy!!  (MiMi wouldn't join in...it had been too long since her last bathroom break)

This is the only "jumping" PaPa can do these days...but notice, his feet ARE off the ground! : )

The boys jumpin' for joy!

This one is blurry, but it was too good not to use!  This time the girls got some major air!!

And Little R had to do ONE last jump!!

We hopped back on the tour bus back to the apartment one last time to check out.  We checked out, got our luggage gathered up, and decided to take a city bus to the train station since we had all of our luggage.  We waited for the city bus, and when it came, it was completely full, so we couldn't get on.  About 5 minutes later, an almost completely empty tour bus pulled up (which is unheard of...they are usually packed)...so we hopped on and it took us right to the train station!  The train trip home was smooth and easy, and we even had a friend waiting at the train station at home, in our van, to tote us home!

It was a great trip!!  MiMi & PaPa got to see things they never thought they would see!  And we got to experience it with them...that was priceless!  There were definitely some snags along the way, but they make for great stories (we now have new stories about radiator heat mishaps, new meaning for the words "bean dip", how Fashion Week in Paris makes bathroom breaks for the normal person quite difficult, and how Little R's "coffee" came to be known as Frappucino for 4 days)!  It was definitely a trip none of us will ever forget!

Paris, Day 3

Day 3 had Notre Dame at the top of our list!  So we planned to hop on the tour bus once again!

All ready for another day of adventure!

This time we decided to ride INSIDE the bus, where it was warm and dry!  We even found a seat where PaPa could stretch out his legs!

Notre Dame!



Beautiful inside!

 After Notre Dame, we had a reservation at Hard Rock Cafe for an early dinner.  Because of crazy traffic and late buses...we were over an hour late for our reservation!  But they still seated us immediately, and it was a great experience!

MiMi & PaPa in front of Hard Rock.

We had coupons for free sundaes...somehow all the adults and big kids shared sundaes, and Little R got his very own!  Who's the spoiled one of this bunch, I wonder???

After dinner, we planned to catch a city bus back to our apartment, but that didn't turn out to be quite as easy as we had hoped.  After walking several blocks to a bus stop that still didn't take us all the way back to our apartment, PaPa decided he was up for the walk!  So we strolled along, looking at all the shops along the way.  We saw some beautiful desserts, a man making noodles, and lots of other cool things!  Once again, something that wasn't part of "the plan" turned into one of our favorite memories of the trip!

Little R read the map and helped Daddy navigate, so that we could simply stroll along behind and enjoy our Starbucks! : )
 

After navigating us safely back to the apartment, PaPa and R went down to the cafe just below our apartment and enjoyed a Heineken (I have NO idea how to spell that!), and watched the action of Paris at night!  Another great day!!

Paris, Day 2

Our first full day in Paris, we decided to just ride the tour bus through the big loop and see all the main monuments from the bus. 

We got ready (which takes a while for 7 people) and headed out that morning.  It was cold and cloudy!!  We hopped on the tour bus, and off we went!

Ready to explore!!

Loaded up on the bus and ready to see the sights!

It was cold that morning...MiMi ditched trying to look good, and opted for trying to keep warm!  That's her with the yellow hood cinched around her head!!

Traffic in Paris is a bit CRAZY!!  I had to try hard not to focus on the cars/mopeds/bicycles we almost hit!!

A quick hop-off of the bus to get on another route!  Still cold!  While I look like I am in severe need of a bathroom break, R caught me "mid-hop" as I was trying to keep warm!  And yes, MiMi STILL has on the yellow hood! : )

MiMi & PaPa as we arrived at the Eiffel Tower.

Arriving at the Eiffel Tower...

We decided at this point that we would hop off the bus and go up to the Eiffel Tower.  We had some quick discussion about who was actually brave enough to go to the top...

And this is the crew that chose the adventure!!  MiMi and I decided to stay safely on the ground!

PaPa enjoyed it!

The view was amazing!!

And this picture says it all!! A was SO excited to go up!!  PaPa & Little R were excited!  T was terrified!  I can't believe she actually did it!  She has my fear of heights and dislike of crowded, closed in spaces...and this had both!  But she said she thought she would regret it if she didn't....so up she went!  I'm not sure she actually enjoyed, but she can now say she has been to the top of the Eiffel Tower!

After they came down from the tower, we decided to hop back on the bus and head back to the apartment, calling it an end to our day.  Little did we know our adventure was just beginning!!

We went to the bus stop and waited for the next bus.  More and more people started showing up, waiting for the bus.  We waited for probably 30 minutes...and it started raining...and more people showed up, hoping to get on the bus.  When the bus pulled up, there was a mad scramble of running, pushing people forcing themselves in the doors of the bus!  Even though we were the first ones there waiting for the bus, we were the last ones to get on!  The bus was completely full, people standing on top of each other in the aisles.  So what was our only choice???

The completely empty open top of the bus!!!

We had to go to the top of the bus!!  It was pouring rain, the seats had puddles of water on them, and the floor had about 4 inches of standing water!!  But we sat down, put our umbrellas up, and made the best of it!!  R and the girls were waving at everyone on the streets, singing and dancing around!!  Little R had a major meltdown about being wet...but then even he got over it and settled in for the ride.  By the time we made it to our apartment, we were all soaking wet and cold!  It was miserable at the time, but now that all is said and done, it is probably one of our favorite memories of the trip!  Day 2 DONE...thankfully dry and warm in the apartment!!