Back in San Francisco

So Jessie, Oretta and I left Ireland at 2:45pm on Sunday 20, July 2008. We arrived in Philadelphia at 5:30p.m. local (EST) time and got through customs, which was interesting because we had to take the bottles of liquor that we had purchased in the duty free shop in Ireland and now put them in our luggage for the 2nd leg of the trip. We got onto the plane to come to SF on time and then sat on the runway for 1 and 1/2 hours. So we finally landed (after circling) in SF at 1:00am. I still woke up at 8 am this morning. Its weird to be back in SF and not going to work or to my old house but just being here on vacation. I can't wait to connect with everybody and will take a hiatus from entering anything onto the blog. I'll be back in Ireland on 20 September 2008.

See you all then!

The Rock of Cashel and Cahir Castle

So, we took Oretta and Jessie on one final sightseeing trip before we leave for the States. We left Wednesday afternoon for the 1.5 hour drive to Cashel in County Tipperary.

The Rock of Cashel has a very ancient history. Documents have been kept on the local since the 4th centruy. History has it that St. Patrick converted the local King, Aenghus at Cashel in the 5th century. Prior to that the Kings of Munster reigned there from 370AD until Brian Boru was crowned high king of all Ireland here early in the 11th century. In 1101 Muircheartach O'Brien handed the Rock over to the Church. There is a large cathedral, ancient round tower and a Romanesque Church called Cormac's Chapel. Additionally, in Cashel town itself there is the Bru Boru Cultural center where we had dinner followed by a show of tranditional Irish evening entertainment. It rained on Thursday when we went to the rock and I have a cute picture of Oretta hiding out from the rain.

After we toured the rock we took Oretta( she was not feeling well again) back to the hotel and let her have a nap. Jessie went back as well and following a short nap Adrian and I took a drive out to Cahir to see the castle there while the ladies stayed at the hotel. Cahir Castle was built in the 13th century, by the Anglo-Norman de Berminghams and then taken over by the Butlers, and its one of the few intact castles to have survived through Cromwell's time. The Butler family owned it until the 1960's when it was turned over to the government of Ireland. It has been bused in films such as Triston and Isolde and Excalibur.

We got up Friday morning, had breakfast and came home to begin the packing process for our trip back to the states.

Enjoy the photos - see you all soon!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/

Father/Daughter bonding time

On Saturday Adrian and Jessie departed for Cork with a side trip to Cobh. They went to check out the University at Cork, as it will be one of the locations Jessie applies to for next year. They took their time to drive back today with some stops in Kinsale and at the beach's and Loch Gur. I have attached the pictures Adrian took, he did not take any in Cork for some reason.

Enjoy - 6 days until we leave and come back to the US for a while.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/sets/

Irish Weather

Hail in the corner by the front door.
Hail pile on the ground.
The flood in the driveway
It's 8:30pm, its raining and the sun is shining its about 70 degrees
The most hail is on the side of the house.


Ok, so it has rained off and on most of today, and though its not as windy as yesterday today started out a bit chilly. However, by mid afternoon, the sun was shining and it was very warm out, so we headed into Ennis for the street fair. The fair was a bit disappointing, but we hooked up with freinds and went to dinner at Holywell a very good Vegetarian Italian Restaurant. We got home about 8:30pm, the sun is still shining, we saw a rainbow on the way home, we drive up the driveway and what do we see.....it looks like snow.....its not really, its piles of hail, that are melting. The beauty of summer in Ireland is that you can experience all four seasons in the span of a couple of hours. So for fun we have loaded some pictures of the "snow" and rain and sunshine. Have a great weekend.

4th of July

We had a very wonderful celebration yesterday here at Granahan Mor. Most of Adrian's co-workers and families showed up, interestingly enough I will have to tell people what to bring in the future as we had 4 different versions of Pasta Salad and 1 potato salad. We provided the burgers, the dogs and ribs. The ribs were not such a hit with the Irish, and they were a bit of trouble to find. When I went into the butcher and asked if they had country style pork ribs I was told they would need to be ordered. I then asked if there were any ribs suitable for Barbecuing and was told no. I had to go to another butcher to get the ribs. Next party I'll just do the dogs and burgers they were a huge hit. The weather was typically Irish, on the 3rd it was absolutely beautiful, yesterday I was barbecuing in the rain....shades of camping at McClure :0

Following are pictures of the party and you'll get an idea of some of the new freinds we have made here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/