Some Irish randomness...

  So, Kathryn and I met all of our "Ireland objectives" except for a couple. We did NOT visit 30 or more pubs... at last count, I think we went to about 20. Which is pretty impressive considering we were there for less than 2 weeks! And Kathryn did not learn to drive a stick shift. After numerous discussions, we decided that an empty parking lot would be a better learning arena for her versus a narrow, two-way, winding road where she would be driving on the wrong side of the road... I know the Irish folks thank us for that decision.

Kat did a lot of "shooting from the belly" on the trip

Some favorite quotes from the trip:

"I mean, that's better than Dave Matthews." - Kat at the Temple Bar

Kathryn doing "work" in Ireland

"I found the handicapped bathroom... there were more rails in there than at a baseball stadium!" - Meagan at the Temple Bar

"It's a brown one." - cashier as I was frantically looking for a 5 cent piece (I had about a pound of change in my wallet)

"Oooo... that's pretty." - said 20+ times a day while driving

"If you'd quit taking pictures and walk, we might get there." - Meagan to Kathryn

"Rocks are boring." - Kathryn (but she had probably taken about 50 pictures of rocks before this quote)

Up close and personal with the sheep:)

"Go USA!" - Meagan upon seeing the bald eagle in Westport

"May I borrow your hairbrush?" - random roommates from Argentina (or were they French?)

Meagan upon reaching the top of Croagh Patrick: "Kathryn, is there anyone you would like to thank?"
Kathryn: "JESUS!"

"Oh, Lord have mercy..." - Meagan while driving up a cliff on a single-lane road with 2 lanes of traffic

"Scuse me, sir... I didn't mean to holler in your ear!" - Kathryn (those Irishmen didn't know what to think)

"You know what that means - I'm faster than the wind!" - Meagan after chasing down the runaway trashbag

"I'm sorry, what?" & "I have a hard time understanding your accent." - Kathryn and Meagan several times a day

Ride 'em, cowboy!

Wait! Make sure you get my good side...

And lastly... some questions for Ireland for Google - most of these were asked while we were driving through the countryside:)

1) Do squirrels live in Ireland?

Right before our bike ride became horrendous really tiring

 ti2) What is heather?
3) Do Irish men wear wedding bands?
4) Why is it "soda bread"?
5) Pound to dollar exchange rate
6) What are "cockles"?
7) Why do Irish folks drive on the other side of the road?
8) Cow gestation, labor and delivery information
9) Bourbon versus whiskey
10) "Bally-" means what? (several town names start with this prefix)

Ireland at its finest!