Day 3: Dublin

So our intention was to have most of yesterday (Saturday) in dublin, touring around on a hop on hop off bus tour. We did something similar in Singapore last year and it helped get acclimated to the time change, get oriented and get to see the city without expending much energy. Brilliant plan when traveling with kids. That is if the airlines cooperate and you land at a decent hour. So we missed yesterday and slept through the morning. By the time we showered and got everyone out the door (ahhh... No more smell of barf trailing behind me!) it was 1:00 pm and we were hungry. I was counting on getting a good breakfast in us all, as that's my standby- 'when all else fails feed them breakfast'. But we missed that and ended up at a cafe 1 block away. We then proceeded to find the nearest bus stop by Christchurch which is only 2 blocks from the hotel. The tour and driver were great and did everything we hoped. A quick overview of the city, oriented ourselves, discovered what was truly walking distance with kids, plus the girls enjoyed sitting upstairs on the double decker bus. Since Scarlett is not a child who can be convinced to try to go pee before leaving somewhere 'just in case' or 'because we are getting on a bus with no bathroom', she of course had to go pee about 20 minutes into the tour. Normally this may be irritating, but she chose the Jameson distillery stop as her time to announce she needed to go. Perfect. We were looking for a good excuse to take a tour anyways. We learned a lot about how irish whiskey is made and enjoyed the old distillery, now turned museum/ tour spot. When the guide asked for volunteers to be whiskey tasters, Audrey's hand shot up, "pick me! Pick me!" and Scarlett immediately followed suit. This of course elicited some giggles from the group, but also helped secure joe a spot at the tasting table. He tasted (and the girls smelled) a scotch whiskey, an American whiskey and a 5 year old Jameson Irish whiskey. Joe even got a certificate as an 'official' Jameson taster. So after 3 trips to Jameson's bathroom and some stiff drinks, we returned to our bus tour. Some of the highlights include Jameson, Christchurch, Guinness, kilmainham prison, st. Patricks cathedral, temple bar.... Hmm... I see why Dublin is so much fun- bars, prisons and churches are among the tourist hot spots. The bus tour ended on O'Connell street where we found dinner at Flannigans. Wait. Stop the presses. Yes, yes, you are correct. We did not stop at the Guinness storehouse today. We have tickets for and intentions to stop there tomorrow morning. But just the timing of things today and when things close versus when people needed to be fed, it just didn't make sense. Rest assured, we did indeed order some guinness with dinner. Joe had an amazing Irish stew with what appeared to be an entire leg of lamb in the bowl (still on the bone of course), I had a portabella mushroom burger, Scarlett insisted on ordering spaghetti with chicken (which she then mostly refused to eat until we secured a tiny spoon and Audrey fed her like a bird) and Audrey got a veggie lasagna. And the Guinness flowed. And with a name like Joe Keeley, the man has a little street credit here even with his American accent. We then walked down O'Connell street to the River Liffey, walked along it until we got to the Ha'Penny pedestrian bridge and crossed over. I do believe Scarlett has some of her grand dd's love of bridges in her bc every time she sees one she gets so excited. And tonight was no different. "ooo! Ooo! I LOVE bridges!!" we crossed over to the temple bar area, which is where we would probably hangout if we were in college and staying at a hostel. But tonight we just walked through, sightseeing on our way back to the hotel. So the girls are in bed and we hope they stay that way until morning. Besides sleeping until noon, we were pretty much right on track today. Joe said he felt like a teenager when we woke him up at noon, but I quickly reminded him he was sleeping until noon still when I met him at 29. And I'm pretty sure he would still sleep that late if life allowed him to. Audrey calls him sleeping beauty. ;) Tomorrow's agenda includes Guinness, the leprechaun museum, hopefully the jail and Christchurch, picking up the car and driving to Kilkenny.