I am still recovering from our 17-day, self-directed vacation in Ireland. We traveled with another couple and visited three main areas: Dublin, Belfast, and the Dingle Peninsula. It was wonderful! The weather was quite brisk and breezy but I was prepared for it (thanks to all the great advice from YLF friends) and I really loved it. The Irish people we met were amazingly friendly and helpful -- everyone expresses their politics right up front, so we just nodded our heads when appropriate and engaged in conversation when it seemed right to do so.

One thing I did wrong was to start growing out my hair before this trip...I should have at least had it trimmed because it was a hot mess during this entire trip -- blowing this-away and that-away. Oh well. Forever etched in pictures!

After soliciting your advice about what to pack, I did pretty well, I think, and was able to get everything into a normal-sized carryon bag (which we checked), as I had also stuffed my messenger bag and much-smaller cross body purse with essentials I could not live without during the long transatlantic flights. Of course I wore the heaviest/bulkiest clothes to conserve space in my suitcase.

I took:

- outerwear: a warm woolen kelly green duffel coat and a lighter ponte knit navy blazer
- jeans, black & navy pants
- a V-neck cashmere sweater and the "infamous" Gap cable-knit sweater
- 4 tops: one Breton striped, 3 solid
- a blue chambray shirt
- black oxfords & black suede fleece-lined boots
- lingerie, sleepwear, Uniqlo tanks, gloves, etc.
- bought 2 Irish woolen mufflers and wore them a lot for the warmth

For the (mostly) casual nature of our sightseeing, these items worked very well. I am posting a lot of photos and you'll see that I wore the wool coat most of the time. For the sake of time I am not providing captions for each photo, but if you're curious about anything, just ask and I'll elaborate. I took over 900 photos so these are just a few of the many amazing sights we saw: Trinity College/Book of Kells, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Kilmainham Gaol, Belfast Castle, Old Bushmill's Distillery, Giant's Causeway, Titanic Belfast, Muckross House. And of course, lots of pubs, museums, window-shopping, seafood chowder and sticky toffee pudding, always some incredible, fantastic Irish music! I also spent the better part of a day researching my ancestors at PRONI in Belfast...wonderful people there, very helpful.

One of the most memorable events on our trip was unplanned. On our last day we were driving back from Dingle to Belfast for the flight home and hopped off the freeway for lunch in the small town of Nenagh. We could not find a single place to eat that was open, as we had waited too long for lunch service. In desperation, we found a parking place and got out to feed the meter, hoping to forage about for food. There was a nice-looking man coming down the street toward me and I stopped to ask him if he could recommend a place for lunch. "Just a minute," he said, "I might have something for you." So we waited a minute while he walked about 50 feet down the street; then he came back smiling and said, "Follow me!" Of course we were intrigued and we followed. What ensued was something out of Fantasyland! This nice man and his wife (the chef) own two of the finer restaurants in Nenagh and they were having one of them photographed for their website. Though the restaurant was closed, they invited us to order anything we want from their menu, as long as they could photograph us eating it! Wines, appetizers, mains, fabulous desserts -- nothing was off limit! We left there with full tummies and a wonderful impression of true Irish hospitality. Oh, the names of their restaurants are: The Peppermill and Pepe's. I cannot say enough good things about them. The last picture #32 is this wonderful couple (a goofy one of me but I'm not proud...). If you are still reading this, you are a trooper! Make your next trip a trip to Ireland; it is a magical place.

Enjoy!