Dublin and County Meath

I've missed a day of updating, but I'm short on time, and the connection's been kind of slow. So I'll put up just a few pics of our trip to County Meath Saturday and then Dublin City yesterday. The weather in County Meath was....blustery and wet! It was a little in Dublin too, but not nearly as bad.

The above 3 pics are Monasterboice Abbey, from the 11th century. The weather was just amazingly cold and rainy, so we didn't get too many pictures! This is truly a beautiful place though--home of a group of Cistercian monks in the 11th-13th centuries. The whole place only took them 15 years to build--and it was quite extensive.

Revisiting one of my favorite places: New Grange. Pre-dates Stonehenge by a couple thousand years! They've done wonderful restoration work here since I saw it in the 80's. Visit this place if you ever have the chance! And if it's a blustery day, be sure to have a creamy Bailey's Latte at the tourist center. Yum...

Some doors of Dublin. Quite a sight!

The statue is of Oscar Wilde. It is made from all different colors of Irish marble. So his jacked is green and pink marble, shoes are black marble, etc. It was amazingly beautiful and realistic.

We were in Kildare yesterday! I of course forgot Ben Fur!

From the TOP of a round tower in Kildare! We climbed up very steep ladders up to it's 107 foot top! Wow! Going down was less fun than going up! This is St. Brigid's. There were very unusual carvings in the cathedral, including skull & crossbones! Odd!

We ate at the Silken Thomas pub--we were served the most gargantuan serving of beef that I've ever seen for lunch! Couldn't eat it all! But it was good.





We went to an Irish Government Stud Farm and learned all SORTS of interesting things!

Japanese Garden! Very lovely.

Howth, Ireland

We're at Melise's house now and got to take a lovely walk in her village this afternoon. We're eating at one of their favorite restaurants tonite.

Celebrate the Girl!

A little recap of the fun weekend we had last weekend and a celebration of the 17 short, short years that our Artist in Residence and her friends have been spicing things up around here!

Graduation Fun!

Which one is the graduate? The Artist and The Girl on graduation day!













The graduates! Hard work pays off! It was such a proud-parent day!!

Is the EU ready for these two?

They're sleepy in this picture, but when summer gets here and they wake up, watch out!!

Prom Night!

L'Artiste in Residence is one step closer to graduation! Tonight was Prom, and she went with her sweet friend C. Aren't they both just smashing! Just a few more events, and then we're all Europe-bound!!