The Adventure of Family Continues

The week we got home from Dublin, we kept the theme of family going with a visit from David's brother, Tommy. He has been living in Texas for the past year (give or take) and when we got back from Ireland, we learned that he was moving back to NC (yay!) and even better, he would be coming through Charlotte that week! We were lucky enough to have him stay with us for a few days on his way to Chapel Hill (actually Carrboro) where he would be living.

 

It was great to visit with him and get to meet our little niece-dog, PeePee.

 

PeePee is kind of a trip. Tommy found her in a desert, well, I guess PeePee technically found Tommy in a desert- where she had been wondering for a couple of weeks. She is a long-haired chihuahua that weighs about 6 pounds but has no problem making herself big. Her favorite perch is always right in someone's lap. Not sure Lila loved sharing the spotlight, but it was a treat for us to have some extra Willis' in the house for a few nights.

We tried out the newly re-opened Diamond Restaurant for dinner one night, and it was just like if you combined the original diner with the original Penguin. In other words, it was amazing. 

 

Since it was slammed we got to enjoy the bar and catch up a bit.

 

And enjoy the bar a little more...

 

It's a fabulous addition to the neighborhood, just the kind of place we have been missing since the Penguin closed. If you haven't checked it out yet, do yourself a favor and schedule a trip soon!

A Pub's View of Dublin

One of the highlights of the trip, besides going to the Brownbread Mixtape on Wednesday night was the pub crawl through Dublin where we hit almost 8 pubs in one day. Yeah, I know- we were pretty impressed too. 

Here are a few shots from the pub crawling... yeah, that is the sun, we started in the middle of the day. 

 

 

Coming out of the pub was kind of like coming out of a movie theatre in the middle of the day, you know what I mean...way too bright. 

 

But not to worry we were back in another pub soon.

 

 After Neary's we headed to O'Neill's for a highlight in and of itself. Oh yeah, we had a carvery. If you have had one, then you know how amazing it can be, and if you haven't all I can say is, if you ever find yourself in Dublin, head to O'Neill's for lunch. It will be worth it.

 

I intended to take a photo of the plate full of food, but I am afraid it dissappeared too quickly and this is all I got...

Just an empty plate with some leftover mushy peas.

 We were lucky and got a pretty sweet window spot. The tourist office is right across the street so there is plenty of good watching from there- plus since the election was underway, there was plenty of excitement in the streets.

 

 Then we headed over to the 4th pub of the day, and probably the favorite, Grogan's.

It is known as an artist's pub and has some very serious locals. Maybe that is what we liked about it so much- plus it had some cool stained glass inside too that pretty much showed what the bar looked like...

 

What trip to a pub is complete without some Guinness 'staches? 

Maybe even cooler to note all the art behind them on the walls- it was everywhere and it was really interesting. 

 

 

After Grogan's, we stopped in at a place called, "The No Name Bar" which was very different from a typical Irish pub, it was more like a trendy cocktail bar- who doesn't love a little variety?

Not exactly stained glass, but still cool! Plus we were joined by Jessica's other half at this point- Kalle joined us for the next few places and dinner.

 

The to another Dublin favorite, The Long Hall. I didn't get any photos inside, but it is really a beautiful proper old Victorian bar.  It's is almost completely authentic.  It's also not really on the tourist map so see a lot of old regular drinkers in a bar like this.

Oddly enough, over pints at this bar, Katie and I discovered that one of my sister's good friends in Ireland actually lived on the same hall as us, in the same dorm one year at UNC. We were kind of shocked and couldn't believe how small the world really appears to be sometimes.

After The Long Hall we went to dinner and hit one more pub before heading home to crash after a long day of drinking. It was a fun way to see the Dublin....or at least the inside of a lot of different pubs in Dublin!

Howth - a little more hill walking

One particularly clear day we headed out for another hike in Howth, which is technically a northern suburb of Dublin (check out the map from a previous post to find Howth- its in the upper right hand corner), but when you get out there it really feels like you are far, far away from the city.

Howth is basically a little fishing village on the coast. In addition to hillwalking, it is popular for bird watching and sailing- I hear that some times you can even see seals hanging out around Howth.

 

 

We left the harbor and drove up the hill a bit to start our hike. 

 

 

 

Once we finished our hike, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to town. Then we stole Casper from Jessica for a few hours so she could get some things done at the house. We all walked into Sandymount village to just wander around and grab a few groceries before heading back home.

 

We might have even bought Casper a new hat...

 

 

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think that was the night that we went out to dinner with the Larssons to an Indonesian feast at The Chameleon.  I would highly recommend this place to anyone who look for some contemporary Indonesian cuisine with an amazing atmosphere. We reserved a special table where we all literally sat on pillows on the floor - by the end of the night the waitress had to practically wake us up to move us along.
 

However, before calling it a night, we grabbed a pint at Mulligan's, one of Dublin's oldest (founded in 1782) and most historic pubs. This pub is said to pour the best pint of Guinness in Dublin and its one of my favorites- so no trip to Dublin is complete without a stop at Mulligan's.

Sweden Meets Dublin

Life seemed to get to busy for me and I don't think its fair to keep all my readers in such suspense about the rest of our trip in Ireland. I will wrap it up with a few quick posts so I can get on with sharing what else is going with on with our lives.

So another morning in Dublin came and I spent some time feeding Casper.

And he spent some time feeding me.

 

Then things got really exciting, Katie and Henrik arrived!! They caught a flight from a snow dusted Sweden to come join us in Dublin for a few days. It was an amazing treat and we feel blessed to have friends that are willing to jet set and spend time with us. They really felt like members of the family and Casper felt right at home with all the Swedish that was spoken around him! You can check out some brilliant photos from their trip here. Mine barely compare to the ones Henrik took.

As soon as they arrived, we headed into town and stopped in at the National Gallery (lucky for us they put all the most famous paintings in one room, so you can see them all at once and move on!)

After the Gallery, we walked over to the "dead zoo" (which I think is actually called the National History Museum). 

 

David made a new badger friend.

 

While Casper preferred the monkeys.

 

Among other animals.... 

The amount of "animals" they had in there was a bit ridiculous. 

Then we grabbed a pint and some lunch at a really nice place called, Market Bar. We mostly just played with Casper.

I think he kind of had a crush on Katie (but who can blame the kid - right? No worries, Henrik was cool with it).