Flying is fun.

The Puffy Shirt






Civil War era French Horn

Yes, I am a complete slacker. I haven't posted DC pics yet. I know. Slacker. Actually I lost the cord that attaches the camera to the computer (well, not lost misplaced under the sofa...I have no idea how the hell that happened...).

So without further ado.

Our President




Love this shot



Vice President Biden taking the oath:




Jane looking cool:




Jane and I quite cold before the show:




Night Before:




Stephen Colbert in the Smithsonian:




There ya go, a taste of what is to come.

Cheers!

Well Castlebar was great. We enjoyed some of the best Indian food I have ever had there, as well as seeing some really good Irish musicians. Our friends didn't show up, but because of their good advice on the bar we had a great time, even though T committed heresy by spilling his Guinness on me at the pub. Shame T shame!
After we left Westport we headed to Dingle. Travis and I thought of a horrible idea for creating a Berry farm in Dingle. *sigh* Yes we are still teenage boys at heart. We stayed in our first B&B and went to a pub whose English name translates into "The small bridge." We watched Spain destroy Russia in the European cup game 3-0. Immediately following the match a local Irish duo entertained the crowd. Sadly, or not so sadly, I hardly heard them at all for having a great chat with a girl from Boston (who might actually come visit me when she is out to Oregon later this month *tries not to get his hopes up*). We had a wonderful conversation and I completely ignored T, but he didn't seem to mind with the music playing.
Today saw us leaving for Waterford, home of the famous Waterford Crystal. Leaving Dingle, the weather was just like it has been since we got here, cold and rainy. However, on the approach to Waterford we actually saw the sun, who knew it existed here? ;)
We toured the Waterford Crystal plant. It is amazing how 99% of all the work in done by hand there in this world of high-tech manufacturing of everything. I can now see why their wares are so expensive. Tomorrow we head to Dublin where we will more than likely spend the rest of our trip. Everything is so damn expensive here, the food bills are draining our funds rapidly. We are trying to conserve as much as we can to still have enjoyment money. Damn US dollar being what it is.
I have been really out of touch on the news and on LJ, I just learned today that George Carlin died. I always liked him, so tomorrow while we are out I'll drink a toast to him.

Cheers.

I have fallen in love with this city. The city is small, but very pretty. Travis and found the hostel we thought would be great, but the "accessible" room was...hmm....lacking to say the least. It looked like it used to be a closet that opened onto this muddy gravel driveway. The bathroom was across the mud, but easy for the chair.
We went out to watch Spain vs. Italy in the European Cup. Here we met a great group of people who we shared many pints with. From there we went to the world famous Matt Malloys. Here we had had many more pints and T was roaring drunk when we left. We went to a chip shop and on the way he repeatedly professed his love of chips to me, and then threatened to regurgitate them on me from the top bunk. Thank god he didn't.
Matt Malloys is also the reason we are in Castlebar at the moment. There was a group of women who loved the Hat T is wearing and started chatting us up. They flirted with us, and yes T let them know he is married, this turned their attention to me: =D They invited us to a pub here in Castlebar tonite. So here we are.

I have more to say really but T is dragging me from the internet cafe'. I'll post more at some point.

Cheers!

So this year in Washington I killed 5 sparrows with my Scion. Today T and I killed some bird on a back road coming out of Donegal. Seriously, wtf?

Today we left Donegal heading towards Westford and the famous Matt Maloys, where I am headed after this post. Other than killing birds the driver was uneventful (no more Semi's decided to say howdy to us today). We went to Ceide Fields near Ballycastle today. http://www.museumsofmayo.com/ceide.htm
The Atlantic was raging to the right of us as the last vestiages of a wind storm was blowing through. The wind had some fun at my expense going up and down the hills around Ceide fields. We got some great pictures that I hope to share at some point when we get back, I didn't bring the cord to upload pics to LJ. At times it helped me to get up the hills, at other times the winds made everything much more difficult. T and I had a great time though exploring the area before the heavens opened up on us again. C'est La Vie.

We had fun driving around the coastal areas of the Northwest Coast. The roads are very narrow with speed limits of 100 kph (approx. 60 mph). The roads are not that good in places, and sheep wander around and stop in the road, so many of the corners were entertaining. (I honestly thought we were about to launch one poor sheep into the sea, but she/he got out of the way just in time).

Well got to run, Guinness time comes again.

Cheers!!

Yesterday morning found us in Belfast. We walked/rolled from our hostel to find some breakfast. We were really surprised at how far we had to walk in downtown to find a place serving, oh well exercise for the day! We originally planned to leave Belfast and take a ferry over to Scotland for the day, but that all changed when...
Merging onto the M1 coachway a semi (lorry) driver decided he didn't want us to merge into his lane. T stopped the car half in the lane half in the merge lane. Not that we had much choice there was construction going on and we were out of room to keep going forward. There was a crunch as the semi hit us damaging the driver side (right hand side of the car) mirror. We would have just dealt with him and not the police, but our car was stuck to the semi and we couldn't move. So we got to meet Belfast's finest, and I say that honestly, they were very friendly and even joked with us, well me a bit more since I was a passenger and had nothing to do with it. Needless to say that changed our whole day because it took us an hour and a half to get off of the semi. *sigh*
Afterwards we decided to head to our hostel in Bushmill's N. Ireland. Yes that Bushmills. We got in too late to visit the distillary, but we will be going this morning when they open in two hours. I can't wait! mmmmm....Bushmills. I had to have some last night at the pub while we watched Turkey and Croatia play a football match.
On our way to Bushmills we stopped at Giants Causeway. This is a magnificent site to visit. Thousands of years ago lava created these perfect hexagons rocks that are basically volcanic crystal rocks formatation. Legend has it that the giant Finn McCool built a path of these stone to go fight the Scottish Giant across the water. When he got there he saw that the giant was much bigger than him, so he ran home and his wife dressed him as a baby. When the Scottish Giant came over to fight McCool he saw the "baby" giant and thought if McCool's baby was this big he didn't want to fight McCool and ran back to Scotland tearing up the Causway as he went.
Today our plans are to see the distillary and then head to Donnegal. Our plans may change on the way, but who knows. Till then...

Cheers!

Made it into Ireland A-Okay after a VERY long day traveling. Got up at 4:30 for a 7:30 that was delayed 4 hours. I was delayed so long I had to be re-routed on a different airline. I flew Air France to Paris, then to Dublin. Since I wasn't expecting to go through Paris, I wasn't quite prepared to deal with their airport. I was horribly confused, had a hard time finding someone who spoke English, but eventually wound up on the right flight to Dublin (just in time!)
T and I are having fun, but were really exhausted last night and went to be incredibly early, but I think that we will be used to the time switch in a couple of days.
We really did not do much yesterday, but we did go to Trinity University to see the book of Kells which is really amazing to see. Then we went to the largest medieval library in Europe (according to the library). I was shocked. Thousands of old books, yes the book geek in me was geeking out!
Today we are heading north towards Belfast area. We might not make it that far, but that is the current plan. I will be keeping somewhat updated on this.

Cheers!

This area is taken near my apartment, it is just down the street from where I live. I am having to find alternate routes out of my complex and to get to and from school. Several of the roads that I normally take are underwater. I am hoping that I don't have to try and get on Highway 101 because all of the entrances nearby are also underwater.
K, God, you can stop the rain anytime! I feel like Yaeger Lake is going to be coming into my bedroom any minute!!!




Freaking yay!