The Grand Hotel Waterford Tramore

... surprising considering the Irish love of spuds. Why exclude them from breakfast?

After fortifications are complete we head for the coast. Our drive takes us past Limerick and over the Shannon River, Ireland's longest river. A while latter we arrive at the beach, Spanish Point. As it was already late in the day we waste no time gearing up and hitting the waves. I'm completely decked out in loaner gear, but I'm using the same kayak I have at home, so it feels ...

... low enough, you will never be disappointed" certainly does not apply to airline food. They really can't get anything right. Even the bread is sub-standard. I would be curious to know how it compares to prison food.

Michelle was a star and drove all the way to Dublin to pick me up. It was a 5 hour return trip for her, but I was greeted with genuine enthusiasm. The drive back was ...

... problems (I think they are restructuring, or at some stage in bankruptcy proceedings), and have basically shut everything down for now. However, the showroom is still open, so you can see all these various Waterford Crystal...things. Clocks, chandeliers (if you know Mel at all, you will know she liked seeing these), sculptures, etc. I really liked the copies of the trophies they have made for various sporting events (many for Tennis, Racing ...

... now there is a car up my ****... sorry Dad!!

We then continued onto Waterford.. the oldest city in Ireland. Lovely mixture of new and old and a very unusual piece of art hanging from the storage sheds over the river. See pics of girls face! We spent some time in our favourite place, the tourist centre and booked accomodation for tonight and our stay in Kilanery. Our guest house was called Portree.. very appropriate as we just came from that city in ...

... c'est tres beau et relaxant . demain on vas faire un tour guide en autobus et apres on vas prendre l'auto pour aller se promener dans les campagnes. a bientot on vous donne d'autre nouvelle plus tard ps;ici c'est le temps des fraise pis y sont bonne en crisse . lylyet sophie

... de pecheur avec une belle plage on va en profiter et cette apres midi on va visiter un usine de cristal on as bien hate .pour la conduite on s'abitue mais on doit etre tres attentif heureusement lyly est bonne copilote et les distance a parcourir chaque jour sont courte.ce soir on va coucher dans un vieux chateau a 47km d'ici .
ps:on as tous pour etre bien de la guinness et du cafe tim hortons. a bientot. lyly et sophie xxx

... crystal factory has gone out of business - bought by Bank of America which is going to send manufacturing to someplace like Texas for sure...sad, but we'll see what's left tomorrow.

Then back to Dublin...Guinness Factory Tour and then sadly back to the US.

Now for Sister Carolyn - Darnit Katie has all the fun! I ate dinner with a window salesperson from Wisconsin. Turns out he sells Kolbe and Kolbe windows. Which we have in our house. I hate them ...

... to see the other side of the Atlantic Ocean - the town of Ardmore was much more impressive in the vision of Nora Roberts than it was in person! Because it was a Monday, pretty much everything was closed, It was drizzly and windy all day, so after a short walk on the beach, we headed out.

Happily, a wrong turn took us up a country road and ...

... the grounds so that Max could check it out - we had done that the last time as well, but thankfully this time it was not ******* it down with rain. Then we made our was around the back for Powerscourt Waterfall. The 130m waterfall is pretty spectacular and as you can imagine Max and I had quite a good time snappity snap snap with our cameras.

Glendalough was next on the trip list and we headed toward the Upper and Lower Lakes and ...

... night we slept in the car, the second on a pile of cushions... THE BLUES WAS INCREDIBLE!!!! I could not stop moving! I drank my first pint of guiness, and it was surprisingly very tasty! All the food I have eaten tastes much better than the food back home. It tastes real. Even their ******, processed cheese tastes better than our ****** processed cheese. I was shocked when I was able to buy real food at the gas station. I've been warning ...