Dublin: What to do

Ok...maybe by the time we take our next vacation I will be done blogging about the last. Sorry folks. I know I have been back in the country almost 2 months now and I still haven't gotten you guys out of Dublin...I will try harder to blog more.

So what did we do in Dublin? Besides eat and drink? No much....In fact one of my to-do's is to go drink. So let's get to it.

1. Day trip to Howth.
This is a nice little trip to take. I know it is not really Dublin, but I still recommend it. It is a 30 minute train ride east of the city. Howth is a little port town on the Irish Sea. Why go here? It is quaint, beautiful, you can feed the seals, you can eat great Irish fare like fish and chips, there is a little park and playground if you have kids, and there is a bit of shopping. (Don't let the shopping really sell you that much, it wasn't great). We enjoyed getting out and seeing the ocean. There are some nice views and it is a nice area to leisurely walk. There are lots of good restaurants and we ate at the Oar House. We spent most of the morning there and went back after lunch, so it wasn't a full day, but a nice escape.








2. Trinity College
What a gorgeous campus this is. We took the 30 minute tour, which I recommend. It gives you a little history on the college and you realize it has really been around for a long time. They also preface you a bit on the Book of Kells, so when you go see it, you know more about what you are looking at. The Book of Kells is a must see. On the surface it is not overly impressive, but when you think about how long ago it was done and completely by hand, that is when it becomes pretty awesome to look at it. That is why I think the tour was great. Once I knew more about it, it was infinitely more interesting. Plus...at the end of going to see the Book of Kells you walk through the old library which is a magnificent treat. It looks like something out of a movie or another era. Truly how you imagine an old college library to be. My favorite part of the whole Trinity college experience.

Isn't it AWESOME!

3. Shop Grafton Street
Yes...this is a must and yes there is a Gap and other stores we already all know about...but what a nice little afternoon to have spent perusing the other interesting shops. We found several great little finds. If you have little girls...take them to the Accessorize store...soooo cute clothes, shoes, jewelry, bags, etc... They have some great things for mom too!

4. Visit the Guinness Brew house
This was not at the top of my list of things I was dying to do in Ireland, but it is a definite must I will admit. Even if you don't drink beer, it was a great tour, an impressive building, and there is an amazing 360 degree view of Dublin at the top at the Gravity Bar. SO for nothing else....go for that. The gift shop is one of the best I have ever seen too.

Sarah playing in the Hops (Who says there is nothing for the kids at the brewery!)

Charlie pretending he is excited about it sample of Guinness! He is not a beer drinker.

These guys are beer drinkers, on the other hand....

Sarah and her Sprite at the Gravity Bar

5. Go find a pub and enjoy the good life in Dublin. If you are lucky they will be playing some Irish music and if you are really lucky, there might be some Irish dancing!

Let the activities commence...

School is back in session...therefore...the activities are back in session. This in turn makes me a busy mom and leaves even less time for blogging. Love it though, and I encourage my girls to be involved and seek to find what it is they really love. Otherwise we would all be sitting at home watching Nick Jr. and staring at the computer...so this is good for us all!

So what is on tap for the Fall???

Sarah: Gymnastics, Girl Scouts, Irish Dancing, Hip/Hop and Soccer
Lauren: Gymnastics, Music, and Ballet/Tap

Luckily for me they have gymnastics on the same day at the same time and when Lauren has ballet/tap, Sarah has hip hop.

Lauren is loving her ballet/tap class. She is in there with her BFF Addison and she really gets so excited to dress up like a ballerina.



Today she took her first gymnastics class at a real gym and she was FANTASTIC. I should have taken my camera. She was so cute in her little leotard with chubby legs, she followed instruction, tried everything, and really loved it. She was even really good at everything. So much so....visions of Mary Lou were dancing in my head and I was thinking "Is it wrong to sign my 2 year-old up for gymnastics twice a week. Do I need to write Bela and starting planning a move to Houston? Does Bela even still have his ranch and still coach? Does Mary Lou coach?" Anyway...I hope she keeps it up!

As for Sarah...She is loving Hip Hop and being in a class with all 4 of her longtime BFF's.

She officially starts Girls Scouts back up next week and Irish Dancing in a couple of days. She took her 1st gymnastics class at a new gym today and loved it. Soccer is in full swing. They played their first game this last weekend. They now get to play goalie which was a highlight for Sarah. It is going to be a busy, but super fun fall!

Go Hurricanes!

Back to School

I cannot believe it! Where did the summer go and where did my baby Sarah go? I know she is only in first grade, but in the blink of an eye we will be dropping her off 2 blocks from the school for junior high and I cannot make time slow down. I so badly want to see her grow and become a beautiful woman, but I think childhood is going just a bit too fast.

So 1st grade...new teacher, new friends. Thankfully she knows a few girls in her class, but for the most part it is all new people. I hope she has a great day. I hope she likes her teacher and I hope she has fun with her new friends. She was so excited last night that she didn't want to read a story, but go right to bed. She looked so super cute this morning in her new dress and her spectacular shoes. They are very sparkly and they light up when she walks. Lauren is very jealous. (No worries Lauren, they will be yours in about 4 years!)

If you look closely, you can see the purple light on the carpet coming from Sarah's shoes!

Lauren, on the other hand, was starting a new class today at her daycare. She is not technically in pre-school, but it is school all the same. She is not wearing uniforms yet, but that is really the only difference. She was a little shy at first, gingerly walking into her class and checking it out. I know once her BFF Addison shows up she will snap out of it and be full of energy. She has missed "her Addison" all summer and is so glad she will be back in her class!

Wanna Go, Gotta Go, A-Chi-O

First off....I finished my post about Where to Eat in Dublin...Because it was a work in progress, when I posted it, it post dated it back to when I started working on it, so it does not show as my last post. Go HERE to read it if you are interested.

Ok...Back to Alpha Chi Omega...

This is Rush week (excuse me...recruitment week) over at TCU. As the FW Alumnae Pres. it is my duty to get the alumnae over there to the campus to help out with parties, and meals, and such. As much as rush is hated in general for its long hours and non-stop singing and smiling, I actually do enjoy going over to the house and being a part of it all. It brings back a lot of memories of all the good times I had at TCU while living in the AXO house. It reminds me of a much simpler time in my life and part of me longs to have that back. However, I wouldn't trade a thing for the life I have now with my husband and kids. Although it might make me feel older to be surrounded by young women just starting their lives, it sort makes me feel younger like I was back in college. I enjoy meeting a lot of the collegians and hanging out with my sisters I may not see very much. It is a fun bonding experience that can be hectic and tiring, but worth it.

Collegians preparing for recruitment

Wonderful Alumnae

3 Little AXO Legacies

I know I will be coming home every night singing all those old songs.
They really do get stuck in your head.

One of these days

One of these days I will get back to posting. I have been so busy this summer, that I can hardly find the time to sit and think for more than a few minutes. Right now I am sitting in the most gorgeous beach house in Manhattan Beach watching the morning surfers ride the waves.
I may never leave.
They are going to have to drag me out of here on Sunday. I thought I would catch up on my blogging while being here, but I have found that the beach has been calling me and my kids everyday. I also found the entire series of Twilight books here in the house, so I could not resist doing a little reading. (and I never read).

SO I have lots to post about. I am working on the what to eat in Dublin post currently....but after this week I may have to post about what to eat in the South Bay. We have been eating at all of our old favorite places this week and I feel about 10 pounds heavier.

Side note: We used to live down here in PV and I used to work in Redondo Beach, so this is our old stomping grounds when we were newlyweds. Who knows...maybe in the near future we will be back. ;)

So I will get back to blogging...I promise...just maybe not this weekend. Only a few more days in beach house heaven and I am going to soak it up!

Dublin: Where to Eat

I think it is pretty safe to say that our favorite thing we did in Dublin, was EAT. We had a few great meals and I am going to share those with you.

The Favorite: Kinara
Type of Food: Indian/Pakistani

If you read my blog at all, you probably know my love of Indian food. So I was very excited when my mother-in-law found this place and suggested we go. It was a little outside of the city center, but so worth the little bit longer taxi ride. They totally accommodated our group of 14 and gave us a private table upstairs in a private room that had its own bar. (This was also prefect because I was able to smuggle in McDonald's for the kids without the whole restaurant being privy to the situation.)

What we ate:
Appetizers:
The brought us an assortment of the best lamb shanks we have ever had. BBQ'd to perfection and little on the spicy side. Also we had prawns, chicken, and aloo-tiki (potato cakes with garlic)! Yum!
I also had the Kinara signature martini to start. It tasted like a grapefruit!

Dinner:
Charlie and I split the chicken tikka masala (always a favorite) and the Nehari Gosht. It is a traditional Pakistani beef dish. Both were excellent. It was all served with an assortment of cheese, sweet, and regular naan.


The Chicken Tikka Masala came in these cute little red pots!


Dessert:
Most people had the assortment of mixed ice creams, but I had the Mississippi Mud Cake. Yes, you heard me right....that is why I had to get it. Do Indian/Pakistani people that live in Dublin know anything about Mississippi Mud?? The answer is NO. It cam out more like a chocolate chess pie. It was not the Mississippi Mud I grew up with. It was still good.

Yeah..not quite what I had envisioned.

My Irish coffee for my dessert with my dessert. Made with Jameson. Too strong for me. It did not get left undrinken (is that a word). With the McDonald family it was sure to find a happy home.

The view outside the restaurant. Gorgeous.

Restaurant #2 was called Millstone. This was a more traditional place that served more traditional items. They also had an early bird menu that was a great deal. You basically got 2-3 courses at a set price, so that was nice.

Starters:
We started with the garlic cheese bread...very good. Some people had salads which looked awesome. They were very much a traditional garden salad, which in Europe is sometimes hard to come by.
Main course:
Most people go the Chicken breast or the Beef with peppercorn sauce. Both looked amazing and I was a little bummed I had not ordered it too. However, I got the vegetable lasagna and it was very good.


Dessert:
We opted out of the dessert because on the way there we saw this place....

Yes, that is what it was. A milkshake bar. You basically select what you want and they whip it up. Sort of like a Blizzard, but better and not as thick.

The other place we ate at for lunch, and made many other stops at every time we walked by, was the Queen of Tarts. You know it has to be good just by the name alone. There were actually 2 locations, so either way we were walking we were sure to walk past. We stopped in mostly for the desserts. Macaroons, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, and of course tarts. The lemon meringue was a crowd favorite. We actually did eat here for lunch too one day. They had great sandwiches, salads, and soups. I had a potato and onion tart, that was a little dry, but very tasty!

My potato and red onion tart lunch.

Charlie's berry pie...the whipped cream was heavenly.

One last place to mention would be Bewley's. They are well known for their tea, but we stopped in for breakfast the morning we arrived. We got in about 8:30am, so of course our hotel rooms were not ready, so we walked down to Grafton Street and had a little breakfast. This was a great stop. They had regular breakfast items (like pancakes) which made it great for the kids, but they also had small Continental breakfasts with tea/coffee that were perfect for us. A nice place to hang out!