Photos of Our Ireland Trip

We've made it back home to San Diego and have been recovering from the jet lag.  We both go back to work on Monday, boo!  We had almost 1500 photos to sort through and I'm finally ready to post them.  Ireland was my second favorite trip that we've taken, I loved it.  We had fun driving all over the country seeing cool things, meeting people, listening to great music and drinking lots of Guinness.  I'm surprised I haven't had withdrawal yet, wait, maybe I am as I write this post.  We were really lucky with the weather, who says it always rains in Ireland?  We had dry weather for most of our trip.  It really only rained one evening and sprinkled on us a couple of times during the day.

We bought 2 CD's in Dublin for our 2 weeks of driving, so we know almost all the words to the songs.  And, we both admitted to waking up with songs in our head this morning from one of the CD's.  You can check out the music we were listening to on Myspace:  Dublin City Workingman's Band and James Riley.

I broke up the pictures into 8 albums.  You'll get the idea real quick that there are lots of forts, castles, churches and sheep everywhere.  It's like in the movie, National Lampoon's European Vacation, when Clark gets stuck in the roundabout and he keeps saying "hey look kids, there's Big Ben and there's Parliament."  I kept saying, "look honey, another fort in someone's backyard."  They were super cool though!  (Click on each picture to go to the album).

Dublin, Ireland Mar 2011

Kilkenny, Ireland Mar 2011

Ring of Kerry, Ireland Mar 2011

Dingle, Ireland Mar 2011

Doolin & Galway, Ireland Mar 2011

Westport & Derry, Ireland Mar 2011

Antrim Coast, Ireland Mar 2011

Belfast & Trim, Ireland Mar 2011

Desert Hiking

We made a last minute trip out to the desert over the weekend to go camping and hiking.  There are a lot of great trails at Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  We hiked the Slot Trail on Saturday and tried to get to the Wind Caves, but our Prius had a heard time getting through with all the ruts and deep sand.  We ended up hiking  a Nature Trail by our campground instead.  On Sunday, we explored the trails of Blair Valley.  They have a lot of historical significance.  The Ghost Mountain trail climbs a small mountain and houses the ruins of where a family lived in the 1930s.  We also hiked the Morteros and Pictograph Trail that show some history of the Kumeyaay Indians.

Hiking thru the Slot Trail

Looking out to the Borrego Badlands

Teddy Bear Cholla

Ruins of South Family house on Ghost Mountain

Groves where Indians ground nuts into meal

A Pictograph

Vallecitos Valley Lookout

A Roadrunner...Meep Meep

Rome, city with lots of history

We arrived in Rome about noon the first day of our trip. We took the train from the airport to the city center, checked into our hotel and headed to the Colosseum. It was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We were able to get a lot in that afternoon. After the Colosseum, we walked through the Forum to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Colosseum

The first night, we had dinner at a family-run restaurant that seemed to be in an alleyway. The streets are very small and narrow, so it always seems that you are walking in an alley. When we first arrived, the server sat us at a table that was so close to another couple, it would seem as though we were there all together. Most of the other tables were empty, so we asked to move. The couple told us that it wouldn't matter where we moved to, but we didn't understand what they meant. Almost immediately, another couple was sat next to us as close as before. We quickly learned that all restaurants in Italy sit people this close.

Pantheon

The second day, we went to the Vatican. There were no Pope sightings while we were there. We walked a lot in Rome (and everywhere else), but we did jump on the Metro subway when we got tired or wanted to go somewhere that was too far from our hotel. The Metro was pretty east to figure out. We also jumped on the bus one evening to go to dinner. The only thing I knew was which bus to get on, but I didn't know what stop to get off. We finally heard some other tourists going to the same place we were and jumped off when they did.

Trevi Fountain

Our third day in Rome, we went to the Borghese Gallery. The museum was really nice, but it was the park that it was located in that was really cool. After going through the museum, we wondered around the park watching all the locals enjoy their Sunday afternoon. I especially got a kick out of the children. There was something about little kids speaking Italian that just fascinated me.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

The last night of our trip, we came across a small Jazz bar. We went in and ordered a bottle of wine and listened to some live music. It was really cool when the singer sang songs in Italian, but she actually sang a lot of popular songs in English.

When talking about this trip, a lot of people were concerned about what sort of weather we'd have visiting Italy this time of year. It only rained once while we were in Rome and it was only an hour or so and we were taking a siesta. We took naps a lot, but we were walking at least 10 miles a day.

All Rome pictures are at this link.