Dublin Day 2

 Yesterday morning, we got up and found a cafe for lunch. So far all of the food we’ve had in our neighborhood has been really good. From breakfast we went on to Trinity College for the Book of Kells experience. 

The sun was actually shining and that was our first time on the campus so I took a lot of pictures. The campus is very beautiful and has an Ivy League vibe. The campus was well marked and maybe the students don’t use that quad often but I can’t imagine SO many tourists walking past me just trying to get to class. The Book of Kells experience was really cool. There is an audio guide and they explain the restoration of the book as well as how they believe it was written, down to the pigments used. They blow up some of the more famous paintings within the book so you can really see the symbolism. Then you get to see the book open to two pages. I was more excited for the long room, the giant library room after. They are decanting the books right now so only a few rows had books in them but it is still a really impressive room. We then went onto a more interactive exhibit that brought some of the book and the Long room to life. 

After finishing on campus we wandered around that end of the neighborhood and bought sweaters from the Aran Islands. We dropped them off at our hotel and went across the street to the Hairy Lemon pub for lunch. Fish and Chips for me, Irish stew for mom. We both enjoyed what we ordered. After lunch, we walked over to the St Patrick’s cathedral neighborhood to check out the Marsh Library that is tucked away behind it. It is also a very very old library where the books have been in the same place for 300+ years. It looks like a well lit version of the library at Hogwarts. After the library, we walked towards the Guinness storehouse and I snapped some new door pictures along the way. The Guinness Storehouse was a fun touristy experience. We got taken through the ingredients and the process for how the beer has been made for centuries, and they highlighted a lot of the employees (a lot of them women) and folks that work with the company and have for generations. They brought us into a tasting room where we were given over sized shot glasses of Guinness and learned how to sip properly. We made our way up to the 7th floor to have a pint (which we didn’t finish) of Lager. We had done the add on to go to the Open Gate Brewery behind the storehouse to be able to try more beer. Since we actually like going to breweries and trying different beers, this was a good addition for us. We got to try the experimental beers that are only available on that site. I really liked this Pink Gin Ale that tasted like a gin cocktail somehow. I think Mom’s favorite was the Citra IPA which was not special to the brewery but we are hoping we can find it elsewhere. We had some amazing braised beef arancini at the brewery with an apple pear chutney. After the brewery, we took a cab back to our neighborhood to Murphy’s Ice cream. The shop is small and they have maybe 10-12 flavors but they meet you in line and offer you unlimited samples. We tried a lot of flavors including brown bread. I ended up with honeycomb caramel and lemon curd. Mom got butterscotch and lemon curd. After ice cream we went back to the hotel for bed early. This morning we are on our way to the suburbs via train. 

Dublin. - Day Dot

 And we are off again. After less than 3 days home, we went back to the airport to catch a flight. Wednesday evening, we took a JetBlue flight direct to Dublin. The flight was fine, it was not as nice as a regular international flight (mostly food wise) but the seats were comfortable. I didn’t sleep as much as I would have liked, but the flight was under 6 hours. Upon landing in Dublin, we waited in the longest queue to get through immigration. It seemed as though ALL the airports on the eastern seaboard had flights arriving at the same time and it took about an hour to get through. We had a cab driver waiting for us that the hotel set up so we didn’t have to figure much out while we were so tired. He took us to the hotel - The Grafton, which is not far from Trinity College. We were met by Noel who Mom had been emailing with for suggestions prior to our trip. We brought him Lindsay’s Local banana bread and chocolate chip cookies as a thank you. Luckily, our room was ready by the time we arrived so we were able to go upstairs and take a nap before going out to explore.

In the afternoon, we went out to explore our neighborhood. There are a lot of cute shops, restaurants and pubs. There is a cafe across the street where we got our first meal since Boston (lunch??). Mom had this open faced chicken club and I had a burger with Brie, bacon and hot honey. It was so delicious. After lunch, we wandered the neighborhood to get our bearings and kill time before our Whiskey tour later. The buildings here are really pretty and the weather was actually nice so I tried to snap a bunch of photos while the light was on the brighter side. 

We met our tour guide at Powerscourt Townhouse Center. It was once a mansion belonging to a single family and now it is like a small shopping mall with mostly women owned businesses. We originally signed up for a storytelling food tour but not enough other people signed up so they rebooked us for the Whiskey tour. Our tour guide Graîinne was amazing. We told her we weren’t really whiskey drinkers but hadn’t really tried Irish Whiskey and were open to trying anything. We went to 3 different pubs where we had 2 whiskeys each and she explained the history of Irish Whiskey and explained the different types. We also got a small snack at each pub. The cheese was of course amazing. Mom and I liked one of the whiskeys called Writers Tears which was Copper Pot whiskey that was aged in wine barrels so it had more of a wine flavor. I also liked the Powers we had - also a pot style. It had a lot of good caramel flavor so I think it will be good to use for baking at home. 

After the tour, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep. Full day planned today in Dublin and the sun is shining for now. 

Back in St Pete Saturday

 Saturday in St Pete-

After breakfast we went back into town to go to the Imagine Museum. It was really cool. It’s primarily art made from glass which we learned about on our last St Pete trip when we went to the Chihuly museum. To make the museum interactive they hid 9 marbles across 9 galleries and a bingo card to mark that you found them all. 

The weather was really bad in St Pete so we decided to head east sooner than later. We drove to Lakeland (where Publix is headquartered but they don’t have a flagship store). We had an amazing dinner at Texas Cattle Company. The steaks were so good and I forgot to take photos. After dinner we trekked across rural Florida (more cows and a lot of Dollar Generals) and made it back to West Palm. 

Back in St Pete Friday

 Friday in St Pete Grandma’s Birthday! We started the morning with breakfast at our hotel. After getting organized for the day we drove downtown. We explored the neighborhood a bit since last time we couldn’t get parking with the race in town. Then when went to the Dalí museum. The museum was really cool. The building was built to withstand a category 5 hurricane. All of the artwork is on the 3rd floor and the first floor has a cafe that served Spanish food and a gift shop. The collection of about 1500 works primarily by one couple that was friends with him. We took a tour with a voluntary docent and it was great to hear about the evolution of his art and his life. We took a break and had tapas which were delicious and then went into the 360 experience. The 360 experience animated his paintings and told his story on a big dome. There was also an exhibit we enjoyed that was murals inspired by Dalí. After the museum we had an amazing dinner and went back to the hotel. We have eaten very well this trip. 

We had dinner at Taverna Costale downtown. It was so good. We had Caesar salad and meatballs to start. Grandma got Rigatoni Bolognese and I had rigatoni tartuffo (truffle cream sauce with sausage) and Brussel sprouts. Mom got a cippino as her entree. For dessert we had limoncello crème brûlée, caramel gelato and affogato. 

Back in St Pete Day 1

 Day 1 Back in St Pete-

On Thursday, we drove across Florida to our hotel in Treasure Island in St Petersburg Beach. The drive across Florida is very flat and boring, we saw a lot of cattle ranches and didn’t realize that industry was so prominent in Florida. 

Our hotel (Bilmar) is in a great location right on the beach and has been crawling back from the hurricane damage. It’s so hot so not sure we will really spend a lot of time outside.

 For Dinner we did a dinner cruise nearby. We had a great time and the food was really good.