Sweet Home Indiana

Good morning friends - hope you had a great weekend - - we certainly did!

Saturday's travel was without drama, and we actually found ourselves enjoying the process - - pretty unusual for us and airports!

And, then - - Home!  What a nice place to be!

Grammie time :)

Mailbox in hiding

Welcome home

Wild and crazy

Picture perfect

The deck has been overtaken! 

Happy! 

I titled this blog almost a year ago. "Finding Pat" was meant to follow this journey into facets of myself that had not been at the forefront lately. . . painting, writing, reading, living outside my comfort zone. . . and I can honestly say that I think all of these things were explored.  BUT, and this is major, I "found" that Pat is just where she is meant to be!  What a nice surprise.

I am so happy that so many of you have followed our adventure, and I will miss the comments and encouragement you have given me.  At some point, perhaps you'll pick up the "blog" virus and write your own stories - - I'll be happy to follow along.

And finally, thanks to Mark for taking me along on this grand adventure.  As our perennial anniversary card says, I'm enjoying the journey!

For now, I'll sign off after this post, but who knows?? Maybe I'll be back again for another adventure.

Thanks for reading!!

Pat

As I Roved Out

"Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself."

--George Bernard Shaw,
Irish playwright

We've spent the last four and a half months immersed in the wisdom of the Irish. . . much to learn from this emerald isle, and we haven't wasted too many moments!  I don't know that we've worn out our health, but we have worn out our shoes!

And so, true to form, we filled this week with more, and again more. 

Last visits to our favorite park . . .

St. Stephen's Green

A ride on the train to the seaside village of Malahide and its Castle (closed for renovations, but still lovely to see) . . .

Malahide Castle

Castle grounds

Malahide harbor

Looking across Dublin Bay to Howth

Attended a concert of new and traditional Irish songs at the National Library  - - from which I borrowed the title for this post . .  .

http://www.asirovedout.ie/Home.html

And finally, "Dublin in Bloom" for the June Bank Holiday - -  back to Phoenix Park . . .

Beautiful flowers inside . . .

and outside

A taste of Ireland

In between, we closed down the apartment, delivered farewell gifts to our new friends, and packed!
Leaving tomorrow for what will hopefully be an uneventful day of travel . . . two stops were needed to get home at a reasonable hour.  Looking forward to Sunday at home!!
One more post will follow sometime soon, and then this blogger will retire for the time being. . . see you next week in Indy!

The Last Weekend

There are a few venues that are only open to the public on Saturdays, and since this was our LAST Saturday in town, we packed a picnic, got on the bus, and headed toward Phoenix Park to tour the Aras an Uachtarain (President's House).

It was a beautiful day to be in the Park, and there were free tickets readily available for the tour (why did we think this would be like the White House tours that "sell out" almost immediately?)

While awaiting our tour time, we went through the museum at the visitors center, had our picnic overlooking Ashtown Castle and walked through the walled Victorian kitchen garden.

Picnic at Ashtown Castle

Herb garden

Walled garden

Once we boarded the shuttle for the Aras, it was pretty obvious that this was not a "tourist" location. . I think we were the only Americans on the tour.  And it was a small group, which made for a much more interesting tour as people asked questions and the guide brought the children in the group into the history of the place (he threatened a quiz, but did not follow through).

As we were heading out of the President's office, the door opened and who should come in but - Himself!  Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland!  As he greeted the group, I gathered my courage and gave him "greetings from Indiana" (since I knew he was an IU graduate).  http://homepages.indiana.edu/web/page/normal/20153.html

Smiling, he remembered his time in Bloomington, and talked about living in the States. . . then he was off to his appointment.  The tour group was very excited for me to have had this encounter, and I only wish someone had asked to "break the rules" and take a photo!!

The President's porch

View from the porch

Returning to the visitors center by shuttle, we set off on a walking tour of the park.  Established in 1662 as a Deer Park, there is still a herd of Fallow Deer roaming the grounds.  This was as close as we came to seeing them (too sunny for heading across that field!

Fallow Deer Herd

Papal Cross from 1979 Mass- Pope John Paul

As the day wore on, we actually got tired of walking(!) and took another exit out of the park to catch a bus back to City Center.  Home for the evening, we read the paper and relaxed - - a strange thing indeed!

Sunday morning found us without a "plan" so I looked at my list and one of the last things to check off was an actual tour of the Jameson Distillery.  We had done a tasting there when Alex and Carrie were in town, but the tour had been sold out that day.  So, back across the Liffey with us, to the Distillery.  It was a good enough tour, though they haven't actually distilled there since the 1970's.  Jameson is aged in barrels from Kentucky, Portugal and Spain, and then blended from the different barrels.  I still think Kentucky has a lock on the best flavor!!

Still early enough to fit in one more place before Church, we headed back to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) for the tour.  Again, the last time we had stopped in (after the Modern Art museum) the tours had been sold out.  This time we were in luck, and it was another outstanding tour by the OPW emphasising the role that the Jail played in the revolution which let to the Republic of Ireland.  The patriot names are becoming almost as familiar to me as our US founding fathers, and this is the place where 14 of them were executed after the Easter Rising in 1916. 

Straight stairs for the guards

Spiral stairs for the prisoners (control their movement)

Eamon de Valera's cell- - he wasn't executed because he was a U.S. citizen - hugely important in the years that followed! 

Looking into a cell

Church was at 6:30 at the Pro Cathedral - - we had not attended here before since it isn't really close to where we live, but thought we should visit the Cathedral before leaving town. . . glad we did.

Pro-Cathedral

I really wanted to fit in one more fish and chips dinner before leaving, so we stopped in at The Church (now a pub/restaurant) only to find out that they were OUT of fish and chips.  Never mind, we had already ordered our beer and cider,so we settled for fish cakes and chips - not the same, but pretty tasty!  Trad music on Sunday evening made it all the more "Irish".

Enjoying the Craic

The Church Pub

So, here we are looking at our final 5 days in Dublin . . . lots more to fit in, so I'll try to post again before we board the plane next Saturday.

Happy Memorial Day, friends.

Parks and things . . .

When the sun comes out in Dublin, it's time to go outside (because it gets too hot in our apartment) . . . but also, because the parks are a great place to be!

Iveagh Gardens Fountain

Everyone head outside!!

St. Stephen's Green

Merrion Square

On Tuesday, Mark was back to Manchester England for another conference, leaving me to wander the neighborhood and find a bench in St. Patrick's Park for some plein air painting.

Wednesday was another beautiful day for a walk, and we headed back to the Grand Canal - - very different atmosphere from the last time we were there.  Now that the weather has turned warm, there were literally hundreds of people gathered on the greens, drinking their beer and enjoying the sunshine. It made Broadripple on a Friday night look like a tea party!

Out of the sun, we visited the Marsh Library - Ireland's first public library - founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh and still housed in the original 1701 building in St. Patrick's Close.

Irish-Americans always supportive

Thursday Mark presented his final report to the faculty and students at DIT. . .

Professor Mark

Following that, we attended the premier performance of the newly re-opened Smock Alley Theatre, preceded by an awesome tour of the facility by the Director of the Smock Alley Players. . . fascinating history - see this link from their website: http://www.smockalley.com/downloads/History%20Introduction%20by%20Dr%20Christopher%20Morash.pdf

Smock Alley Theatre

Me and my new friend The Director

Friday we returned to our continuing history lesson with a visit to the Leinster House, the building that houses the National Parliament of Ireland.

Leinster House

An interesting note - in 1963 they constructed a mezzanine floor in the main part of the building so that John F. Kennedy could walk directly from the lift (elevator) to the Senate chambers for his speech without having to navigate the stairs. If you ever plan to come to Ireland, be prepared to walk up and down stairs!!!! They are unavoidable!

House Chamber  - photo from website

A week from RIGHT NOW I'll be on my way home!  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend America!!

Weekends are for list-checking

With only two weekends left before our return to reality, we are busily checking off the final items on our "to do" list here. . .

Saturday was a typical Dublin weather day (that is to say, cool, windy and chances of rain) so we stayed in the neighborhood for the day. . .

Horse Guards at Dublin Castle

Huguenot Cemetery - 1693

Government Buildings - Office of the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister)- no photos allowed

Photo from Internet - main staircase and stained glass window

We took the guided tour of the Government Buildings which included some really beautiful artwork, as well as some more history (of course). . . but probably the most entertaining part came while waiting at the gates for the tour. A guard coming back from lunch break stopped to spend 15 minutes regaling us with tales of visitors to the offices, including Bill Clinton (who he misses) and Barack Obama (who was nearly stuck in Ireland due to the Icelandic Volcano). . . wish I had been smart enough to ask for a photo op with him. . . he was a joy!

We re-visited the National Museum Archeology to complete our tour upstairs - - The Vikings and Medieval Ireland - - good exhibits, no photos allowed.

But on Sunday, we made up for the "no photos allowed" by finally having suitable weather for the Wicklow Mountains National Park.

We packed a picnic and boarded the bus with a large group of very young and very not Irish travelers for the hour and twenty minute ride south to the Wicklow Mountains. . .

Our stop in the visitors center equipped us with a trail map and off we went!

By my calculation we walked about 8 miles during our 4 1/2 hour stay, including an uphill climb of 1500 feet - - the knees are feeling it Monday morning as I write this!!

Enjoy the views!

Poulanass Waterfall

Heading uphill

Arriving at the crest

Top of the world

Heading down - 580 steps!  Yes, I counted :0

Back in the valley looking up toward the boardwalk

The other main reason people come to the park is to visit the monastic colony of St. Kevin - founded in the 6th. century. . .



Monastic site

And finally, the valley walks were a nice way to wind down before heading back to the bus to Dublin. . .

Lower lake - like a mirror

Bog

Luck o' the Irish!

Have a great week, my friends!