Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings time is here. Yes, we are still on the old system where we don't have daylight savings time until the last Sunday in March. We are also getting into that time of year where we have daylight until crazy hours in the evening and the sun is back up early at crazy hours of the morning. I remember a few days in June last summer, when I first arrived here and it wouldn't get dark until about midnight and by 2am the sun was up and shining through the windows. Torture on a body that depends on darkness to get a good nights sleep.
Right now it's daylight around 5am (I guess that will be 6am right now because of daylight savings time) and I guess it really gets dark around 7pm. It'll progressively get longer and longer days of daylight as the days pass into the summer. I think this summer I'll try and snap a few pictures here and there along the way of the various hours, so everyone can see the degree of lightness in the late hours of the evening.

We've had some really beautiful days and the daffodils are coming up and slowly opening. Hopefully this week they'll be open and I can snap some pictures. They are so pretty.........yellow flowers just line the streets and hills. So as soon as they open, I'll get a few pictures of those.

We've booked our "summer" vacation. We are headed to Barcelona for a few days and then hopping on a cruise in Barcelona and taking a cruise to Rome, Florence, Naples, Nice and Toulon (France). Super excited and can't wait! No worries, I'll take lots of pictures and blog as much info as I can remember.

I've also been hiking a little more. I forgot my camera last week when I hiked up at Ballister, but I will take it with me next time and try and snap pictures, wherever we end up hiking. The sun is shining most days and the temperatures are getting up in the lower 50's right now. Which around here is very nice!

Stay tuned......daffodil pictures to come as soon as they bloom and hopefully some great pictures from some hikes we do!

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

We had a fantastic time in Dublin! Dublin is a really beautiful city. It's small and easy to move around but what a great time! It's what I always thought a typical small European town would be like, especially in the UK, or as this would be, Ireland.

So we arrived on Sunday evening, which by the way was Mum's Day here. And we settled in to our hotel. Then we ventured out and found a nice little Italian place to have dinner at. The food was fabulous and I had one of the best tiramisu's I've ever had for dessert. Tiramisu is my favorite so I was very happy for that!

Monday we sat out kind of early on foot to visit St Patrick's Cathedral and to tour the Guinness Storehouse. Dublin is super easy to get around on foot, especially if you are staying in city centre. So we walked everywhere. Guinness Storehouse was great to visit!! We had a lot of fun and toured the whole facility. As part of the tour you get a pint of Guinness to enjoy at their fabulous Zero Gravity Bar. It's at the very top of their building and it is surrounded by glass and overlooks all of Dublin. It's really neat to see! Unfortunately the walk back down the steps is not so much fun after having a pint of Guinness. :) And Guinness taste different on this side of the world. It's really very tasty.........at least to me it is! I don't like it in the states, but love it here.

St Patrick's Cathedral

Guinness Storehouse

One of the several great views from Zero Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse

Monday night we found a great little place that had Mexican food. Now let me just say that finding Mexican food on this side of the world is not near as hard as finding GOOD Mexican food on this side of the world. But it was really tasty and the salsa was the best I've had on this side of the world. In talking to the waitress I found out that the owner is from Mexico. He lived in Mexico until he was 17 and then he moved to New York and met a nice Irish girl and they got married and eventually moved to Ireland. So he opened up a restaurant in Dublin. Kudos to him because it satisfied this Texas girls need for some good Mexican food.

We saw this guy while we were out and about on Monday. He was accepting 1 Euro to let you take your picture with him.

Tuesday we set out on foot again and hit the river for a river boat cruise along the Liffey River (the main river that runs through Dublin). It was very overcast that day and a bit chilly but the boat was covered and heated and it was really nice to see the city from the river boat. We went through a really old lock gate they have there. It works kind of like the Panama Canal in that you enter into the lock gate and it closes behind the boat and the water rushes in and raises the boat to the level of the water through the next gate. Then that gate opens and you move through it. Normally the boat tour doesn't go through the gates like that but on that particular day the river was high and it was kind of hard to make the tour through some of the lower bridges along the river. The tour was really fab and we had a nice time. Tour guide was super nice and talked about everything along the river and even showed us where U2's recording studios are in Dublin. By the way, the lock gate was engineered and began operations in the late 1700's and it's still operational to this day!

The River Liffey close to O'Connell St (the main street in Dublin)

The lock gate as we were going through it

After the boat tour we set out to the famous Temple Bar in the Temple Bar area and had a Guinness there at the bar. They had live Irish music and it was busy but not near as wall to wall with people as in the evening. We couldn't get in there the night before, so we thought going in the early afternoon would at least get us in the door. It's a neat old place and really quite big, compared to how it looks on the outside.

The Temple Bar

We also hit Trinity College and seen the fabulous Book of Kells. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take any pictures of the book or inside their really fabulous old library, where the book is kept. But I will say that if you ever get to Dublin, see the library and see the book........the library is really a site to see with their long hallway and all the really old books.

We also walked through the National Wax Museum there in Dublin. It as okay. It was mainly about Ireland history so a lot of the wax figures were different people through Dublin's history. They did have a room with people, figures and inspiration from Ireland. They had U2 and David Bowie, which I thought was kind of funny. They also had Pierce Bronson. I tried to get pictures in this room but it was poor lighting conditions and no matter how I tried to set the camera I couldn't get a great picture.

At the wax museum. She was creepy........I don't care what anyone says!

So a few of the locals we had struck up conversation with kept telling us that we needed to get to the parade early and find a good spot has the crowds would be thick! They kept saying to look for high ground, though Dublin is flat, so there was no high ground. So we set out early to the parade, leaving around 10am and the parade was to start at noon. When we got to the main street there was hardly no one there. But as the hours went by it was crowded! Every bit of 7 to 15 people deep where you could fit that many people. Since we had gotten there so early we were right at the gate that blocked off the roads and so we had a front row seat. But let me tell you, we were pinned in up against the gate with little elbow room. Made it difficult at times to get some good shots of the parade. After the parade it was terrible trying to get out of the area. It reminded me of being at Mardi Gras with the crowds of people and just not being able to walk anywhere without nearly being elbow to elbow in people. We did finally manage to get through the crowds and found our way to a little pizza place that my friend Sarah told me about, Steps of Rome. We got some fantastic pizza for take away and headed back to the hotel to sit and rest our tired feet and enjoy some pizza with some beer! After that we went down to the hotel bar, had some beer and listened to the really great Irish band they had for the St. Patrick's Day festivities.

At the start of the parade. Look at all the people and this is a VERY small area of the long parade route!

It wasn't a Macy's Day Parade by any means but it was pretty interesting!

There were people from all over the world there! Even a Lafayette La High school band and the University of South Carolina marching band was there from the U.S.

The little girl in the basket was on the news that night and she was saying how much fun she had but how hard riding in the basket was on her bum! lol

So let me clear up two myths that we had heard that we did not see on St. Patrick's Day. First they did not dye the River Liffey green! Second we did not see green beer! I'm not saying they didn't have green beer anywhere but I am saying that we did not see any while we were out and about and they weren't offering it at the bar either. lol

So Thursday morning we headed back home. Dublin was fantastic! We were there long enough to see a lot and still have time to rest. We had some really wonderful food there and even had some sushi there that was pretty good! We really enjoyed Dublin and came home feeling great and not like we were running around the whole time like we did when we were in Paris. Grant you I was sick most of the time we were there but I didn't let it slow me down. So if you ever get a chance to go to Dublin I highly recommend it. Even if it's not during St. Patrick's day, it's worth a visit!

Lots to do but nothing to post

I'm still alive and kicking! I know it's been a while since I've posted and my apologizes to the wonderful friends and family that read my blog! A few of you have emailed me to ask me where I've been since I hadn't posted anything recently.
I've been here.........just been busy and busy with stuff that isn't exactly the kind of things that people would find interest in reading about. :)

I've had the challenge of trying to get the car in for an oil change and the tires (they spell it tyres) balanced and rotated. Along with we got a little chip in the windshield (they call it a windscreen here) and it's been quite the task to try and schedule a time that they can repair it and it will be here at the house for them to come out and repair it. So it's been a constant frustration to try and get the vehicle repaired and worked on. The good news is that we finally got the oil change and tires balanced and rotated and while I've had to reschedule the windshield being repaired several times, I am hoping to finally get it repaired week after next. You wouldn't believe the standard price of getting an oil change around here. It's not because it's an import either...........it's pretty standard on most cars for an oil change to cost somewhere between 60 pounds and 100 pounds! Can you believe that? Amazing the cost.

And aside from dealing with the car stuff I've been getting more and more involved with the American Women Association and have been ask to be on the board this next year. I'll be a 3rd Vice President on the board and my role will consist primarily of organizing and lending support in the groups efforts to raise money for charities and non-profit organizations. I've been told it's one of the harder jobs on the board but they elect two people to do the job and so I'll have some help. I think it'll be right up my alley though since I have lead the efforts in the past to do things for the company I worked for in the states.

Also I've been getting more involved in the group by just getting out and doing things with other Americans and some other people too from other countries. I've met some great women from New Zealand, Germany, Austria and Holland. And of course some Americans and some Canadians. At times it's easy to forget that I'm not in America anymore and I've really enjoyed being around other Americans, but at the same time I have really enjoyed meeting people from other countries and still making new friends from Scotland and England.

I've also had to do a little shopping and get out and buy Mother's Day cards this month. Mother's Day in the UK is this Sunday, the 14th of March. And since our Mother's Day in the US isn't until May I had to get the cards now and put them up for later. I've been trying desperately to start shopping for some spring clothes as well but it's been really difficult for me to find clothes here that I like and that fit me the way I like them to fit. It's been a battle. I did find some jeans, finally, at the Gap (of all places) here. Still on the lookout for shirts and such though.

Okay so we are off to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. I'll have some pictures to post and will blog about our experience there, when we return. We are really looking forward to it. We've heard that Dublin is really expensive right now but we are looking forward to the opportunity to spend a St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. It's suppose to be a great time and Dublin is suppose to be a really fantastic city. I've arranged for us to take a tour at the Guinness Storehouse and I've been told that Guinness there is really fab and is not like any other place in the world. They say it has a really short shelf life there, like 7 days, because it's made with dairy products in Dublin. I've also made arrangements for us to take a boat cruise/ride down the Laffey River. It's just a little 45 minute boat ride but takes you along the river and there is someone on board that acts as a tour guide and tells you some history of Dublin while you take the ride. We have reservations at a sushi place along the Quays (pronounced Keys) and this is the area up and down the river in the city centre. So lots to see and do and I am sure it will be a big time! So look for a blog update after St. Paddy's Day week. I hope you all have a nice week and wear a little green on St. Patrick's Day!

Our first anniversary

I can hardly believe it's already been a year since Jeff and I got married. Sunday, the 28th we celebrated our first anniversary. It also has been almost a year since we got to Scotland. This past year, while has been a bit crazy at times, has really gone by relatively quickly! It's been full of ups and downs, but all about living and adjusting to Scotland. The marriage part has been wonderful and we've truly been blessed.

Happy First Anniversary!

So our celebration was a little low key. We didn't really want to do much, especially since our Dublin trip is just around the corner. But we did the typical thing of exchanging gifts and we had a really nice dinner out on Saturday night. Jeff did something incredibley sweet and completely took me by surprise. He ordered a cake from the local bakery that was similar to our wedding topper cake from the wedding. Considering he did it from memory alone, he did great! And the cake was pretty tasty and made the occasion even more special. We couldn't bring our topper over here........for obvious reasons.

The weather has been really cold, windy and overcast the past week. But yesterday, Monday the sun was shining and the wind was pretty mild, so Jeff and I decided to get out and about and find something to do. We really had NO idea where we were headed or what we were doing, but we did some browsing on the Tom Tom and headed toward the Highlands. I knew the Highlands had some snow and had some bad snow a couple of weeks ago, but had no idea some of the roadways were still closed. But we drove around and stumbled across a few things and just enjoyed the view!

The narrow roads and steep inclines we came across. This road was a 12% incline, as signs indicated.

Just along the roadway while we were driving up

One thing we stumbling upon was a little tea shop. Cute little place that had a fantastic view! We stopped in and had some coffee and a snack to warm up. They had a few things for sale in their gift shop area and I got the neatest serving dish made of a recycled wine bottle. It is made up toward the Highlands in a village (town) called Tomintoul. The picture on the label shows using it for either cheese, crackers, fruit............or something like that. I thought it was pretty neat and think it will make a great holder for a small serving of cheese and crackers.

The view from the tea shop

My recycled wine bottle aka serving dish!

A church we stumbled across while out

And a castle nearby the church. We are thinking it's a residence at this time so we didn't get to close

The castle overlooked this frozen loch (lake)

The back of the church, heading back down the road

We were out and about driving around and exploring for a few hours. Decided to head home before it got dark since there was snow up in the mountains but not down by the house. On our way home we stopped to get a shot of the area we had been. It's a little park/rest stop and we've stopped there several times since we've been here to just enjoy the view. What we didn't realize when pulling in there was that the snow was over a foot deep! And we got stuck! So needless to say after 2 hours and some very kind Canadians stopping to help us with their 4x4.......we finally got out! Note to self................the Yukon, no matter how big and tough she might seem.............is NOT a 4x4 and does NOT like the snow! :)
I would also like to say that we must have had 4o cars and trucks pass by us in the nearly 2 hours that we were stuck and not a single person stopped to see if we were okay or could use some help except a Canadian! Well that's not entirely true..........we did have a Scot stop and help us when we were finally almost out.....but we came to the conclusion that it was only because we were in the way of him stopping and getting a photo himself. :)

Taken moments before we realized we were stuck!

The snowy mountains in the background is the area we had been exploring

So that was our adventurous weekend!

Lots of untouched snow!

Typical narrow roads in the area and not fun when you have to get over in the snow to let someone pass!