So...when you hear that Catalonia has seceded from Spain it is probably ALL TOM DEERING’S FAULT!!!!!!!! 😬🙊
Catch you on the flip flop....
CJM.
Friday, August 16, 2019
TOM TO CAUSE REVOLUTION IN CATALONIA 😳
Sunday night after visiting the Cliffs of Moher we stayed at a wonderful little B & B in the town of Doolin. Doolin, Ireland is known for the traditional Irish music that is played at McGann’s Pub and McDermott’s Pub....the only two pubs in the town. They were both within walking distance of our B & B. We ate and enjoyed some Irish music at McGann’s and then walked to McDermott’s to finish out the night. For those of you who know Tom you know that when it comes to history and politics he just can’t NOT have an opinion. That being said we met three young fellows from Catalonia (in the northeast corner of Spain) at McDermott’s. Apparently there is some political unrest in Catalonia and these three young fellows are involved in the revolution going on there. Here is Tom giving the three his two cents worth on the revolution....
So...when you hear that Catalonia has seceded from Spain it is probably ALL TOM DEERING’S FAULT!!!!!!!! 😬🙊
So...when you hear that Catalonia has seceded from Spain it is probably ALL TOM DEERING’S FAULT!!!!!!!! 😬🙊
Thursday, August 15, 2019
DOOLIN AND CLIFFS OF MOHER
Bright and early on Sunday morning, August 11th, we headed to the airport to pick up a rental car so we could drive to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher out in the countryside. Tom actually did a fine job navigating the roundabouts and driving on the left, however, the taxi driver in Dublin was his hero and he too wanted to be a race car driver when he grew up 🤭. Maybe we should have been suspicious of his driving when he told the rental car company, “I just want to be able to walk away from any accident!” Let me just say this....they don’t call it “THE WILD ATLANTIC WAY” for nothing! The further we got from Dublin the more narrow the roads became and the more paint that got scraped off of the side of the car. And everyone except us must have been on a tour bus because we met probably 1000 EXTRA WIDE tour buses on “The Wild Atlantic Way!” At one point CTM whispered to me and asked if I had checked before we left to see if our health insurance would cover us in Ireland 🤕 One detail I forgot but assured him that he didn’t need to worry because we were soon going to find out the answer to that question 😬
And...these two Yayhoos (⬇️) will celebrate 50 years of friendship in September!!!!!!! 😍
Once we finished taking in the beauty of the Cliffs we muddled our way back down the mountain and headed to Doolin and our B & B. TIME FOR A GUINNESS!!!! 🍺🍺.
The Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking in two ways....the scenery and walking up them!!!!
And...these two Yayhoos (⬇️) will celebrate 50 years of friendship in September!!!!!!! 😍
Once we finished taking in the beauty of the Cliffs we muddled our way back down the mountain and headed to Doolin and our B & B. TIME FOR A GUINNESS!!!! 🍺🍺.
Catch you on the flip flop...
CJM.
DAY 3....
We extended our ticket to Day 3 on the Hop On Hop Off as we had missed a few places. The highlight of Day 3 on the Hop On Hop Off was when we hopped off at the Kilmainham Gaol. So that you know the meaning of Gaol.... “Darrin Reed is in charge of the Gaol in Ozark County.” Kilmainham opened in 1796 and closed it’s doors in 1924. It was a GHASTLY place!!!! There were some beautiful flowers outside, however! (The petunias that is!)
Catch you on the flip flop....
Catch you on the flip flop....
CJM.
PLANE ON FIRE AND TIPPERARY......
I am trying to catch up on the blog but wanted to do this post a little out of sequence in “real time.” We are sitting in the airport in Shannon, Ireland waiting to board our flight to London. We were told that all flights in and out of Shannon have been “temporarily suspended.” We just heard that a plane is on fire on the runway!!!! 😳😳😳 OK....EEK!!!!! (Update....just heard that the plane was transporting U.S. military men and women from the UK to the US. Thankfully everyone was o.k. 👍🏼). The plane....
Catch you on the flip flop.....
Was just doodling on the map while waiting for the runway to be cleared of the disabled plane (EEK AGAIN) and found this..... It’s NOT a long way to Tipperary 😬
Catch you on the flip flop.....
CJM.
BUS TOUR...A MUST!!!!
Our first day in Dublin was EXHAUSTING....drink, eat, and drink some more! We were determined, however, to transition to the 6 hour time difference by staying up as long as we possibly could before going to bed. That being said, we had now been up for almost 48 hours except for a little dozing now and then on the trip across the pond. CTM also reminded me at some point that I had the same underwear on that I put on in Pontiac!!! I know...TMI!!!!! 😬 We made it until 9:00, muddled our way to The Morgan Hotel and fell into bed. Nearly 12 hours later we crawled out of our hole refreshed and ready for our second day in Ireland.
No trip would be complete without a bus tour 🚌. We purchased our tics for the “Hop On Hop Off” bus and off we went. The bus driver was, well shall I say...the Bus Nazi!!!! He kept yelling at the passengers to shut up and at one point said, “I know you people are French and don’t care what I am saying, but Jesus Christ shut up!!!!” 🤬. We thought he was on the verge of saying, “NO BUS RIDE FOR YOU TODAY!!!!!”
And...no trip would be complete without a tour of the local brewery....
Lake Bums brewer getting tips from a Guinness aficionado at the Gravity Bar at the top of the Guinness Storehouse. While enjoying the freshest Guinness in town we had bird’s eye view of Dublin. Next up we hurried to the premier tasting of their new Citra IPA.
We hopped back on the Hop On Hop Off and hopped off at the Jameson Distillery....
After all of the Guinness samples and Jameson samples we finished up our Hop On Hop Off tour and finished up our day with a Pub Crawl. Remember how I said we were refreshed and ready for the day after 12 hours in the sack? Well, our Pub Crawl lasted until after midnight 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 EEK!!!! But..it was only 6:00 p.m. in Pontiac so I think that made it o.k. 😬
No trip would be complete without a bus tour 🚌. We purchased our tics for the “Hop On Hop Off” bus and off we went. The bus driver was, well shall I say...the Bus Nazi!!!! He kept yelling at the passengers to shut up and at one point said, “I know you people are French and don’t care what I am saying, but Jesus Christ shut up!!!!” 🤬. We thought he was on the verge of saying, “NO BUS RIDE FOR YOU TODAY!!!!!”
And...no trip would be complete without a tour of the local brewery....
Lake Bums brewer getting tips from a Guinness aficionado at the Gravity Bar at the top of the Guinness Storehouse. While enjoying the freshest Guinness in town we had bird’s eye view of Dublin. Next up we hurried to the premier tasting of their new Citra IPA.
 |
| This one’s for you, Norman!!!!! |
We hopped back on the Hop On Hop Off and hopped off at the Jameson Distillery....
After all of the Guinness samples and Jameson samples we finished up our Hop On Hop Off tour and finished up our day with a Pub Crawl. Remember how I said we were refreshed and ready for the day after 12 hours in the sack? Well, our Pub Crawl lasted until after midnight 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 EEK!!!! But..it was only 6:00 p.m. in Pontiac so I think that made it o.k. 😬
Catch you on the flip flop....
CJM.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
IRELAND OR BUST!!!! ☘️
Ok...I know that, if you followed this blog in the past, it was all about our cruising experiences. Well, since we “crossed the pond” we think that counts as cruising and think this is the best way to keep our family and close friends up to speed on our adventure :). That being said....here we go....
On Wednesday, August 7th we left Springfield, MO at 2:00 p.m.and flew to Chicago O’Hare. There we had a 6 hours layover. We watched some movies on our IPads, ate, drank, ate again, and drank some more. FINALLY at 10:00 p.m. we boarded a nonstop American flight to Dublin, Ireland ☘️ We arrived in Dublin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 8th. Our good friends, Tom and Carol Deering were waiting to greet us at the airport. Most of you know Tom and Carol but what you may not know is that Carol has dual citizenship....she is U.S. and British. Their son, Ian, has dual citizenship and Ives in London. So...that being said, obviously we were getting two great travel guides absolutely FREE so it seemed like a deal when they suggested we join them. Once we hugged and did a quick “catch up” we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel in the “city center.” Let me just say this about our taxi driver....he obviously wanted to be a race car driver when he grew up. So at supersonic breakneck speeds through scads of roundabouts and all while driving on the left hand side I spent my first 30 minutes in Ireland with my eyes squeezed shut holding my breath! Tom told us on the way that we were staying in a brand new hotel. Well, it was new all right. It was STILL under construction with hard hatted Irish guys running around everywhere! The taxi driver was anxious to scare the crap out of the next bunch of tourists so he quickly collected his fee, dumped us out, and sped away as fast as he could. We stood looking at the dusty construction sight all the while insisting to the construction guys that we indeed had a reservation at this hotel and that we had already paid for it. They continued to shake their heads and tell us that we indeed did NOT have a reservation and it didn’t matter if we had already paid that we would NOT be staying there. We all tried to be calm so decided the best route to take would be to find the closest pub, get a beer, regroup, and try to figure out how to avoid spending the night in a ditch or under a bridge in downtown Dublin😳. We quickly honed in on the nearest pub and off we went. Shortly after we started our trek a young lady in a hard hat came running toward us screaming! Was she talking to us? What was she saying? Should we run from her? To make a long story short...she was the manager of the hotel still under construction and had made arrangements for us to stay at another hotel nearby. After she called us what was comparable to an Uber, helped load our bags, and paid the driver we thanked her and off we went. Phew! Thankfully we didn’t have to spend the night sleeping in a ditch or under a bridge😉. The alternate hotel was The Morgan Hotel!!!!! Was this a sign or what!!!
OK..now we were settled in a lovely hotel in downtown Dublin. What next? Well, it was time to do what the Irish do...DRINK BEER! Our bodies, however, said it was 6:00 a.m. 😰 Well, it WAS noon somewhere wasn’t it? Wait! It was NOON IN DUBLIN!!!! Off we went for our first Guinness of the trip.....
Catch you on the flip flop.....
CJM
On Wednesday, August 7th we left Springfield, MO at 2:00 p.m.and flew to Chicago O’Hare. There we had a 6 hours layover. We watched some movies on our IPads, ate, drank, ate again, and drank some more. FINALLY at 10:00 p.m. we boarded a nonstop American flight to Dublin, Ireland ☘️ We arrived in Dublin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 8th. Our good friends, Tom and Carol Deering were waiting to greet us at the airport. Most of you know Tom and Carol but what you may not know is that Carol has dual citizenship....she is U.S. and British. Their son, Ian, has dual citizenship and Ives in London. So...that being said, obviously we were getting two great travel guides absolutely FREE so it seemed like a deal when they suggested we join them. Once we hugged and did a quick “catch up” we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel in the “city center.” Let me just say this about our taxi driver....he obviously wanted to be a race car driver when he grew up. So at supersonic breakneck speeds through scads of roundabouts and all while driving on the left hand side I spent my first 30 minutes in Ireland with my eyes squeezed shut holding my breath! Tom told us on the way that we were staying in a brand new hotel. Well, it was new all right. It was STILL under construction with hard hatted Irish guys running around everywhere! The taxi driver was anxious to scare the crap out of the next bunch of tourists so he quickly collected his fee, dumped us out, and sped away as fast as he could. We stood looking at the dusty construction sight all the while insisting to the construction guys that we indeed had a reservation at this hotel and that we had already paid for it. They continued to shake their heads and tell us that we indeed did NOT have a reservation and it didn’t matter if we had already paid that we would NOT be staying there. We all tried to be calm so decided the best route to take would be to find the closest pub, get a beer, regroup, and try to figure out how to avoid spending the night in a ditch or under a bridge in downtown Dublin😳. We quickly honed in on the nearest pub and off we went. Shortly after we started our trek a young lady in a hard hat came running toward us screaming! Was she talking to us? What was she saying? Should we run from her? To make a long story short...she was the manager of the hotel still under construction and had made arrangements for us to stay at another hotel nearby. After she called us what was comparable to an Uber, helped load our bags, and paid the driver we thanked her and off we went. Phew! Thankfully we didn’t have to spend the night sleeping in a ditch or under a bridge😉. The alternate hotel was The Morgan Hotel!!!!! Was this a sign or what!!!
OK..now we were settled in a lovely hotel in downtown Dublin. What next? Well, it was time to do what the Irish do...DRINK BEER! Our bodies, however, said it was 6:00 a.m. 😰 Well, it WAS noon somewhere wasn’t it? Wait! It was NOON IN DUBLIN!!!! Off we went for our first Guinness of the trip.....
Catch you on the flip flop.....
CJM
Saturday, April 2, 2016
DA PLANE....DA PLANE!!!!!
We took Sunday (March 13th) off. The kids played on the beach, rented a golf cart, and did some shopping for their kiddos. We had to say "goodbye" to Matt and Jabet early on Monday morning and Caldwell and Kate and Megan and Patrick on Tuesday :(. The Wades hopped back over on the conventional puddle jumper but the Morgans and Werners took the seaplane back on Tuesday. We caught this photo of their seaplane aka "Da Plane" arriving for their pick up just after sunrise.....
We now had seventeen days to kill before our next group arrived. What to do...what to do.... HOW ABOUT WE GO FISHING!!!! Stay tuned for that report :).
Catch you on the flip flop....
CJM
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