Ireland was beautiful! The best part of being there was driving around and taking in all of the scenery. Everywhere you looked there were fields with sheep and cows, stone walls that divided the land. The countryside looked like a patchwork quilt. Pictures could never do it justice.

Days 1 & 2: March 15, 2003 We left Orlando International Airport at 1:45pm Florida Time (6:45pm in Dublin). We took the �scenic route� to Ireland, stopping off at Washington Dulles and Frankfurt Germany before arriving in Dublin, Ireland on March 16, 2003 at 11:15am (6:15am in Florida). We picked up our rental car and were on our way to find the hotel. Andrew drove, he did pretty well driving on the left side of the road once he found his way out of the parking lot! The streets of Dublin are very narrow and most of the streets are one way. We drove around the block six times before we finally found The Blooms Hotel! This hotel was right in the heart of Dublin, Temple Bar. After checking in, instead of sleeping like most wary travelers would have done, we decided to go out walking! Visited Christ Church Cathedral, did some shopping and went to the Guinness brewery! The best part of the brewery was the free pint of Guinness you get at the end! Later that night we went in search of a place for dinner that had traditional Irish food. All we could find was Chinese, American fast food chains and Italian. We ate at a 50's style diner, Eddie Rockets, that strangely was playing 80's music!

Day 3: March 17, 2003 Woke up at 8:00am and had our �Traditional Irish Breakfast� in the hotel restaurant. Those wacky Irish have baked beans with their eggs, sausage and slimy undercooked ham! We walked around town until the St. Patrick�s Day parade started at 11:00am. Bagpipes, kilts,floats and high school marching bands. They did not throw candy or beads, but crisps and bottles of juice! The parade was over at 3:00pm and from there we walked to Jameson�s Distillery. This was a great tour, they actually had a guide that took you around the distillery and explained the whole process. At the end of the tour everyone got a free glass of Jameson�s whiskey! After the tour we hung out in Jameson�s bar and had sandwiches and drinks. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town and walking along the River Liffy. And guess where we ate dinner at for our 2 year anniversary? McDonalds!

Day 4: March 18, 2003 This was one of the best days of our whole trip! Andrew drove us all the way to Giant�s Causeway, which is in Northern Ireland. We only almost died twice when Andrew turned onto the wrong side of the road! Giant�s Causeway is a rock formation that was created over 60 million years ago when lava cooled in the water. These rocks are like perfect little stepping stones. The name comes from the legend that the giant Finn MacCool built the causeway to get to Scotland. This was the most awesome place, so beautiful with the causeway stones, waves crashing and 300ft. high cliffs. And, yes, we did walk the trail up those 300ft. high cliffs!

Day 5: March 19, 2003 Today we woke up and skipped the �Traditional Irish Breakfast� at our hotel and went to a local bakery for some raspberry scones and coffee! We visited Dublin Castle and shopped on Grafton Street, Dublin�s premier shopping district.

Day 6: March 20, 2003 On this day we made our way to our next hotel, The Mespil, where we would meet up with our tour group the next day. The Mespil Hotel was located on the Grand Canal, however, this canal was about the size of a ditch, with locks to raise and lower the water levels for boats to pass through! We turned in our rental car and continued to explore the city on foot.

Day 7: March 21, 2003 Another free �Traditional Irish Breakfast� but this time they gave us something that resembled cereal. Looked more like McDonald�s hash brown cakes but the locals were putting them in a bowl with milk so we assumed it was cereal! At 2:00pm we met with our tour group, which consisted of 27 Americans, 7 Canadians and 4 Australians. We all boarded our motor coach and went on a driving tour of Dublin. This was not as exciting for us since we had been walking and driving around Dublin for five days already! We drove passed Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is housed, Phoenix Park and St. Patrick�s Cathedral. We opted to get off the coach half way through the driving tour so that we could visit St. Patrick�s Cathedral. What a wonderful time of day we chose to go, the light was shining through all of the brightly colored stained glass! Unfortunately, it was at this point in our trip that our stupid video camera broke. Thank goodness that one of us is a professional photographer!

Day 8: March 22, 2003 We boarded the coach and drove to Kildare to visit the Irish National Stud Farm. www.irish-national-stud.ie Here we got to see some of the prize winning studs and learn about how they arebred. We visited the foaling unit (nursery) where we saw a 2 hour old baby horse and the fields where Mares and their babies play! An interesting fact that we learned was about mother horses adopting horses that are not their own. The horse keepers put Vaseline in the mother horse�s nose so that she cannot smell the baby horse to detect that it is not her scent. At this point the mother horse will allow the baby horse to nurse and after 5 days the baby horse begins to smell like the mother horse and they remove the Vaseline from her nose and she adopts the baby horse as her own! The Stud Farm also had a beautiful Japanese garden that depicted life from birth to death. Next we stopped in Kilkenny and toured Castle Kilkenny. It was in this town that Brenda decided to buy herself a birthday present, a hand-knitted sheep�s wool sweater! Being the native Floridian that she is, she was freezing and wore this sweater over her jacket! Our last stop for the day was Waterford, and of course, who can visit the town of Waterford without going to the crystal factory! We got to see how the hand-blown crystal was made and visit the very impressive crystal showroom! Our hotel for the evening was the Waterford Marina Hotel.

Day 9: March 23, 2003 Wake-up call of 7:15am. Went on a scenic coach drive through Dungarven and Youghal and stopped at various points where Moby Dick was filmed. Our tour guide, Anna O�Kelly, was very knowledgeable of dates, names and historical events. We paused at County Cork for lunch and shopping and then on to Blarney Castle. This is where we acquired the �gift of the gab� by kissing the Blarney stone. We did not do our research on the Blarney stone before going over to Ireland, and did not realize until we were there that you had to lay on your back and hang over the side of the castle in order to reach this stone! We were also surprised that there was no line and we were able to go right up and kiss the stone! The castle itself was pretty neat with it�s narrow spiral steps and cold stone rooms. Around the castle were rock formations created by the druids, such as the dolman and the wishing steps. And, just as with any tourist attraction, there was lots of shopping! Blarney Woolen Mills was right across the street from the castle. After our wonderful day at Blarney Castle we drove through the Lee River Valley in Macroom and the Derrynasaggart Mountains before arriving in Killarney at our hotel, Killarney Court Hotel.

Day 10: March 24, 2003 Today�s excursion was a drive through the beautiful Ring of Kerry. Spectacular views of cliffs, lakes, beaches, mountains, cows and sheep! Funny, yet true story about the sheep, they are spray painted with numbers or letters and some of them had red rear ends. We asked our tour guide, Anna, why this was and she told us that the farmers mark their initials on the sheep so they know which are theirs. The farmers also put red dye packets on the male sheep so that, when they mate once a year, the dye pack explodes on the female sheep and the farmer knows which female sheep are to be moved to another field so they can eventually give birth. Wacky Irish framers! The route we drove on took us through the fishing village of Waterville, Sneem and Killorglin of HREF="http://www.puckfair.ie/" TARGET="_blank">Puck Fair. fame. It was during this excursion that we learned a little bit about the name �Sullivan�! Sullivan was originally spelled Suilleabhain (sue-low-wain),before becoming anglo-sized by the Normans when they invaded Ireland. Anna explained that Sullivan means �Of the family one eye.� A man lost his eye in battle and from then on he and his family were �of the one eye.� Anna went on to explain that there was a Sullivan boy who was in charge of watching over some sheep. Being bored from watching the sheep he would make up stories of monsters and such that he saw in the fields and run home to tell his parents. One day the Cromwell and the "Roundheads" were approaching to attack the city and the Sullivan boy ran home to warn his parents, but they didn�t believe him because of the stories he always made up. The Sullivan boy ran back to the fields to send the heard of goats running into the hills and a male goat, or Puck, went to the village to warn the people. The village people were able to escape because of the goat and from that day on they celebrated the �Puck Fair� every August. This is the story that Anna is sticking to, however, I was unable to find any information that had the Sullivan boy as part of the event!

Day 11: March 25, 2003 Drove to County Limerick and visited Adare, named the prettiest village in Ireland. The houses in this village still have thatched roofs! Another stop in Galway for pictures of the countryside, then on to the pilgrimage town of Knock. The town of Knock is famous for apparitions that appeared at Our Lady of Knock. They have built a church, around the original church, that houses statues of the apparitions. The day ended in Sligo Bay at our next hotel, The Riverside Hotel.

Day 12: March 26, 2003 The day begun with a visit to the Drumcliff Mountain and the little church at it�s foot where William Yeats is buried. From here we crossed the N. Ireland border into County Fermanagh and toured the Belleek Pottery Factory. www.geographia.com/northern-ireland/ukifer00.htm It was amazing to see the china being hand woven and hand painted. We were saddened that there was no photography allowed due to the distraction it would cause the workers, who get paid per piece they make. It was here that Brenda found a china plate with the Irish Blessing hand painted on it. The same Irish Blessing that Jason read for our wedding toast! Next stop was Donegal town where we visited the Tweed Center and later we drove to Killybegs and Ardara before returning to the hotel.

Day 13: March 27, 2003 Drove to Lough Key where we boarded our boat �Moon River� for a cruise down the Shannon River. We were served tea and scones while enjoying the beautiful views of hills, cottages, sheep and swans! After the cruise we headed back to Dublin�s Mespil Hotel for our last night in Ireland. We walked to Trinity College and visited the Book of Kells exhibit and the Long Room. The evening was spent doing last minute souvenir shopping.

Day 14: March 28, 2003 Our plane did not leave until 12:10pm (7:10am in Florida!), but the free shuttle that took us from the hotel to the airport only made 2 trips so we were forced to go to the airport at 8:30am (3:00am in Florida!). The flight home seemed to take forever! We had a longer layover in Washington DC because our plane was late arriving. We finally made it back to Orlando at 12:15am!