Two friends, miles apart, who love to bake!
Originally I had a road trip planned this spring to travel from Boise to Phoenix for a friend’s wedding, stopping at places like Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Sedona along the way. Well…then my boyfriend (at the time) got a new job, we got …
I’ve been a little all over the place lately. Two weeks ago I drove through Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, helping my boyfriend fiance (still not used to saying this!) move. Last week, I was in Phoenix, Arizona at a high school friends’ wedding. …
This is the final installment of my Ireland trip. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 for a recap!
Day 9: Naiomi and I got up early on Day 9 and headed to Dublin. We dropped off our car at the airport and checked into our hotel around 11:30. We stayed at the Castle Hotel, it was recommended in Rick Steve’s Dublin guidebook and it was fantastic! I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Dublin and would stay there again. After checking in, we hit the streets of Dublin. We walked down O’Connell Street and through the Temple Bar area and past Christ Church Cathedral to the Guinness Museum. By the time we arrived at the Guinness Museum, we were starving. We only made it through 3 levels of the museum before we said forget it and headed upstairs to the restaurant. So although we did not learn why Guinness is poured a certain way because we skipped that part in favor for sustenance, I did have the most delicious Guinness stew and Guinness slaw. AMAZING!! We ended our tour with a Guinness in the 360 degree view room on the very top floor. The views of the city were amazing and I am most definitely a Guinness fan now!
After the Guinness Museum, we did some shopping and headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. On the way to back to our hotel, I randomly ran into my sorority sister, Rachel, on the street. Turns out we were also staying in the same hotel so we went out to a pub that night to catch up. It was a great first day in Dublin!
Day 10: We woke up on our last day in Ireland and hit some major tourist spots: Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, and we couldn’t miss another stop at Murphy’s Ice Cream. We just couldn’t resist! We also went to the Whiskey Museum. It’s only been opened for about 2 months but it was great! It goes into the history of Irish Whiskey and came with a whiskey tasting at the end.
For our last dinner in Ireland, Naiomi, Rachel and I went to Arlington Hotel to watch Celtic Nights. Celtic Nights is an Irish music and dance show. It was so good! I went through a phase in childhood when I wanted to be an Irish dancer. My mom even bought me a how-to VHS and I taught myself the first 8 steps… I have since forgot. Anyway, this was the perfect way to end our Ireland trip!
Day 11: Fly home. The longest travel day ever! I was sad to leave the homeland, but it felt great to land in America and see my parents.
Overall, this Ireland trip was amazing! Everything I imagined and more! Sure, it took a while to figure out how to put the car in park and turn on the shower in the first hotel and understand some of our cab drivers, but it was so incredible! I have now been bit by the travel bug and cannot wait to start planning more trips in the future! Thanks for following along with me 🙂
Sláinte!
-Kelly
Cheers! I’m baaaack 🙂 Thank you, Steph, for holding down the fort and posting some amazing recipes! I was jealous that I could not make this Jalapeño Popper Dip for New Years. It’s seriously my favorite so if you haven’t done so yet, make it soon! …
Brett is married!! Last weekend we went to the wedding of our good friend, Brett, in Napa, CA at the beautiful Meritage Resort & Spa. Before the wedding, we met with Julia, our blogging friend from Sprinkled with Jules who also happened to be in the …
I’m alive everyone! I survived Mexico without getting kidnapped and murdered. Hooray!
I had every intention of filling you all in on the best restaurants in Cabo and the most exciting and fun things to do…but do you want to know what happened? I turned my phone off. Granted it was only because I was in a foreign country and we didn’t want to pay for wifi…but still. The phone. went. off. And it was magical.
This was a spontaneous girls trip with friends from college. We all still live in the same city, but we just don’t see each other much anymore. We always talk about doing a vacation, but we never actually go through with it. So this time we saw the Groupon deal, picked the dates over Jonesy’s birthday, and just booked it! For future reference…look up when hurricane season is…
This is Norbert. He rained on our parade (literally) and put a slight damper on our plans the first day or two in Cabo. The fact his name was Norbert just added to the running joke. I mean really…Norbert?? We luckily didn’t get hit too hard. Yes, there were sandbags blocking the beach from the resort. And yes there was water on all of the paths and dripping everywhere and the outdoor restaurant was closed and we couldn’t swim in the pool the first day or so…but overall it wasn’t terrible. Probably a blessing in disguise really. I don’t think my body could have handled 4 days of drinking in the sun!
By Saturday Norbert had finally headed north and left us to enjoy our vacation! We spent the next two days at the pool, with the occasional jaunt down to the ocean. I may have gotten just a littttlleee cocky thinking that my Mexican genes meant I was immune to the Mexican sun, because I’m still nursing a burnt scalp and sore shoulders. I’ve only had a handful of sunburns in my life and I now know how the majority of the world feels every summer. I’m sorry I judged you all.
And to be completely honest…that was it! At first I was a little ashamed I spent five days in a foreign country without exploring at all, learning about the culture or even leaving the resort…but that can be for next time. I got to run around in the rain like a kid, take moonlit walks on the beach, lay out under the stars talking for hours, lounge beneath cabanas drinking way too many margaritas and laughing until my stomach hurt with my best friends. I don’t think there’s really anything better than that.
~Stephanie
Just a quick question here: how many of you can find Idaho on a map? (And no, Idaho is not Iowa. And yes, people have asked me that). Kelly and I love to travel and share our vacations with you all, but over the next …
Well, it’s official. I have finally visited Yosemite and it’s only taken me 24 years. It’s about time! See, I live in California. Born in Sacramento, raised in Elk Grove, went to school in Davis and Los Angeles, and now back in Elk Grove. I’ve traveled …
People have said I have a planning problem. Cassie even complained to my mom that I was planning too much (yeah…she told me…) But I can’t help it! Especially in a city this big that has so many things to do, I needed some semblance of an itinerary before we got there because I knew we’d spend half the time wandering aimlessly and the other half arguing about what to do. We’re sisters. It happens. Continue reading Chicago: What To Do
In case you somehow missed my excessive instagramming (is that a word?), I spent last week in Chicago! Looks like I left you in good hands with Kelly…cupcake week?! I’m a little sad I missed out! In these two travel posts you will get to meet my …