Maryland

Taylor here, I’m not NEARLY as articulate as Dad but I’ll try my best (funny as neither of us enjoyed English and writing classes but one of us is definitely better off) . Shalyn and I had a very uneventful DIRECT flight from ATL to Dublin (we got here first nanny nanny boo boo -Shalyn). Made it in, through passport control and customs and off to our bus! Not off the bus for more than a few minutes and granny gang pulls up!! (Dad said he wouldn’t comment on this pic but I have no problems… they see me rolling🕺)

Started the day with some much needed coffee as it was basically 3am for us and we were running off fumes and a few hours of sleep! I’ve come to the conclusion that I will get my coffee in a mug and sit down as often as I can (I’m convinced the to-go cups are smaller than the massive mugs you can see in the picture… I won’t get cheated out of my coffee that’s for sure). Fueled up (kinda) we set off on the tour bus and started down the route, it was super nice to be able to jump on and off and take note of stops we wanted to come back to. We ultimately made the very difficult decision to go to the Guinness storehouse for our first stop (pints at 11am are acceptable here🤪). We went through the whole process of how Guinness is made and all the rooms had the most delicious smells, it reminded me of Disney *sigh* when will mom and dad take me back :( I was very upset to find out that chocolate isn’t an actual ingredient in mom’s fav beer. I’m of the personal opinion that it tastes nothing like chocolate so this made sense, anyone who thinks it does is a bit delusional. This didn’t stop me from taking advantage of the free pint that was offered at the Gravity Bar at the top of the world’s largest pint shaped area(?) and we ended up making a friend! Theo was from France and we think he was on a summer trip between school, he couldn’t quite comprehend what a PA was and was very interested in field artillery! I can say that I beat Mom and Dad in getting a Guinness in Ireland!!

After Guinness, we got back on the bus and went back around the loop. We walked through Trinity College and saw a ton of tour groups. Not sure I would want to go to school in a place where so many people are walking through everyday. Being in a place with this much history is incredibly neat though. I do recognize that West Point does have lots of tours and history BUT we were at least able to regulate how many tourists come through AND they weren’t allowed to just wander! We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the town and popping into shops, Shalyn sent out some postcards and found some cute gifts for the fam! I started checking off items on the “Ireland Checklist” that one of my E-5s from work gave me! We got a pic at the “Temple Bar” , one of the oldest / most famous bars in Dublin (at least we think this was the right one… there was about 18 Temple Bars within 400m of each other on the same street, imagine that). I did enjoy finding the street warning for everyone outside the UK… “Look left” and “Look right” were at almost every cross walk with reminders to “Drive on the left side of the road”. Dumb foreigners right? (At least it’s not only us Americans here! Everyone is just always confused!

Finally, we got back on the bus and made our way to Phoenix Park to get picked up by our valet (they were a little late… 4/5 stars currently. I’ll update as the trip progresses.) Anyway, we made it to a parking lot to make it easier for our Uber to find us and took a break to enjoy the rare Irish sun! Can’t complain so far! I dont want to work next week! Until next time 🫶🏼Read more