Suzy's Visit to Dublin

Sandycove and the Forty Foot with Suzy

On night #2 with Suzy, we had such a lovely dinner with some of our friends here. Richie, Joanna, Graham, us and Suzy at a really lovely Pakistani restaurant in Ranelagh. It was such a fun night!

One day while Norah was in school - Suzy and I shopping 'til we dropped in town. It was rough business, I tell ya. :)

A beautiful old mansion in the city centre called Powerscourt Townhouse - now filled with lovely shops, loads of great cafes and Dublin's oldest antique toy shop. Suzy loved that place.

cccreeeepy. The rest of the store isn't this odd. :) It's all antique doll houses and every single, itty-bitty doll house accessory you could ever think of. It's quite the world - that whole doll-house-thing. People take it very seriously - there are full-on china sets that you can buy - including different china patterns, gravy boats, ladels, platters, etc. etc. Not to mention all the food - full Christmas dinners, cookies, cakes, produce...the lists go on. It is fun to walk around in there though, I must admit.

mmmm.....Murphy's ice cream from Dingle!! Thankfully they have one location in Dublin so I took Suzy in. We had Dingle Sea Salt (best ice cream I have ever had on earth - no surprise here, Gloria likes the one with SALT in it) and Honeycomb Caramel. Yummers. We met the lovely black dairy cows in County Dingle who supply (kind of) this heavenly ice cream. We had Murphy's ice cream for the first time, out there, in July with Wayne's parents.  

Dublin's music wall of fame in Temple Bar

These are, perhaps, one of the best birthday presents I have ever gotten. They made me soooo giddy-happy. I was like a little girl prancing around in these. (still am) Anyway, the picture doesn't quite do them justice but they're cute and have ribbons for laces and a girl must have a pair of red shoes in her life, right?? Cousin Suzy and Aunt Mary got me these for my 31st birthday (next week, I'll no longer be 30, I'll be 31 which is practically 45.)

Cousin Suzy bought Norah her very first purse and as you can see, she sleeps with it. This girl does not take hand off her purse...

A day trip out to Bru Na Boinne (Newgrange) - the 5,500 year old passage tomb (nearly 2,000 years older than the Pyramids and pre-dating Stonehenge as well). I wrote a big long, (worthwhile, and riveting) nerd-post about Newgrange when we first moved here, if you need a refresher, you can read that HERE. :)
Actually, some of the best photos we've taken in our 2+ years in Ireland, were that day.

Seeing Newgrange in the distance

 Gorgeous Suzy - my wonderful cousin who just turned 50 on Monday!

 Here's the entrance into the chamber. We all went inside and it is absolutely incredible. This is my second time in and it was no less amazing.

This is as they built it, 5,500 years ago!! (and oddly, this was all covered over and not even discovered until 1962!!)

Just stunning views out here.

My beauties. :)

Another tomb in the next field over. Also unearthed in the 1960s. They say there are about 35 of these ancient tombs in this very small area (and probably more yet, still undiscovered).

 

For all the smaller white and grey stones around the main wall, they think they used a rounded boat like this to transport them. Little tiny loads, over years, and years and years. In fact, the guide says they believe this would have taken 3 GENERATIONS to build. You're born, you work on this, you die. Your son is born, he works on this, he dies. Your grandson is born, he works on this, he dies. And maybe, your greatgrandson saw the projects' finish. Unreal. Talk about the lack of instant gratification back then.
5,500 years ago:
"What'd you do today, Cronk?"

"Oh nothing much, carried 45 granite stones about 65 kilometers up the coast, through brutal Irish seas and Gronk and Ork both died."

An example of how they think the large kerbstones (yes, with a K) were transported the 70 km's from where they found them, to Newgrange.
And Norah, "How does my purse look?"

For our collective birthday dinner we decided to go for Sushi on the River Liffey in Dublin.

(Suzy is March 24th, I'm April 3rd, and when I was a kid, we always had our family birthday parties together)

 Now, 15 years ago, you might have laughed at the idea of good sushi in Dublin but I can swear, this is fantastic.

 My....heeeaven. I had four separate rolls. And edamame, AND some of Wayne's appetizer and then green tea cheesecake for dessert. My abdomen was not happy with me for putting all that in there.

 

In the end we had cousin Suzy with us for 8 days and it was such a great visit - no stress - no running ourselves ragged and Suzy liked it so much here that she called and had her flight changed so she could stay an extra day! We were elated about that. And even still, there were loads of things we didn't get to. This is why, Suzy will be back. :)
From beginning to end, we had incredible food, we laughed a ton, and had great talks. We feel like we had a bit of a culinary tour of Dublin with Suz too. First we had Italian, then Pakistani with friends, Lebanese in the city, Sushi for our birthday dinner and the same Lebanese restaurant again, on our last night together. (one of our favorites) It all felt so natural we started to believe Suzy just lived here in Dun Laoghaire. You couldn't ask for a better week with family.

Norah Reads and Wayne Plays

It's been a bit busy this week and Norah has been sick for a few days so blogging has taken a back seat. We're also facing a big weekend of running ahead so I thought I'd post a few videos to hold you over until I can write a proper update on life for us. Hope you'll enjoy!
Norah has become near-obsessed with reading these past couple months so here are some videos of the main way we seem to spend our time- reading with Norah. :)

The Lorax - (anything by Dr. Seuss is a huge favorite in this house):

"Little Dinosaurs" - this one you can tell is purposefully very repetitive so after reading it so many times, she has the "little dinosaurs" part memorized, down pat. :)

In this one, we had just gotten new books at the library, minutes before and she had a ball going through each one. I can't explain to you, how sweet it is to watch your little child figure this out. Maybe especially so at 3 1/2. ("nearly 3 and 3/4", as she would quickly remind you...)

And, last but certainly not least - our in-house musical savant - Wayne. He took up playing the mandolin in late January. He has had 4 lessons and, if you watch this, you'll see he has a gift. After four lessons I (not exaggerating in the least), I MIGHT be progressing to holding my fingers correctly and playing 1 or 2 scales. Maybe. I'm in awe of this innate skill for music that he, and his family, have. 

I WILL be back on soon, and I WILL write a proper update on how we're doing and what we're up to. Until then, love from Dublin.

First Weekend with Suzy

It is so, so wonderful having cousin Suzy here. She's so lovely and fun to be around and we're now just wishing she lived across the road... On the way out this morning, as Norah rode her scooter she says, "I really like it when Suzy comes to stay". So, that's the overarching sentiment the last 2 days. We are loving having her here with us.

View from Suzy's suite at the hotel - just a gorgeous view!

Out in the gardens behind Avoca, Kilmacanogue (Kill-Mah-Kahn-ugg)

The Avoca café - had to snap a picture. They were closing the café and I've never seen this room, not bustling and full of people.

I knew the first place Suzy needed to see was my beloved Avoca store - both because she owns a store very similar in style to this one (in Palm Desert) but also because she's a shopping nut. She had a ball! And they were all too happy to ship her items back to Seattle for her.

The fine print directions on one of these "tax free shopping" cards was so teeny that we had to bust out the magnifying glass from Norah's chemistry set.

I joked with Suzy that this is the only evidence that she's turning 50. :)

So cute.

A lovely dinner at home on our second night together. Nothing feels more normal than having cousin Suzy over for dinner - it feels like she lives down the road and just popped in.

 

Suzy's hotel, across the road from us.

 I keep asking for photos with Suzy because I'm afraid a week will pass by and we'll forget to do any. At this rate we should have 10 or 20 to choose from. :)

 We took Suzy to the People's Park Sunday market and ran into nearly all of Norah's school friends. Here she is saying goodbye to one of her best buddies.

Love my cousin.

Heading out now to show her some more sights around us and South Dublin. The sun is out and it's gorgeous! Dublin is really putting on a show for her (and not a drop of rain forecast until after she leaves).