parents' visit!

My parents got into Dublin on Wednesday. We met up by 10am and spent the entire day out and about. Luckily we had great weather, not too cold and it was even sunny. We went to the Jameson distillery, the Guinness brewery, Dublin castle, and then, when it got dark and we couldn't see anymore sights, we went to a traditional Irish dinner at the oldest pub in Ireland, the Brazen Head. We walked for hours and saw half of the main city sights that first day. We went back to the hotel and had a drink, mom discovered her new favorite drink is Jameson and ginger ale with lime :)

Thursday we got up super early and headed to the train station to take a rail tour to western Ireland to see the Cliffs of Moher. We also saw Bunratty Castle and Galway city. It was a very very long day but it was sunny and only windy at the cliffs. We ended the night with another round of mom's new favorite drink and then headed to bed for our next early morning. 

cheesin at Bunratty Castle 

cliffs 

Friday we went on a bus tour to Southern Ireland to see the Ring of Kerry. It was another beautiful day and it made the impressive sights there even better. The tour was a little unorganized and long, but we made it through and we did see some beautiful sights. 

Saturday we opted for a later morning and took a tour to Malahide castle just outside of Dublin. It was a pretty cool castle and, until recently, had been in the same family for about 800 years. After the castle we went to the Dublin suburb of Howth and mom and papa had some tasty seafood. We were back in Dublin by the late afternoon and did a little shopping and had Emily meet us for dinner. We went to a pub and had more traditional Irish food. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit.

Sunday was the earliest day. We were up by 3am to head to Scotland, Emily joined us as well. We landed in Edinburgh by 9am and had a full day around the city. We saw Edinburgh Castle which was very impressive. We saw churches and just walked around and looked at the great architecture  of all the buildings. We saw everything we could before the sun went down. Papa also did a little digging into his family history and discovered some new aspects of the ancestry he did not have any idea about, for instance, we may not be Scottish after all. For dinner we went to a pub called Jekyll and Hyde and had some traditional Scottish food. 

Monday we had another full day in Edinburgh. We went to the registry to look up more details on the family. We walked the royal mile and saw the Scottish parliament building. Unfortunately they were not debating that day so we didn't get to see any action. We also went to a huge museum with artifacts from Scotland's past as well as things from around the world. We went to an art museum as well and saw some cool paintings. We went to Edinburgh dungeon, which we thought might be some educational museum type place about the awful events of Scotland's past, but it ended up being a scary historical Disney type attraction. Papa was not amused and mom and Emily and I were a little afraid to walk around the corners. After that our stress levels were high and we decided we needed some food. We searched for this pie place from mom's guidebook and had some savory little pies for lunch. We did a little tourist and regular shopping and had a mid afternoon drink. Then went to the hotel to have some rest before dinner. We went to dinner at a pub called the rose and crown and papa had some traditional Scottish haggis, which we are still not entirely sure what it is. After dinner we went to an old pub called dirty dicks and had an evening drink before heading back to the hotel. 
We were extremely lucky in Scotland and only had to deal with the cold and a some wind on the first day. 

Tuesday we left Edinburgh in the morning and spent mom and papa's final day in Dublin checking out the south city center. We saw Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and did more tourist and regular shopping. Emily met us for dinner and we went to a pub with our friends Claire and Kendra and Kendra's parents. We had a nice family dinner. Sadly Emily had to get back to school for her SMC Skype class, but the rest of us headed to another pub to have a final drink with the parents.

I think overall mom and papa thoroughly enjoyed their visit, I mean they got to see me so we know it was great :) They had pretty awesome weather for Ireland, papa had his daily Guinness, and mom discovered she likes whiskey, which papa was excited about too. 

They leave Wednesday morning and Emily and I leave Thursday afternoon for Paris! 

Hope everyone is well and enjoyed reading! 

-Sam and Emily