Ireland

We just got back from our long weekend in Ireland and we had a great time! We went with our friends, Marc and Lindsay, and had the best time exploring the country and enjoying a few days off from work. I'm denying the fact that I have to go back to work tomorrow and avoiding the work I should catch up on tonight, so I'll fill everyone in on our Irish holiday!

We flew into Dublin and collected our rental car and headed westbound towards county Kerry. Marc arranged the rental car (or car hire, as they say over here) and we got a Mercedes Benz! It was awesome! The boys did all the driving, which was interesting to say the least, with the whole driving on the other side of the road thing and curvy passages up and down hills! They did a great job but there were a few scary moments along the way! Anyway, here are the happy kids outside the Merc (as Marc constantly referred to it the whole trip! Either that or the E class). It took us about 5-6 hours each way. It was a long drive but well worth it.


Here are the troops outside of the car!



Friday and Saturday night we stayed in a town called Dingle in southwestern Ireland. The Dingle Peninsula is the western most point in Europe. We stayed at a beautiful B&B called the Castlewood House in Dingle. The owners are a young couple, Helen and Brian, who live in the house with their 2 year old son, Craig. It was such a nice home with amazing breakfasts and lovely rooms. I would highly reccomend it to anyone, so if you are planning an Ireland trip, try to spend a night or two in Dingle at the Castlewood House! I have to admit that Dingle is a little out of the way from Dublin, but you can get flights into Shannon or Cork, which are much closer.


Here are a few photos of the house - it was so cute!!





On Saturday, we spent the day driving around the peninsula and stopped to see all of the amazing views. We ended up taking over 100 pictures of which I've included several of the best ones below.

This is Blackhead Beach (I think that is what it was called) - it was very pretty but too cold to take a dip!

The next photos are of Dunbeg (or Dun Beag in Gaelic, which is still spoken on this part of the island). Dunbeg is a fort from the iron age and it's located on a cliff overlooking Dingle Bay. You can see Marc reenacting a battle scene as he tries to scale the wall. However, we're not sure why he'd be trying to get out of the fort.

The next stop was at the Beehive Huts, which we located a short distance up the road from Dunbeg. These huts were little houses built from stone and were built in the form of a circle. The door with the Clover is not part of the huts, but it was located at the entrace to the site and I thought it was pretty cool looking!

These photos are from Dunquin. It is supposed to be the best view in all of Ireland. The pictures may not do it juctice - it was amaizing. We were so lucky with clear weather - it was a little windy, but there wasn't any rain!

This is a photo of Chad in the town of Dingle. It's a small little fishing village, which is very popular with tourists. There were a bunch of cute shops and restaurants - and of course lots of pubs!

Here is Chad and I at dinner at the Old Smokehouse restaurant. Chad had a shank of lamb for dinner, which is very popular because there are sheep and lambs everywhere you turn in the country!

On Sunday, on our way back to Dublin, we drove to another area, called Conner Pass. It was so windy, you can see in the pictures, we were just trying to maintain our balance! My hair was flying all over the place, but we got a pretty good shot.

The last few we took on our drive back to Dublin.

Once back to Dublin, we make a quick stop at the Guinness factory, which is really the only thing to see in Dublin and has been around for over 200 years! Here is Lindsay with a horse outside the factory! We all went out to dinner again that night (once again, we did too much eating!) and headed back to London on Monday morning.

Our next scheduled trip is actually back to the US in late April for a whirlwind tour including stops in Miami, FL (Adri's wedding), Asheville, Columbus and Mt. Vernon. We hope to do one more quick trip somewhere between now and then. We'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Linda!

Just wanted to give a shout out and Happy Birthday to my wonderful mother-in-law! Wish we were there to help you celebrate but we'll be there soon! And sorry if I've missed everyone else's birthdays on here (including my wonderful niece and wonderful father-in-law, whose birthdays were 2 weeks ago).

We had a fun visit last week from our friend from Columbus, Julie Sherwood. Poor Julie was going to arrive in London on Saturday morning, the 8th, but didn't make it due to the incredible snow storm in Ohio. She eventually arrived in London early Monday morning and we got to spend a few hours together that evening! See the photo of us at dinner at an Indian Restuaurant near our flat called Mumtaz - pretty good!

See - if you come visit us, you get your photo on the blog and that makes you super special!

We leave for our long awaited and much anticipated trip to Ireland this Friday for the long weekend (Friday and Monday are national holidays for Easter). I can't wait and I'm sure there will be plenty of photos to share!

xoxox, Kari

Is it really March?

It is isn't it? That means that we have been here for just about 6 months. Crazy talk!! It really has gone by so quickly!

This was a good week even though we were busy as usual. I'm on a new client though and I get to walk to work, which has been so great. We got to see our friend Allison Wisniewski this week which was so fun! She was in town for work and we got to catch up for dinner. I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures of us together, but I did take this one of Tower Bridge in her presence!

Other than that, it's been the same old stuff! I have been buying flowers and taking pictures of them (much to Chad's amusement!) but they're so beautiful! There is a flower stall on the street close to our flat, so I am tempted every day to buy something, but have kept it to once a week. Anyhow, here they are...




Oh - to continue on my photo journal, here is a picture of my building, where my actual office is located. It's not the best photo because I'm so close, but it gives you an idea that I work in a very modern building for London standards! I'm not too sure how old the building is, but it's in an area called Canary Wharf, which is a newer area that has the rap of being very American.

And here's a view of the Underground station in Canary Wharf - it's pretty nice but has very very long escalators!

And I had to include a very happy photo of myself. We had dinner last night at a Mexican restaurant called Cafe Pacifico and it was fantastic! We are fans of El Vacquero in Columbus and this place was not quite as good, but pretty amazing for Mexican food in London - it is hard to find! Anyway, we had a great meal with plenty of chips and salsa! I have to admit that it was like a lead balloon in my stomach but so worth it!

Have a great week! Adios!!

Happy Presidents Day!

Presidents Day is not exactly being celebrated here in the UK, but I still follow the US holidays (even if I would have to being working today if I was in the US). Oh and the photo above has nothing to do with Presidents Day but something to do with the Royal Family. It's a picture of St. Pauls Cathedral that I took a few weeks ago. We haven't been inside yet, but plan to go sooner or later. The Royal Family holds most of their religious events at Westminster Abbey, but Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married at St. Pauls.

Anyway, nothing too exciting to talk about this week. We had a good weekend combined with getting out and relaxing at home. We went to Borough Market on Saturday and I had an amazing chorizo sandwich, which I highly reccomend! Chad is heading to work on a project in Manchester (home of the Man U football club) until Wednesday. I didn't get him to take a camera but if he has to go back, maybe we'll go up for a weekend and I'll get some pictures.

I have one more photo to share - here is the UK equivalent to Pier 1, it's just called "Pier" but it's pretty much the same store. I love comparing stores here. For example, the Gap has totally different stuff but it still feels like the Gap in the US when you walk in a store. I also heard that they are going to be opening a Banana Republic here, which should be interesting! Enough about shopping for now. Hope that everyone has a great week!

We're back!

I know it's been awhile since I've updated the blog! I've been slammed at work and haven't had much spare time - excuses, excuses! We were able to get out this weekend and I thought I'd share!

It has been a beautiful weekend. The sun has been shinning and it got up to about 60 degrees! I have to admit that I do not miss the freezing cold in Ohio and having to scrape off the windsheild of my car in the mornings this time of year. I do, however, have to cram myself into the tube and fight for a place to sit each day, so I guess there are trade offs!

Anyway, here are a few photos:

Another one of my many pictures of Regents Park! We decided

to take a walk around the park on Saturday to enjoy the nice weather.

Here's a few photos of "Football" players in the park on Saturday morning. The Regents Park Football Club (or RPFC) was in full force! There had to be a couple hundred men and boys playing games across dozens of fields. It was pretty impressive!

Here's a picture of a UK mailbox. It's funny because there are so many little things that we don't really pay attention to but that are so different than things in the US. Our fire highdrants are red but here the post boxes, or pillar boxes as they call them, are red. Traditional UK post boxes bear the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation, so you can see the E-II-R, which stands for Elizabeth Regina the second. I just read that she has reigned for 56 years, crazy!

This is a photo of Marylebone High Street - a fun street not too far from our flat. It has shops, boutiques and restaurants and I just love it! We ventured off the main street this weekend and found a few cute shops...

Here is a little ribbon shop (Karen - I found it!) and just down

the street there is another shop called the Button Queen!

That's all for now! I have to go get some stuff done! Hope that everyone is doing well! On the next blog I'll have some photos from Maya's baby shower that I missed this weekend. I wished I could have been there! I have been begging for photos so they better start rolling in girls!

Have a great week! Love, Kari