On Wednesday we moved from the castle to a B& B down by the bay. I misquoted the cost of the castle: it was $259 a night not $330. We found out when we checked out. Still it was a bad experience. When the B&B owner picked us up at the hotel, she asked about our stay. We told her we were disappointed and she said they had a terrible reputation and that there was no resident manager. Apparently he manages another one of their hotels and rarely shows up at the castle. Anyway, our B&B was delightful and right on the bus line. After putting our luggage there we headed to town and revisited Design Yard, the beautiful arts and crafts gallery then went on a one-hour tour of Dublin Castle that was built on the foundation of the original castle built in the 1100’s. The building is still used for important meetings and dinners by heads of state and the like. Afterwards we had a good lunch nearby. Being starved for a good film, we went to the Dublin Film Center and saw Other People’s Lives, an excellent German film.

We came back to the B&B and went to the great award winning Pakistani restaurant where we had eaten our first night in Dublin. After much deliberation, we ended up ordering the exact same dishes that we had enjoyed a week earlier. Yum. Back to the B&B that was just a few blocks away and off to bed we went. Up at 5:00 to catch our plane. We flew to London, short layover and a breakfast, then on to Chicago, a short layover then to Boston where David met us and drove us to Portland ME. From start to finish we traveled 23.5 hours and slept for 30 minutes between Chicago and Boston. We quickly fell into bed and today we are moving slowly. The kids are in school and David and Anne are at work so we can rest in between laundry and computer time.

It must be 70 degrees at least here today. We walked to a nearby café for lunch and didn’t even need our sweaters. Maine has had their coldest April this year but something changed while we were here. It is sunny and gorgeous! Lucky us. We took an hour-long nap after lunch and feel almost back to normal after our marathon no sleep trip.

Tuesday April 24th
Time flies. Yesterday we had a great day hanging out with our grandkids Jacob (5) and Tess (2.5). In the morning we planted some shrubs we had purchased on Sunday and in the afternoon we took them to a fire station to see the big trucks. Jacob is crazy about cars and trucks so we thought is would be a fun surprise outing. He got very shy when we got there. But a fireman came sliding down the fireman’s pole from upstairs and that was way cool. He gave both kids a fire chief hat and a sticker badge. Jacob would only go in the cab of the fire truck after Ron went in and Jacob sat on Ron’s lap. Then we ran a few errands and came home. The kids had a special event at their school so we walked them to school and we came back since Anne was to attend the event after work and she brought them home. Anne’s mom came over to baby sit and we took David and Anne out to eat dinner at a neat place in the downtown area.

The weather continues to be unbelievably beautiful: sunny, warm days. We have been getting up every morning and walking for 45 minutes. Today we were very bad. We stopped by a bakery on the way home for a cup of coffee and you had to walk right by the pastry case to order your coffee. Well heck, who can refuse a warm, whole-wheat sticky bun smothered in pecans??? Not me for sure. So we walked and gained two pounds from the so-called breakfast we ate at the bakery. We took a trip to the dump to recycle all the yard debris we collected when we raked the yard this weekend. We can’t stay inside in this weather. The week before we arrived Portland had a big windstorm with 65 mph gusts and many trees and limbs came tumbling down. Many in the city were without power for three days including David and Anne. They didn’t lose any trees but the yard was a mess. After yard work on Sunday we went to the mall and had family portraits done. Would you believe that the last time I had a professional photograph taken was my high school yearbook photo in 1963!!!!!!!!!! Yikes, I am older than dirt. Then we went to Pat Parker’s house for dinner. Anne’s mom is a retired college professor and Anne’s dad still teaches in Japan but plans to retire in a year. They had just completed an addition to their already lovely home that sits on a hill overlooking a bay. Living on water is a very special experience.

After the dump run we came home, cleaned up and Ron took me downtown to Anne’s hair salon. God grief, the haircut was 50% more than what I pay in Vancouver. Do I live in a vacuum or what??? Well it feels good to have my hair trimmed.

Today we take David to catch a plane to Cambridge where he will be meeting on a work project and we head out in the morning to drive to Providence RI where we will hook up with Ron’s sister Sandi. We will turn our rental car in and she will drive us to her home in Kingston where we will stay until Friday when we head to VA to see Mark, Rachel and Avi, their son who is almost eight months old.