March 2023

February and march have been busy with visitors and trips inside and outside of Ireland.

In late February, we were treated to a visit from the Walters-Mendoza family. We did the expected (dinner at the local, Grafton street, a day trip to Bray - with a delicious meal at Chez Moli), they did a bunch of touring on their own, and together we checked out the Irish Whiskey Museum for the first time. The whiskey itself in the tasting wasn’t great (says Nora, who is apparently now a bonafied whiskey expert, apparently), but that was completely surpassed by the delightful tour guide, Dohmhnal. He was an actual stand-up comic and imbued the funny tour funny with a lot of political commentary and actual historical teachings. David and Luis did a traditional “Guys’ steaks night” and Alison and I checked out the Michelin-guide “Camden Kitchen” - which was not only delicious and homey (and had a huge horse picture on the wall!) but also very gracious about the last-minute surprise addition of a third member to our party (a very cute one, in pajamas, that required a high chair), as we arrived quite late…that said, we did then attempt to go into a pub to listen to some music, only to be hunted down by the manager and kindly escorted out. But hey, the bouncers surely noticed the charming child strapped to Alison’s thorax and yet didn’t way a word? That to me is a classic Irish situation…nine out of ten folks notice the issue and don’t say a word, and then finally someone is put up to having to speak up, and they do it very kindly. Works for me! We also finally, at Alison’s urging, checked out Bread 41, which did not disappoint. My breakfast was absolutely scrumptious. All in all it was so great having them visit, and Sally especially had a great time with the littles, who were super troopers with the travel and time zones.

In early March our family took a day trip down to Enniscorthy and Curracloe. In Enniscorthy we climbed up Vinegar Hill and learned a lot about the 1798 rebellion at the National Rebellion Centre. After that heavy morning, we checked out Curracloe beach, which is the longest stretch of white sand beach on the island, and is as striking as it sounds. It’s also notably where they filmed the Normandy beach scenes in Saving Private Ryan. Even though it was a cool day, the sun was shining and it wasn’t too windy, so humans and canids alike enjoyed running up and down the sand dunes and checking out the small swells.

In a ideal coincidence, to celebrate International Women’s Day, two days later I took a walking tour of the Liberties neighborhood of Dublin focused on the history of Anne Devlin, who was also related to the 1798 rebellion. To quote her biography by Mícheál Ó Doibhilín, "Anne Devlin suffered for 48 years to protect those involved in Robert

Emmet’s Rising of 1803...For 48 years she protected the spinal cord of Nationalism that eventually led to the Republic we now enjoy.” If not for her, many feel Ireland would not be an independent country today.

Another treat early in March came from our friend and neighbor, Kevin, who happens to be the social commodore at the Royal St. George’s Yacht Club in Dun Laiorighe. He had booked the American Ambassador, Claire Cronin to speak at at dinner the club, and invited us to join as his guests since we are American. Furthermore, kids were not actually allowed, but he snuck Sally in to meet Ambassador Cronin. The Ambassador was very gracious and chatted easily with Sally. Then Sally’s babysitter met us and took her home and we stayed for dinner. The Ambassador is a very accomplished attorney and later-in-life politician from Massachusetts. She was the first woman Speaker of the House in MA. She came across as one of the few (cynical, yes?) politicians in it for the right reasons.

March was cold, with snow and hail on several occasions. To keep up Sally’s enthusiasm from ice-skating in Morzine, I treated her to the roller skating rink in Dublin—twice. She took right to it, and I was transported back to the early 1990s and all those middle school roller skating parties. It doesn’t seem like much has changed in that, um, industry. Sport? Interestingly there’s not a single year-round ice-skating rink on the island!

This year for Saint Patrick’s Day Sally and Nora were in the parade! It was admittedly a very long day, and a lot of work to create waterproof costumes (even though in the end it barely drizzled), but completely worth it. We signed up through the Dublin Cycling Campaign, who each year choose a cause to promote with their participation. This year was “Bikes and Biodiversity” we we were to choose one of the 4 habitats and make a costume reflective of the flora or fauna. We chose the seashore and Sally was the seashore itself (bike as water, her as sand with native shells - cockles, periwinkles, scallops, mussels, and barnacles) and I was the very glamorous seaweed. There’s something magical about cycling down the main routes of Dublin with reportedly half a million people (that would be 1 in 10 Irish citizens; except of course many of those were probably tourists) in a sea of green, white, and orange, joyously waving at you and cheering for you. Probably the only time we’ll do it, but I’m so glad we did.

The Irish celebrate a different mother’s day than we do in the U.S. (though father’s day is the same). My understand is it has something to do with Easter/lent?

To celebrate, we started the day off by Sally and I using the trash picker-uppers I had asked for for Christmas to pick up trash along St. John’s Rd. and Sandymount Strand. It was lovely how many people smiled and gave us a thumb’s up or a thank you. Then the three of us did a family pottery course at Arran St. East, a pottery workshop just north of the Liffey. Finally, David and I went to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Bord Gaís theater in town (and for a pint on the way at the very lively Merry Cobbler, where a guy was singing American music (and well!) on his guitar posted up on top of the entranceway). Death Cab was incredible - seriously lead singer Ben Gibbard’s voice has only gotten better with time, if anything.

To celebrate the last day of spring Sally and I had a nice walk at the Botanical Gardens, enjoying the gorgeous flowers and trees coming into full bloom. It’s a delightful spot and free entry so win-win.

We decided to head for a couple of days of sun and all three of us went to Tenerife for a couple of days. Our friends had been here last year and recommended the resort, Bahia Principe Fantasie.

Tenerife is a Spanish island (one of the Canaries) off the western coast of Africa, and we did a very typical all-inclusive resort sun-cation and just completely chilled. Sally spent hours enjoying the waterpark and various kids’ activities, and even made a couple of friends about her age from the UK. Most of the kids were babies/toddlers b/c it was just a random weekend (not a school break), and therefore it also wasn’t that crowded. Two days was perfect and we came back fully refreshed.

Finally, I finished up March with another quick trip (hey, life is short) to Chamonix, France, for a couple of days of solo snowboarding. Chamonix is a very charming town nestled among the Alps, accessorized by multiple glaciers and a view of Mont Blanc (I almost had to say "supposedly" about that one!). Even the drive up there from Geneva had more waterfalls than I've ever seen (sorry, Yosemite).

The weather mostly did not cooperate, but one evening it cleared a bit and allowed views of these aforementioned stunners, which I enjoyed during a nice omelette dinner and then from my Airbnb’s balcony. The remainder of the time, it precipitated a nice wet mix of rain/snow/hail and kept the mountains primarily hidden away. That said, navigating the various lift closures and free bus route (plus those drivers maneuvered with a vengeance!) kept me busy, as well as allowed me to speak a lot of French.

I did get a little bit of time in on the mountain, plus a pedestrian-only trip on the cable car up to Le Brévent, which at 8284 feet showed off its staggering views, wind, and hail pellets. There was a woman in the cable car with us who was scared of heights and I felt very sorry for her as she clung to the rail and kept warning her friends to get away from the windows. It was quite a ride across the huge gap between mountains.

Another incredible set of moments was when I was by myself on a gondola, and subsequently on a lift, during huge lightning and thunder. The gondola happened first and I was pretty sure I was going to die that time. The good news is that when it then happened on an open lift the next day, I felt pretty nonchalant about it. The lift shut down for a full ten minutes and it was incredibly windy, hailing sideways, and then there was lightning and thunder. I hunkered down and thought it was pretty cool, really! Then they shut the whole mountain down as they unloaded the set of folks on currently on the lifts, which was admittedly less cool.

Both days also had moderate to severe avalanche warnings, with visible small avalanches having closed some of the runs. Given the dearth of snow, this was surprising, but certainly kept me on the straight and narrow, so to speak. Speaking of the poor snow, it made it easy to see the adorable Chamonix sheep mowing the hillsides, though they were difficult to meaningly capture on camera. :)

On Friday afternoon after two failed attempts to spend time on the mountain I went for a rainy walk (and purchased—and unabashedly devoured—a pain au chocolat aux amandes the size of my head). There are numerous trails and trail-markers everywhere (love this about European mountains) and I really really wanted to follow the signs to a local waterfall, but felt like hiking by myself in the Alps in the middle of a windy thunderstorm was ill-advised. So I stuck to the village and its outskirts and appreciated the brief moments when the clouds cleared and showed off the mountains (captured below).

Thunderstorms and avalanches aside, the Alps are amazing and I can’t wait to return.