September 2022 adventures in Ireland

First, some delightful random things that happened this month that I want to remember. Sally and I took all the lavender that our neighborhood cut down from the common area and made little sachets for our drawers. Sally harvested potatoes with our avuncular neighbor, Kevin (who planted them with her!), and started skateboarding more. David won (!) the Wicklow challenge bike ride ("just" 110 km, I believe).

On Sunday evening 9/11 I went to see Garth Brooks in the 3rd of his 5 night concert series in Dublin. The irony does not escape me that I moved to Ireland and THEN saw Garth Brooks. David was kind enough to get me tickets but isn’t a huge fan (or, um, a fan at all) so I invited a friend. My Irish friend Hilary IS a big Garth Brooks fan so was delighted to attend. Garth was supposed to play 5 nights here back in 2014 but that was canceled due to some difficulties with the venue, so this was his big return. Almost 1 in 10 Irish people saw him - 400,000 attended the concerts! He was incredible. First off, it was rather surreal seeing him surrounded by Irish folk of all ages and sizes in cowboy gear singing their hearts out. Second, he is the epitome of a showman, falling to his knees and crying, knowing just when to talk to the crowd, etc. He also introduced his whole band, most of whom had been with him for almost 30 years, which speaks to what a nice guy he seems to be. Even when he his wife, Tricia Yearwood, made a surprise appearance on stage for a couple songs at the end (in an incredibly sparkly jumpsuit) he introduced her as the “incredibly talented Tricia Yearwood,” (not as “my wife”), which I thought was sweet. His first encore was him alone playing a few early hits, then together with his band playing “Standing outside the Fire.” His second encore was “American Pie,” which of course the crowd went wild for.

On Saturday 9/17 David, Sally, and I finally made our way to Wicklow to hike up the Great Sugarloaf. At only 501 m high, one could snobbishly say it’s barely a mountain, but since it rises from sea level and has a nice rocky peak it looks the part. We had brought Riley but the last bit was truly rock scrambling so we took turns summiting. We saw a couple other dogs go all the way up and it looked dicey helping them back down (a lot of carrying which Riley is not a huge fan of). The 360-degree views were spectacular. It was quite chilly and windy at the top, but absolutely worth the not-very-challenging hike and fun to know we’ve been up there since it’s visible from almost every aspect of our day-to-day life.

Sunday 9/25 Sally and I went on the Old Liffey Ferry as it took us on a tour of Dublin port. Our tour guide told us many stories of the port ranging from pirates, to protecting terns, to personal tales of growing up in Ringsend without plumbing. It was a very fun way to see Dublin from a completely different perspective.

Sarah Dukti arrived from Virginia for a visit on 9/27 and we packed in a lot of good stuff! Here are a few highlights. Started with a coffee at Bewley’s, of course, along with a drive out to Kildare and the Irish National Stud (never disappoints). We also went for a nice walk out on the Curragh. Last time (and the first time) Sally and I went to the INS, we took the bus which took approximately 3.5 hours. This time I drove (gasp! - first road trip for me) and seriously less than 1 hour. That evening, after a nice dinner out in town we found some live music, which was a delightful melange of trad music and American favorites. The crowd was perfect - old and young, dancing, laughing, having a great time being their best selves. Another evening I took Sarah for the Guinness tour and had a delightful time, as always. This time we got “stouties” - the pint with our pictures on them. Ridiculous but also pretty cool.

On Saturday 10/1 we headed down to Waterford to tour the Waterford Crystal factory and poke around the adorable medieval town. I admittedly wasn’t a huge fan of crystal before this but figured it would be a cool tour. We were all completely blown away (get it??) by the crystalware production process. Each piece is hand made and the artisans train for TEN years (yes, that’s longer than a neurosurgeon, I believe) for this skill. Furthermore, they have tourists watching them do their jobs all day every day.

On Sunday 10/2 all 4 of us (Sarah, David, Sally, and me) went up to county Meath to check out Trim Castle and the Hill of Tara. Trim Castle has beautiful grounds to walk around on, but unfortunately the tour times didn’t line up so I don’t know much about the castle itself. The Hill of Tara reposes in a high point of the Boyne Valley and is the legendary inauguration site of the ancient High Kings of Ireland. There are burial mounds (including the Mound of Hostages) and the Stone of Destiny (a phallic stone people consider to hold the power of fertility that each new King of Ireland touches). Sally rolled down the mounds almost ceaselessly and her jeans gained many a well-deserved grass-stain. An Irish wolfhound approached, and micturated upon, the Stone of Destiny. These are the tidbits from the day that I will probably remember rather than the 5000-year history of the site.

On Thursday 10/5 Sarah and I set off into yet another rain storm to drive down to the Wicklow mountains to go horseback riding. At first I had difficulty finding somewhere that was still open and doing “horse trekking.” The place we ended up going to at first said we’d have to come do a one-hour private lesson first to “assess our riding capabilities” but when I said we didn’t have time to do that and asked if there were anywhere else local he’d recommend, strangely he waived that prerequisite and signed us up. Country Cottage stables is just outside of Enniskerry with a gorgeous view of Big Sugarloaf mountain. An elderly German shepherd warmly greeted us as we drove up (in spite of the “Beware of dogs” sign). To his credit, Kieran did have us do a five-minute assessment in his ring before he turned us loose on the trail. It has been probably at least 20 years since somebody watched me ride around in an arena and critiqued me, but it felt natural.

Sarah and I were both given big draft horses to ride - her on Valegro and me on Guinness (really); our guide Sophie was on adorable Paddington (only 6 years old and so brave!) and the horse bringing up the rear was Banksy (cute names all around). What was supposed to be a 1.5-hour ride was well over 2 h. The weather wavered between sunshine and light rain, which made for effulgent rainbows that followed us the entire trip. We wove through dense woods with mossy fluorescent green carpet, along open trails, saw sheep and horses, and had epic views of the Wicklow mountains and Irish Sea all along. The horses were perfect (Guinness only tested my capabilities by trying to put me into a tree once or twice) and we joyfully trotted and cantered around the Irish countryside like every horse-crazy American I know dreams of. This quintessentially perfect morning was followed by a delicious lunch at The Grain Store at Kilruddery House, which was a feast for the taste buds.

Thursday night we took Sarah to an opening at the National Gallery of the Turner Exhibit (Sun is God), which was led by the new museum director. Her knowledge and enthusiasm were infectious, and the curation of the exhibit was gorgeous. Of course my favorite was actually not by Turner, but instead by Mainie Jellett (I'll give you a hint, it's my favorite subject!); however, I did enjoy Turner’s effulgent works.

Finally, on Friday 10/7 Sarah and I went kayaking in Dalkey. It was supposed to be a tour around Dalkey Island, but the winds were too intense so the guides rerouted the trip along the coast to Dun Laoighre and back. The seals were friendly and inquisitive and visited us numerous times. We learned that the Dublin Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site for being the cleanest bay associated with a capital city. We were apparently persuaded by our tour guides that the water temperature was the best it’d be all year, and after our kayaking (in wet suits!) we walked over to the Forty-foot and had a quick dip in the water. It felt as cold as it did in the summer, plus the ambient air temperature was significantly colder, but it was fun to do! Now Sarah and I have swum in the freezing Pacific off Sydney and the Irish Sea off Dublin!

Finally, I wanted to include the letter Sally and her friend Holly wrote to our president (with no prompting from the parents!). I am inspired by their attention to this topic and optimistic he will read it.

It was a busy month!