Ireland

Hi!

For those of you who do not know, we are on vacation in Ireland. Having a grand time. This country is beautiful. For those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, I thought I'd post a quick update.

We started our trip off in Dublin (Voted, recently, by TripAdvisor as most friendly city, yet, worst dressed - Um, hello locals, black tights, long shirts and pink hair went out in, I believe, 1992. Or was it 1988? I can't remember). Of course I have some pictures to post. However, I'm in farm country right now (Dingle, Ireland) and one highlight this week, so far, was watching our farm (Working farm B&B) milk their cows this morning (see pictures above and below) and then get a small jug of raw milk. Even though I am a hypochondriac and worry about germs and bacteria, I drank the milk and fell in love. It is delicious!! It's pretty common, so it seems, for the locals to drink raw milk without any hesitation. We drank it and cooked with it today and we are fine. I may be addicted to the stuff. So much to do with it (homemade buttermilk, butter, cream)! Did you know (no time to find the resource link right now) that many lactose intolerant people can drink raw milk? Yup! Makes you think about our germ-bacteria phobia in the US. Maybe overkill? I don't know.

What I do know is that the food is great and I am eating like a cow. I'll have to hit the gym hard and get back on track with portion control this weekend. I surely will have gained a few pounds on this trip. Between the Irish soda bread, Irish coffee, hard cider, beer, fruit crumbles, etc., I am turning into one of the fat cows staring me in the face every morning! I can't help myself! I want to eat every local dish I can! Why do I have to be a "foodie???"

The kids are doing well. We rented a cottage at the B&B in Dingle (Olivia has asked, several times, as to when we will be eating Dingle Berries - thank you DH!) and they each have their own room and have been sleeping well. Though, traveling with toddlers is eye-opening in that you see, clearly, where you are failing as a parent (read, screaming kids in restaurants who do not want to sit down and eat).

When we are not traveling around, seeing the sites, I am relaxing with hot tea and a good book (Currently on the Outlander series. Addicted and highly recommend it to you all. You will fall in LOVE with Jamie Fraser and your kids and husband will be neglected. Thank goodness my husband also loves to read and does not have much ability to yell at me for doing so even when he needs help driving on the left side of the road and I have face-in-book and could care less that a hubcap just fell off).

We're here for a few more days before making our way back to sunny Portugal. I'll be sure to post more details and pictures about our trip over the weekend.