In August, I went to Ireland with my best friend Emma. We were there for 10 days, and we rented a car and drove around the spectacularly beautiful countryside. I’m going to post my favorite photos here, with some brief descriptions. The photos are a combination of pictures taken on my iPhone (the ones with borders, mostly) and ones taken with my new camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7.

We arrived in Dublin on a sunny Sunday morning, completely jet-lagged. We took a shuttle into the city, and (after some confusion and walking) found our first bed and breakfast: Kilronan House. We stayed here for two nights, and it was incredibly lovely with a helpful and friendly staff. The breakfast was incredibly yummy.

We also managed to get locked *inside* our room. Here is Emma trying to get us out:

After we were settled in at the B&B, we went out to explore a bit and find some food. We walked through St. Stephens Green, and ended up eating at Cafe en Seine:

We then popped into a few bookstores. One of the best things about traveling with Emma is that she never says no to going into a bookstore or library. In fact, she encourages it.

Strolling back through St. Stephen’s Green to our B&B, we discovered a live band concert and many people sitting in the sunshine to enjoy the music:

After a nap at the B&B, we dragged our jet-lagged selves out for some food, live music, and my first Guinness of the trip:

It was a gorgeous sight to behold.

The next day we went on one of the “Hop On/Hop Off” bus tours with live commentary, to transport us around the city. Our first “Hop Off” was at the Guinness Storehouse:

After touring the 7 floors and stopping at the bar at the top (which has incredible views of the city), we got back on the bus and took it north of the Liffey to O’Connell Street. While seeing the historic sights there, we stopped in a few more bookstores:

The Millennium Spire:

Ha’Penny Bridge:

The Liffey:

We then went to Trinity Collage to see the book of Kells and the library:

That night we went on the Literary Pub Crawl, which started at the Duke:

The Pub Crawl guides are two funny and entertaining actors. In addition to telling us the literary history of the bars and streets we went to, they acted out several scenes from plays written by Irish playwrights. Here’s one of our guides:

The tour ended at Davy Byrnes, the bar made famous in Ulysses, where Leopold Bloom has a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy:

Part 2 coming soon – where Emma and I rent a car and drive toward the west on the left side of the road to more adventures! In the meantime, all of my Ireland photos are on Flickr.

I still need to finish uploading my Ireland photos and videos – it’s proving to be a very time consuming process. But in the meantime, I thought I’d share some photos from my trip to Philly over Labor Day weekend. I went with some of my amazing friends, and we had a fabulous time.

Me and my friend Dara in a taxi on the way to the Bolt Bus.

One of my favorite places that we went was Reading Terminal Market – an indoor marketplace full of dozens of merchants selling delicious food.

Inside Reading Terminal Market.

These cookies are to die for.

Saturday night we went to a Phillies game (vs. the Milwaukee Brewers). It was a beautiful night (chilly! yay!), and the Phillies won.

Group shot (plus) fellow Buddy Richard & his girlfriend (minus) Dara (taking the photo)

Sunday night we cooked an enormous BBQ dinner that could have easily fed 30 people. In reality we fed 11, and it was a fantastic meal. Each of us made one part of the meal. Here’s Ashley right before the feast.

This is Kristen’s parent’s house, and our lovely home for the weekend. They were extremely gracious hosts, and our weekend in Philly was spectacular!

This is a small sampling of photos, the rest are in this Flickr set.

I posted some photos of my trip to Washington DC on my flickr page.

Washington monument

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I had a lovely time in michigan. I didn’t get to everything on my list – but I did do a lot. It was lovely to see my family, my Grandma, Emma Wad, and Jenth Sminy.

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James Taylor

Last year Emma and I decided we wanted to try hard to see James Taylor live in 2009. When his tour was announced, we were a little bummed that there were no east coast stops, or Michigan stops. I was willing to plan a visit to Michigan around a concert date, and if he had an east coast date then Emma could try to come out for that (though her schedule isn’t as flexible during the school year since she’s a teacher). The two closest stops were Indiana and Milwaukee. Milwaukee seemed like the most fun (and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit). Plus, Milwaukee’s date was on a Saturday, and Indiana’s was on a Tuesday night.

Having decided on Milwaukee, I was determined to get us good seats. I didn’t want us to drive 4.5 to 5 hours to sit in the balcony. Luckily, the presale was for Citibank credit card holders, and I have a Citibank card. I bought the tickets the second the presale started, and got us 3rd row seats! :) We were super excited.

Milwaukee

So we set out that Saturday morning, very early, to get to Milwaukee with time to explore before the show. We had our favorite bagels (Bruegger’s – which Emma and I both adore and don’t live near a location anymore), and went book shopping, sightseeing, etc. We had an excellent dinner at a place called Capone’s.

Milwaukee Theatre

We got to our seats at the Milwaukee Theatre about 7:58. I sat back and relaxed, and then noticed something very weird. Every single seat was filled. Normally people trickle into concerts during the first hour, to avoid being bored during the opening act. I’ve never been one to subscribe to that, since I’ve seen many excellent opening acts, some of whom went on to become famous themselves (most notably Andrew Bird). People who came late to the Flight of the Conchords show at Radio City missed a fantastic stand up routine by Kristen Schaal. But usually that’s how it is – the house doesn’t fill up until the “real” show starts. I began to wonder if these people knew something I didn’t, and sure enough – they did. James Taylor doesn’t need an opening act. He and his band came right out, and they played two full sets, with an intermission in-between. It was spectacular. He played almost all of my favorite songs, including: Up on the Roof, Your Smiling Face, You Can Close Your Eyes, How Sweet it is to be Loved by You, Fire and Rain, Hound Dog, You’ve Got a Friend, and Sweet Baby James.

People kept hollering for certain songs, and James was very funny and gracious – and ended up holding up the giant, two sided set list and showing it to us to promise that we’d get to the favorites.

James Taylor

He also signed autographs almost the entire length of the intermission – what a guy. Emma and I felt like the only people in the orchestra section who had never been to a James Taylor concert before. Fortunately, we won’t have to feel that way next time we see him, and we can’t wait. We’re definitely planning on seeing him again – it was a fantastic show.

Here are more photos:

James Taylor

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James Taylor

Here are all my photos from the show: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=james%20taylor&w=58887120%40N00

Anyway, the only photos I have from that day are from our time at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was too early for the Cherry Blossoms, so I’d like to get back out there soon to experience that. But nonetheless, we had a lovely time and got some great pictures.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

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Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Tea House

Tea House Entrance

Hybrid Oak

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

My full set of photos from the gardens are in this Flickr set.

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First, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Emma is afraid of heights, but the Brooklyn Bridge is a good bridge for anyone who has this fear, since you don’t walk close to the edge – you walk right down the middle. You also don’t have water below you, you have another layer of cement down below (between the two way traffic lanes. It was cold and windy, so crossing was a bit of an adventure. The bridge looks much more intimidating with a sky like this:

Brooklyn Bridge

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At one point in our crossing we were delayed by a very large group of people posing for a photo along the path, blocking everyone’s way. I got a very amusing photo of Emma while we were waiting for them:

 

Group photo in the way

She may be a Michigander, but she’s got a native New Yorker’s dislike of having their route blocked. :)

 

Next, we walked to Brooklyn Heights and explored some of the former homes of famous authors.

First up was 70 Willow Street, the Adrian van Sinderen residence. It was built in the 1830s, and Truman Capote lived here in the basement apartment, and wrote many of his most famous works there.

70 Willow Street

Next up is 142 Columbia Heights, where Norman Mailer lived. He was living here at the time of his death in 2007:

142 Columbia Heights

We also visited No. 22 Willow Street, where Henry Ward Beecher lived (he is also a distant relative of Emma’s!):

Emma

Along the way we saw many beautiful buildings that we decided we would gladly move into at a moment’s notice. One such building had a very lovely window with a piano:

 

Window

After visiting a few bookstores in the area, BookCourt and Rocketship book store, and eating lunch at a cute cafe, we hopped on the F train to Park Slope.

 

Brownstones in Park Slope

We visited the fabulous Community Bookstore, and fell in love with its charming children’s section in the back.

Community Bookstore

Children’s section at Community Bookstore

Next we went up to Grand Army Plaza, and took a picture of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch before the wind pushed us out of the plaza.

Soldiers and Sailors Arch

Close by is the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It’s huge and magnificent. The wind was getting out of control at this point. We watched people’s hats fly off their heads and travel 100 feet down the sidewalk. We tried to take Emma’s picture in front of the library, and as we were taking the first shot an enormous gust of wind blew the camera askew in my hands and almost knocked Emma over. We had to try another take. Here is the first attempt, and the second, successful attempt:

BPL picture – take 1

BPL picture – take 2

After exploring and admiring the library, we hopped back on the subway and went back to Manhattan to give some of our money to Strand before heading home for the day.

 

Strand

Further adventures and photos will be posted soon!

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Last week I had a dentist appointment on 57th street, so I took the R uptown and my stop let out right at the bottom of Central Park. I love the park at all times of the year, and I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of how peaceful and beautiful it looks during the winter.

Central Park – Winter

Central Park – Winter

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