St. Patricks Day in Dublin {with Andy & Becky}

To say the least, I was really excited for St. Patricks Day in Ireland.  Not only did we get to celebrate in Dublin, we got to celebrate with good friends from here and from California!

We'll get to the rest of the weekend with Andy and Becky, but first the 17th of March.  We started the day off at home, getting ready with some homemade Irish coffee before venturing out.

50 Shade of Green going on - Becky & Andy brought the fun ears - thanks!

I was so excited about my food craft - an Irish Flag Crudités plate

It was a cold day (it snowed in the morning!), so the goal was to find a pub on the parade route that had a window upstairs with open seats for 6 of us.  As you can imagine, this would be a popular scenario for many on this cold day, so we headed to town early.  Turns out, we got there a little too early, as it was a Sunday and the Pubs can't open until noon - fail.  We retreated to a cafe for another Irish coffee while we waited and plotted where to head next.

Waiting for noon 

Early risers getting front row for the parade

We ended at the Lord Edward pub just before noon, and milled around downstairs for a few minutes before they let us up to the second floor.  Success, we found a 2nd floor window with seats for all.  We settled in for the afternoon to enjoy the parade, nice and warm.

This is what you do on St. Patricks day, Guinness and Shamrock flavored crisps

The boys

and the Girls 

and the parade

Abby shot this great pic of our view of the parade
with Christ Church Cathedral in the back

Lot's of photos were taken this day

Brandon getting some advice from the experienced.
Check out his green swag & goatee - he's definitely done this before

And, as the afternoon went on, Andy joined these ladies in Irish harmonies

After the parade, we were feeling a bit hungry, so we left our prime real estate to hit the streets in search of Zaytoon, the best Kebab in Dublin.

These guys were just as excited about
St. Patricks Day as I was 

Passing through Temple Bar

That's where my photos end, but we stayed out for quite a while before retreated back home for the night.  St. Patty's Day in Dublin was pretty fun, and it was cool to experience it here.

The McGuire's arrived in Ireland and took a road trip around the Southwest before landing back in Dublin to spend a weekend with us.  We had a great time showing them around the city and some of our favorite spots.

Look at these happy boys.
Brian cooked up a Full Irish Breakfast on Andy's request.

We strolled up Grafton and caught a pretty good band busking

We stopped by my favorite Guinness Photo Op in Dublin,
and I somehow convinced Brian to have our picture taken too

We crossed to the North Side - on the Ha'Penny Bridge over the River Liffey

The other day we spent with the McGuire's was a little North of the city at Newgrange, which is a Prehistoric Passage Tomb.  This is easily the oldest thing I've ever seen.  It's over 5,000 years old, which makes it older than the Pyramids in Egypt.  I couldn't take any photos inside, but inside is sort of like an ancient temple, although it's still debated what the purpose originally was.

The passage is just over 60ft long, and in the middle area opens up to some chambers.  The rocks that it was built from are still in place and holding the structure up.  It's really incredible.  There is a lot of graffiti, as in carved names and dates in the walls from before excavations/government kept people out.  The dates that are carved in the wall are in the 17-1800's - I thought that was really cool.  People were rebels, even hundreds of years ago.

It's also built in alignment with the Winter Solstice. This is the only day of the year the light shines directly in the chamber and illuminates the entire structure.  We didn't go on the Winter Solstice, although, the weather sure felt like it, but they do a reenactment with a light to show you what it looks like.  I think it's fascinating how clever people were so long ago.

It doesn't look like much from the outside

I'm smiling, but freezing cold

Here come bundled up Andy & Becky.  The scenery was beautiful

This is coming out of the passage way

It's always nice to get a little bit of history, and we're happy when we can experience it with visitors.

It was another fun filled weekend in Ireland, with a few items checked off the bucket list.  Thanks Andy and Becky for making the trip over, we had a blast.