Day 11 PM, Road to Tullamore, Day 12, Seamus and Emer and family

We bailed out of Dublin a little late and skipped breakfast because someone was convinced that we could only charge breakfast to our room and not pay cash for anything in the hotel restaurant..... The trip and stops were all planned out and the first was the National Stud, where there was a very old and internationally renowned Japanese garden. There was the easy path of life for those who had been there, and a more challenging path for those up to it. Needless to say who took what, but they were both very nice.  

There was also St. Fransira Garden, an ancient monetary with paths, mounds, ponds and paths. 

We rolled into Tullamore by 16:00 and wandered about town checking out the facilities and window shopping. We all converged on the Bridge Street Lodge and Pub. Eventually wandered around the corner to the Bridge Street Hotel, called Seamus and awaited his arrival. He found me waiting on the front steps and drove Mom back to his MAGNIFICENT house with Chris and I following. Seamus and co. and family took 4 years to build one of the nicest houses I have seen in many a year. It has near 3 ft thick walls made mostly of stone. All the floors are tile with massive 6 ft triple pane glass doors. They have a wonderful set of twins and a young son Patrick who is a dead ringer for Sean Kane of Kearny.

We soon fell in with Emer and all the kids and had a great dinner and conversation. Emer's Mom and aunt were visiting and all the women had some great craic while the men wandered about to the stores and hang about in the yard. ots of fun playing with pipes and guy stuff. After some more shopping and running about Seamus and I finally had time for a pint at the Blue Ball Pub. Seamus was sorely disappointed that they were out of Tullimore Dew and we had to settle for a dram of Jameson's before heading back to join the the women. We stayed up late talking and getting caught up on trans Atlantic happenings.

   We got up on the early side to be sure to see and photograph the kids before they got off to school.  We then proceeded to consume Seamus and Emer's morning talking, sharing some photos and slowling getting ready to hit the road.

After taking all that time we wandered about the country side a bit looking for something of interest before deciding to make a beeline to the hotel and then go shopping. Found the hotel with no problem, checked in and gathered up all the luggage and pieces to pack for the flight. We were relieved  when we realized that our flight was at 09:00 and not 07:00.

After the girls repacked and I went down to the lobby for internet access to confirm our flights and seats we headed out for some shopping (unsuccessful) and dinner at Durty Nelly's ( successful ).

This brings us to the last live post of the trip. I will be going back to fix some of these posts, upload more photos and video and generally add some more detail that I don't have and am too tired to drag out of others at this time.

This has been a 3000Km trip over 13 days with 1 driver and 3 navigators. a 2009 Toyota Afasdfgjk of some sort which is the worse for the wear (thank god for full insurance coverage)


I hope you all have enjoyed and hope to share the nearly 1000 photos with yoou all...........

See many of you Friday or Saturday after some recovery time.