Archive through March 16, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: 2003 April: Road Trips (ARCHIVES): Archive through March 16, 2003

Kaili

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 02:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This wasn't really a road trip... Well, it was once the plane trip ended :)

I just got back from Ireland. Right now I can barely keep my eyes open cause I'm really tired (on the plane 10 hours yesterday, then a 3 hour drive from Chicago.. luckily I had someone who drove down to pick me up).

Anyway- tons of fun- driving on the left was fun too! Very pretty- my pictures weren't really what I expected them to be, but some were really nice. Very windy and a few days with a lot of rain but we stayed in a different place every night and saw a lot. We actually only did the southeast and still didn't get to see everything we wanted to.

Lancecrossfire

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 02:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Marm, welcome home!! It sounds like your drive was by far more energy draining than the rest of your rtip combined! Glad you were able to avoid the wrecks and the sliding all over the road.

Now if you could just get some nice weather!

Kaili, welcome back from Ireland!

Schoolmarm

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 02:56 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kaili, hope you loved Ireland. Bookworm's sister, Maggie Mae went last year and I think this January, too. She really liked it.

I'm needing a nap to recover from my road trip!

And for some reason, now that I'm back home, I LIKE being home. I think that I might stay in this job next year.

Egbok

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 03:22 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kaili, what a fantastic trip! Welcome back home!

I don't know much about the geography of Ireland but was Limerick in the Southeast part of your trip? The reason I ask is that's where Frank McCourt was from and based his life story called "Angela's Ashes". I would love to visit Limerick someday to see where he lived so I can see the places that he mentions in his book.

After you've had a chance to rest and recoup, please tell us all about your trip!

I wonder how JujuPupDawg is doing on her roadtrip.

Spygirl

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 04:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Welcome home Kaili and Marm! So glad you both made it home safely :)

Squaredsc

Sunday, March 09, 2003 - 04:31 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
wh kaili, hope you had a great trip with wonderful weather.

Twinkie

Monday, March 10, 2003 - 08:12 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Welcome home marm and kaili! Marm I hope you got to see the show last night on the history channel about the James ossuary. It took place after the crack, therefore after it arrived in Toronto. It was great! Hubby and I watched it with great interest! Email or call me or something!

Bigd

Monday, March 10, 2003 - 08:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
HEY JUJU!!!! where are you gonna catch Amtrak in Illinois?????

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 07:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I am back!!! Mexico was great. Weather was great. Neither Bigdog nor I got "turista", although several on the trip did. Went to San Luis Potosi, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, and Saltillo, not very long in any of them, just enough of each to get some probably erroneous impressions. In Mission, TX tonight and tomorrow, then hit the road.

TnT, dunno about making it to TN on the trip back. We don't have a car, which doesn't give us a lot of flexibility in going other places. BUT, it is a possibility that I will be going stark raving mad in the Arkansas Ozarks foothills after a few days, and may be considering any schemes to get out of there, even if I have to steal a car, which of course they don't like for us to do in the witness protection program. Send me an e-mail at juju2bigdog@yahoo.com and tell me where we might meet. I forget where you are in TN. Get out your map and look at Hardy, AR. That's about where I'll be. 135 miles or so from Memphis.

BigD, taking Amtrak out of Galesburg, but will be visiting relatives I have hardly seen in years for just two days, so the likelihood of getting any spare time to sneak off to meet my axe murderer internet buddies is slim.

Egbok

Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 07:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Welcome back Juju...you were missed around here!

It sounds like a good trip for the BigDogFamily!!

Kaili

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Egbok- you asked so here it is...Okay- a summary of my trip...(including Limerick)

We flew out of Chicago on March 1st at 7 pm and arrived at Shannon Airport at about 11 am (after a short stop in Dublin to let people off the plane).

That first day we drove up to Clifden and spent out first night there. I don't remember a lot of the first day because Iwas dead tired. I remember we stopped in Galway for lunch and we didn't have dinner, but we went to a few pubs in Clifden. Being off season and a super small town, Clifden wasn't too exciting.

The next day we drove a few miles away to Connemara National Park and walked around. Really windy but pretty area. After that, we drove back south to Galway for night two. We took very small rural roads for the drive and it took forever (not to mention we turned too soon and backtracked a bit). So that night in Galway we went and had really good Indian food, then went to a few pubs until we found one with music. The musicians that night were Gypsies and one woman sang a few times- beautiful voice- then she woudn't stop singing and everyone was hushed if they talked so it got a bit irritating that we couldn't talk at all. I met a guy there who was on Spring Break- American kid going to school in London on a university exchange thing- he is going to be transfering to Madison, WI next sememster so we talked for awhile while I told him about the area. Later that night my cousin and I went to get our nightly curry fries and garlic fries and we met another guy who just got back from Glascow- he was very drunk and very excited about some books he bought and told us all about them. Pretty funny. He also taught us how to say different things in Gaelic but I don't remember them now :)

Day three we drove south to the Cliffs of Moher. Rainy on and off so it was not the best view ever but we still had fun. We probably spent 2 hours there then continued our drive south to Tralee where we spent that night. On the way we stopped at Bunratty Castle near Limrick where I announced (it's a lot easier going up the stairs than down" just 30 seconds before I fell down the stairs and was stopped by my arm getting stuck in the rail where it connected to the wall. Ouch! From this point on my blue coat had rust marks on the sleeve to remind me :) This was also the day my aunt accidently went the wrong way down a one-way street (heehee). Neat town but we got in late so no dinner that night. We went to another pub and this one had a group of four playing fiddles. It was fun, but not my favorite of the towns. Maybe we just didn't go enough places but we wandered the streets for a long time and got all disoriented and confused. I the morning we went to a grocery store (I loved going to grocery stores and came home with more groceries than souviniers!!!) and left town for the Dingle Peninsula whick took us the whole day.

So, Day 4 was Dingle. Beautiful. We probably stopped every 15 minutes to look at scenery and take pictures. I could have spent another day doing the same there. Anyway, that night we stayed in Killarney and ate really good Indian food again. We also went and saw some dancing and music that night which was cool- those people can move their feet! I would fall if I tried to do what they were doing. Wow!

Dingle Pictures:
Dingle1 Dingle 2

The next day we drove through Killarney National Park, part of the Ring of Kerry, and the Ring of Beara, which was also beautiful but nothing compared to the Dingle Peninsula. That night we drove east up through Cork to Blarney. too late for dinner again so we just went to one small pub and didn't do a lot that night.

Ladies View (Ring of Kerry): LadiesView

Day 6- We went to the Blarney Castle- it was nice out then once we were in a storm came and it started hailing while we were inside. It cleared up soon after and we left, driving north to the Rock of Cashel. We arrived too late to go in unfortunatley. It was the prettiest and largest castle we saw and I would loved to have gotten in. We missed the last admission by 15 minutes. But, we walked around and took some pictures there too. That day we saw out millionth rainbow. There were so many rainbows all the time it was crazy. It got to the point where we barely looked twice at the not-so-good ones. Anyway, we drove back down to Cahir for our last night. We found a pub taht said traditional Irish music and plopped our tired butts down to find that the music was none other than a man with an electric guitar doing Eagles and Van Morrison covers. Haha- he was good, but not what we were looking for.

Rock of Cashel: Rock

The next morning we got up and drove back to Shannon to leave at 1 pm. Got back to Chicago at 5 pm to colder temps than when we left (and snow)- but the good news is it's supposed to hit 50 this weekend here!!!!!! Yay! I see the end of winter coming!!!!

Schoolmarm

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:29 am EditMoveDeleteIP
WOW!! Thanks Kaili!

I always look forward to seeing pictures and hearing stories of other people's road trips.

That reminds me, I have a whole roll of "butt shots" to develop.

Lizadee

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
has anone tried Sandels resorts
You know that one commercial that comes on and they show all that white sand and beaches
Its almost time and I haven't really decided where to go yet

Squaredsc

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 08:54 am EditMoveDeleteIP
wow kaili, great pics.

Egbok

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 02:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Kaili, I'm so glad I asked!!

I loved your descriptive encounters and wonderful pictures!!

Webkitty

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 03:44 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow Kaili! What an awesome account of your trip! Pics and everything, I'm impressed! I'm glad you had a good time

Kaili

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks- it was a good time. I had a great time with my family...the only somewhat down side was that my cousin kind of took over the trip at times. She's a travel agent and she was there November 2001 and some days were a sort of recreation of her previous trip with us going where she said and staying where she wanted, etc. She can have some dictator qualities at times :)

I would have really liked to have gotten up to Dublin and maybe Northern Ireland. It's alright though- we had a great time and we went to some good places. It's impossible to see it all in a week.

I have 2 weeks of vacation left- in May I will be visiting my dad in Arizona and going to Vegas for my cousin's wedding (if it happens) hen in July I have a week off and I'm not 100% on plans yet but it'll be Washington, Oregon, or somewhere on the east coast.

This weekend is my birthday and I want to get up to Canada, but it's a 5 hour drive to the nearest border so I may settle for a night in Chicago.

Urgrace

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:10 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lizadee, the only thing I've heard about Sandels is that June, July, & August is the high season. Hope you are going before then, because the prices are much higher and there are tons of people. It sounds like a fun place. Let us know if you go!

Kaili, what beautiful pictures of your whirlwind trip! Thanks for telling us about it.

Tess

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 07:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kaili, I'm just now seeing the photos of your recent trip. They are just beautiful. It sounds like you had a wonderful time (if you don't count the falling down the stairs and your aunt driving like a foreigner :). I hope there are many more happy adventures in your future.

Schoolmarm

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 - 08:21 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lizadee,

I went to the original Sandals in Montego Bay, Jamaica about 15 years ago. We went over the 4th of July and it was very hot.

My brother went to the one in Ocho Rios for his honeymoon.

They are great resorts with great food.

The original Sandals is very big, but not as elegant at the newer ones. You can go snorkling and scuba diving, etc. etc.

Try to go to the "theme" restaurant.

Even though there were lots of people there, you could still find secluded beach. LOTS of people must have spent all their time in their room! WINK!

They also have day trips off the resort. And all resort guests can get a pass to any of the other Sandals resorts. Don't lose your pass or the guard won't let you back in.

Dress is swim wear/beach wear except for meals, where you actually have to wear real clothes. Contrary to the photos and ads, all the people there are NOT contestants on "Are you HOT" there are young and old guests and thin and fat ones as well.

I would like to go back, but Sandals is couples only, and I'm not a couple right now.

Oh....the NEW one at Montego Bay has a little island that you can row out to in a kayak...clothing is optional on the little island.

Halfunit

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 04:47 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Kaili - loved your pics!!! DH and I are leaving in a week for London, and I can only hope to take such beautiful pictures such as yours!!

I have a ? for you. Did you bypass your film at the security checkpoints at the airport? I have heard both that the x-ray machines do and don't affect film. I know security is maxed right now, and I just wondered what you did.

Spygirl

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 06:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I learned the last time I traveled that the speed of the film does matter in the X-ray machines. I can't remember, but it seemed the slower film (800) could be ruined. I had 400 and they said it was fine because I asked. Maybe someone else knows for sure?

Kaili

Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 07:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I let my camera and film go through (200 and 400 speed) and itr was fine. My mom brought a digital camera and her pictures are fine also so I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Have a great time in London! Make sure to take lots of pictures and show us what you saw. I have a tom more- I shrunk them down in Adobe cause I was worried about taking up too much space on here with photos. I would have posted more but wasn't sure when I might reach the point of being a website space hog :)

Tntitanfan

Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 08:26 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh gosh, Juju! I didn't check back here until 3/15 and don't know when you would be in AK. The only day this week I could make it over to Memhis would be Friday, 3/21. It is about a four-hour trip from Nashville, so I could make it for lunch - amd a chat, of course!!

Halfunit

Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 04:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Spy and Kaili! I am taking 9 rolls of 400 speed film, and I have 3 rolls of 800 speed. I think I will leave the 800 speed at home.