Ireland, Day 2

So today, I had to go in to work. It made it easier reminding myself that work is the main reason I was in Ireland, but I still would've preferred to just hang out with Mandy. However, that wasn't in the cards, but that's not a big deal. I'd always wanted to visit the plant in Galway and put faces with the names of the many people I'd worked with from there over the last decade or so.

The drive in to the plant was exciting to say the least. The Merit-Ireland folks had arranged a rental car for my boss to drive while he was here so we took that into work. First, I went around to the passenger side to get in but oddly there was a steering wheel on that side. The vehicles here are all left-side drive which we'd forgot. Then, over here they drive on the left side of the road. My boss had driven in this situation before but it takes a bit to get used to it apparently. I have to admit, it takes some time to get used to even riding on the wrong side of the road. Several times, I thought for sure we were headed for a head-on collision before remembering where we were. Also, the lanes seem way more narrow here than in the States. When the big double-decker buses pass you, it seems as though they're just inches away from you. It makes riding in a car quite the adventure. We almost got into to only one accident and the car would've hit us on my bosses side of the car so no big deal (I was actually pretty scared!!!).

The folks from Merit-Ireland are great people; real salt-of-the-earth type people. It was great to get to put faces with names. Just being around them all talking with their Irish brogue is really cool. All of them are very polite and have great dispositions. Being good at being social is a must for Irish people due to the amount of bad weather. There is a lot of time spent inside socializing. That's why Public Houses (Pubs) are so abundant and popular I've been told. Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention, all of the street signs, advertisements, and things of that nature are presented in both Gailec and English, Gaielic first, and sometimes only in Gaelic. There are still communities in rural Ireland only minutes from the city center of Galway that don't speak any English and all the signs are in Gaelic.

After work, my boss and I headed back to the hotel to pick up our wives. Mandy and Lisa (my boss Garrett's wife) had spent the day together walking the streets of Galway. Mandy visited a couple of really beautiful old churches. She also went to a sweater store to buy a hoodie as she didn't pack a jacket. She bought it just in time to get caught in a rainstorm that soaked her new hoodie through and through. Her and Lisa also went to a tradition Irish tea shop and had tea and pastries. Let me just say I love tea of all kinds and have continually tried to get Mandy to like it too for as long as I can remember with no success. However, she loved the tea at the tea house and I may make her into a tea drinker yet.

Once we picked up the ladies we headed west up the coast of Galway towards O'Grady's Seafood on the pier in Barna Ireland. The day prior Lisa had read that O'Gradys had been named Ireland's best seafood experience so we were super excited. On the way we drove to Spidael Ireland wher they had some craft shops. We just missed several of the shops as most shops close around 5pm durint the week, even in city Galway. But the jewelery shop was open, so we poked around in there for about a half an hour. The shop keeper/owner was a typical Irishman. He was very social, funny, and a very accomplished craftsman in his own right. He had to know where we were all from and swore he knew Garrett and I both. He then proceeded to tell us of how his real love was engines and how he just go through restoring a 1950's Massey-Ferguson tractor and was hoping to start retrofitting his VW bus into a camper van. I wanted to tell him about the VW Bus Mandy and I had, but that would've led to another half hour of socializing, so I decided to keep that to ourselves, and we got back on the road and headed to dinner.

O'Grady's was what I thought a typical Irish seafood restaurant would be. It was right on Galway Bay with fantastic views from almost every table. Mandy and I split a ravioli filled with local prawns and greens for starters and split a fantastic seafood platter for the entree that was made up mainly of cold smoked fish. All of it was first rate. The food mixed with the ambience and company of my boss and his wife made for a very special and memorable evening. After eating, we walked down to the beach and picked up a few shells and rocks for some special folks back home. We saw some old fishing vessals that looked to have simply been left where they currently lay. Ther were in a bad way but made for some great photos. I can't post the pics from my phone over here so I'll get some photos posted next week sometime.

Upon arrival back to the hotel, we parted ways with my boss and his wife and Mandy and I headed for a dip in the hot tub. The jacuzzi was outside. The hot temp of the water mixed with the cold temp of the air and the view from the hot tub of the water was truly relaxing bordering on perfect. We soaked for about half an hour than went off to bed. Day 2 is in the books.

Ireland 2012 Trip Journal

13-MAY,2012- Day 1 of Ireland trip Mandy and I were super excited for this new adventure because neither one of us ever thought we would get to travel someplace like Ireland. However, there was also some fear mixed in with a bit of sadness. This was Mandy's first time leaving the boys and the longest plane ride either of us had ever taken. Not to mention it was our first time traveling internationally. And holy cow was it a long flight. Mandy swears they were the smallest and most cramped seats we'd ever had on a flight. And the movies they played were either horrible (Larry Crowne) or we had already seen them (We Bought a Zoo and MI3: Ghost Protocol). Neither one of us got any real sleep and the 10.5 hour flight seemed to never want to end. But it did.

We landed in France about 11am frog time. Walking into Charles Degaul Airport's Dutyy Free area was like shopping at the Caesar's Palace mall in Las Vegas; Chanel, Prada, Hermes, Armani, and a bunch of other places we don't shop all had large stores in the airport. Our connecting gate was close to where we departed So we had abou an hour and some change to wait for the flight to Dublin. I can't remember ever being that tired, and sleep just wouldn't come for us. UGH!

We finally boarded our flight to Dublin only to find out it was delayed.They were pumping techno pop music throughout the plane which actually made the delay even worse. Finally, we took off, and Mandy and I both slept until we landed. But the sleep made us even more tired.

We met the driver at the baggage claim and he taxied us from Dublin to Galway, about another 2 hours, so we napped a little more and saw some Irish country side. It was the first notice by us of why they call this place the Emerald Isle; it was very very green!

Once we finally got to our hotel, my boss and his wife just happened to be in the lobby when we were checking in, so we made plans for dinner, headed up to the room and then headed out to City Centre which is a part of Galway about 1/4 mile from the hotel. It's small streets and alley ways with shops of all kinds, restaurants, and pubs. We went to McDonough's for fish and chips. They were probably the best we've ever had. I wish I wouldn't have been so tired so we could've enjoyed it a bit more. After dinner, we stolled the streets of Galway and eventually made our way to a pub with a Gaelic name I cannot spell or say. We all had a pint of Guiness, the national drink of Ireland, and chatted with some Galway locals who asked all kinds of questions about U.S. politics. We bailed out after 1 drink and headed back to the hotel at which we immediately went upstairs to our room and passed out. A deeper sleep I don't think I've ever had! All in all, day 1 in Ireland was good, although a bit of a pain due to how tired we were.

Moab! We can't wait to go back....

So Mandy, the kids, and I spent Sunday through Wednesday before this Thanksgiving down in Moab, UT. Moab is just a few miles from the entrance to Arches National Park and about 30 or so miles from Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands Nation Parks. It's the most surrealistic environment this Texas kid has ever seen in person. My boss, a more-than-avid canyoneer and self proclaimed desert rat, has been trying to get us to go down there for years now, but it's just never worked out until now. Why did we let it take us so long?



Moab is a mountain biking and off-roading mecca along with being located very close to several national parks, so going down in November you not only avoid all of road hogging sprocket jockeys on their bikes (though we did see several down there, three dillholes actually riding at night withou any lights... natural selection in action I guess), you get off-season rates. We stayed in a dumpy hotel room the first night after we left for Moab a day earlier than we'd planned (you take what you can get right). We spent the next three days/two nights in a sweet one bedroom cabin right on the Colorado river about 14 miles outside of Moab. It was also a winery, but the wine tasted like Mad Dog 20/20, so it's not as posh as you might be thinking. It was definitely not a bad way to spend our 8th wedding anniversary!!



The pictures with the stables and the ones with the river are the views from our cabin. It was pretty isolated and very quiet (besides the sound of the running river) just as I'd hoped. The rest of the pictures are just random ones from all over on our trip. The pics aren't the greatest as we realized AFTER the trip that our camera was on the fritz. Still, you get the gist of it. I wish there was more scale to them because some of the photos just don't do the massiveness of some of the formations and arches justice. Sorry it took so long for another blog post. I make no promises about the future other than to say we'll update it the next time we update it. Love to all, The Sims

Master Nathan in a Sportscoat

We actually bought this outfit for Luke to take pictures in but we lost it, then found it later when it was too small for Luke. It's a little big on Nate, but it sure does make him look CUTE!!

As Always,
Jared

Snow Load

Here's a couple of pictures of our's and the neighbor's houses after the last big storm we had. This winter is by far the snowiest I've seen since I've lived in Utah. For about a month it seemed every day we'd wake up or come home from work to a couple of fresh inches of snow. We've gotten probably 5 feet total this year and no, I'm not kidding.

- The Sims

What in the...

This is what happens when Mommy forgets to secure her make-up bag. Let's hope these are the only mugshots these two ever take!!!

-Jared

Can you beleive it.... a video!

Here's a new video of Nathan. Enjoy!