My 55th Birthday

I was already thrilled at the notion of being 55, 5 being my favorite number. My friend/Beachbody Coach Richard & I drove down to Bedford VA to pick up a new Beachbody pal, Tammy, so she could spend the weekend with me & go to the Tony Horton book signing. It was a pleasant journey through the countryside, flowing conversation about this & that, some serious, some not. We got Tammy, went to the D-Day Memorial, then headed back North. I made dinner, we chatted, then crashed. As I was getting ready the next morning I heard Sarah come in the door (she always makes a grand entrance!), come upstairs bang on my bedroom door. I thought that was pretty odd as she never knocks. When she came in, who was right behind her? MARY! The little sneak had taken the bus down from NYC the previous night, staying with Sarah. What a GREAT surprise! Truly, it never crossed my mind that she’d be there for this birthday. But, there she was ☺ She knew I was going to be away all day but that was ok. She had pals to visit. Steve, Tammy & I met Richard & Stephanie at the event. We met up with some of our other Beachbody pals & then the fun started. Ira Winkler (our upline Coach) introduced Tony to a resounding hooray. The workout was awesome! I made it through most of it. It was a challenge to be sure. Apparently I am completely lame at Kenpo & got several comments about how badly I suck. That’s ok. When there’s no more room for improvement you’re dead, I suppose. Anyhow, we all had a great day! Tammy & I went to Whole Foods & Trader Joe’s as she had never seen either market. I made some chicken for dinner, we chatted until 10:30-ish at which time I had to go say hi to my pillow. It was a wonderful birthday.

Tammy & I were up early so we could get on the road in time for me to make the trek there & back by 5:30pm. More fine conversations. Sarah had cooked up some surprise birthday scheme for Sunday since I had Tammy over Saturday night. The surprise was dinner at The Tortilla Factory! Oh boy, she couldn’t have chosen anything better for me. LOVE LOVE LOVE Mexican food! She had a silly Birthday Girl crown that I wore until I went to bed. Afterwards we had 31-Flavors ice cream cake. It was one of the best birthdays I can remember.

Here’s something about me: I love growing relationships. This li’l ol’ heart of mine is so full of love. It feels warm & wonderful to give that love away. And those special people in my life who accept it so freely make my world a sweet place. One of the best gifts of this birthday has been the chance to grow & nurture some really deep relationships with people who choose to love me back. You know who you are & I want to make sure you know I love you with all my heart. Thank you to everyone who made this birthday so joyful.

Ireland! (long)

Good grief, what’s wrong with me?! Ireland was months ago (6/11/10-6/21/10 & I still haven’t posted anything on here about that. I have to say that this trip tied for #1 so far. Hawaii & Ireland. Overview: the Irish are THE MOST WONDERFUL PEOPLE ON THE PLANET! Beck & I went over to visit Mar & Beto before they left the Emerald Isle. Below is Mar’s itinerary for us ☺ These are Mary’s words:


OK, I've been majorly geeking out lately and planning everything so we can get a good taste of Ireland. I've already booked most of our accomodations too; We'll be staying at a hotel in Killarney, hostels in Dingle and Galway and a guesthouse in Belfast. I still need to figure out 2 more nights. We need to get from Galway way north so we can see the Causeway. I was thinking Co. Donegal would be good. We were there at New Years and it's amazing, there's also the highest cliffs in Europe at a place called Slieve League that I'd like to check out. I think we should go straight from Galway to Donegal (not sure how long the drive would be, probably about 4 hours is my guess) and stay up there for 2 nights. We could stop somewhere along the way (somewhere in Connemara, maybe), that would mean staying at 4 different places for 4 nights, which is kind of a lot of moving about in my opinion.

Anyway, here's the agenda as of now. What do you think?? Also I think it would be good to get a book about Ireland, so see if you can find anything good at the library or something and I'll do the same.
June 12 Mom and Becca arrive in Dublin. Our place


June 13
Get car, drive to Killarney. Via N7 to Adare and then N21 to Killarney or maybe quickest route is Dublin to Limerick and then to Killarney (4.5 hr). See national park and enjoy town. Maybe see Torc Waterfall, Ross Castle, Muckross House etc.
Booked
June 14
Drive the Dingle Peninsula (Slea Head Drive and Conor Pass drive) and stay overnight in Dingle Booked
June 15
Drive to Tarbert to get the 10:30 ferry over to Killimer, Co. CLare. Then drive up the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. Have lunch there. Afterwards, continue on N67 up the coast via The Burren and Ballyvaughan and Kinvara to Galway. Wander around city and spend the night Booked
June 16 Day trip to Aran Islands. Overnight Galway Booked
June 17 Tour Connemara and Co. Mayo, then onto Donegal.
June 18 Drive to the fishing port of Killybegs and on to Teelin to view Slieve League sea cliffs, which reach 1,972 feet, making them the highest in Europe. Continue through the majestic Glengesh Pass to Ardara. Overnight in Donegal
June 19 Drive to Giant’s Causeway then drive via Antrim coast to Belfast for the night Booked
June 20 Drive back to Dublin, return car.
June 21 Mom and Becca leave :o(


6/13/10 We headed off on our trek around the Emerald Isle, first stop Killarney. Mar fixed the itinerary & I have to tell you that if you ever need a ‘fixer’ for wherever you want to go, she’s the ONE! We taxied to Dublin Airport to pick up our rental car. (taxi drivers share their life stories, like it or not. I like it.) The guy at the rental place gave us an ‘upgrade’ to a larger vehicle since there were so many of us…he didn’t want us to be uncomfortable in the compact car I ordered. BIG MISTAKE! We got a minivan that didn’t fit on the tight Irish roads. More on that later. We headed south to Killarney & ended up at Darby O’Gill’s . Yes, of the ‘little people’! The bathroom was full of mold but the rest of the place was ok. First to Muckross Estate, Torc Waterfall, Ross Castle.

6/14/10 A leisurely morning included internet & breakfast. Off we set to Dingle Peninsula. We drove through Conor Pass which was absolutely harrowing in a minivan. I was struck by the incredibly green hills, cows, sheep, stone houses & fences, beautiful roses EVERYWHERE! Regarding the sheep…Beck said to a sheep “Get a haircut!” To which Mary replied, “You can’t heckle a sheep!” We had lunch in the car at the beach at Slea Head because it was very chilly & windy. We stayed at a charming hostel in Dingle called The Rainbow Hostel. Dinner was in town at The Diner after which we went back to the hostel & made reservations for our stay in Donegal. Hit the pillow hard ☺

6/15/10
We traveled to the Cliffs of Moher on a warm, sunny day. What a spectacularly beautiful spot! We had a picnic on the edge after we hiked up a trail next to a pasture full of cows & 1 handsome bull. Bet he was a happy guy. Beto would walk a few steps & then find something interesting to photograph, take a few more steps & repeated this all the way up the trail. It took him FOREVER to reach us. Yes, he got some fantastic shots. Gas cost just over 1euro/litre. That’s right, I said per LITRE! That evening we drove to Galway & found our hostel, The Sleepzone. It was VERY nice. All of us piled into 1 room with 2 bunks. We did a little shopping then found a neat pub, Taafes, for dinner. There was traditional music to entertain us. We thought about adding the Aran Islands to our itinerary but decided against it after talking with the guys at the hostel desk. They said there really isn’t ‘much’ there. We could use our time better.

6/16/10
This next day was spent motoring around to the beach. The sand was composed of large particles of all kinds of shells. The seaweed was colorful & beautiful Beto must have taken hundreds more pix! We had out picnic in the car because it was pretty nippy out in the wind. We decided to fix dinner in that night. We walked to the market & bought pasta, shrimp, pesto tomatoes & lunch for the next day on the road. Beck, Mar & Beto went out for another night on the town while I zonked.

6/17/10
Beto left us at this point in the journey. Ha had to get back to Dublin to work during the FIFA finals. Off we went on the road again, this time to Killybegs in County Donegal. What a cute name! We dropped our stuff off at the Fintragh House, a private residence acting as a bed & breakfast. We then trekked to Slieve League, another beautiful natural attraction. We hiked to old towers, up & down hillsides, took some beautiful pix. We had dinner at the Tara Hotel in town then back to the b&b to chill. We agreed to mover on to Derry rather than spend another day in Donegal.

6/18/10
Breakfast was delish. A traditional Irish breakfast. On the way to Derry we stopped at Glenveagh Castle & National Park . It was actually built by a wealthy guy from Philadelphia. It was a smallish castle but still beautiful. The gardens & grounds were stunning. We had a picnic lunch before heading on to Derry. Our accommodations in Derry were rather icky. The place smelled terrible & everything was dingy. The bed was terribly uncomfortable, too. Just awful. But oh well, it was home for a night. We took a walk around the old city walls, which was really cool. We had dinner at the restaurant SPICE. The food was pretty good but a bit too salty. Gosh, I sound like such a complainer all of a sudden!

6/19/10
After breakfast we took off toward Belfast. On the way we stopped at the Giant’s Causeway, which was totally awesome! We toured the Bushmill’s distillery. Very interesting tour. Mar & Beck got a sample taste of the whiskey…they hated it! None for me, thanks! Ikk. We shopped around Belfast, got food to fix dinner, watched tv (Kardashians, haha) until 11:30pm when we all crashed.

6/20/10
Bright & early is was back on the road toward Dublin. We had to skedaddle in order to get the car back to the airport on time. I was absolved of ALL damage done to the car! The agent looked it over & said, “Oh, this damage was already here when you picked it up.” Which, of course it wasn’t but thank goodness I purchased unlimited insurance. We were all pretty tired after our circumnavigation of the Emerald Isle. It was a wonderful trip. I could not have asked for better traveling companions. Those kids were delightful. I was relieved when they took the steering wheel away from me early in the journey. I AM A TERRIBLE LEFT SIDE DRIVER & I don’t ever want to have to do it again!

6/21/10
Beck & I tearfully packed up & said our goodbyes, hopped in a cab & got to Dublin Airport in plenty of time. There was a snafu at Newark Airport but we got home safe & sound. Overall impressions/ The Irish people are the most friendly, helpful, delightful set of people I have ever encountered. I’d go back in a heartbeat. I owe so many thanks to Mary for her exemplary planning & research that made the trip pretty much seamless. The itinerary gave us a chance to see many of the highlights Ireland has to offer. And thanks also to Beto for putting up with me & Beck for so many ‘cozy’ days at their place & out on the road. I could be the luckiest Mom on the planet. Yes, I am ☺

Now, to plan the next journey.