What We Found While Exploring

The day began with Jordan forgetting his bus pass and then running to catch up with us. 'Twas amusing.



I believe Duncan's face accurately expresses the coldness/windiness of the day.



Looking onto the city of Dun Laoghaire from the Pier



A pretty view from the Dun Laoghaire Pier



A sailboat with many a man (or woman) on board.



There were many boats (one deemed the "Huggy Bear," though I'm not sure it made it into this photo).



The almost smallest lighthouse we had ever seen in our lives (except there was a smaller one across the bay, and then that was the smallest lighthouse we had ever seen in our lives).



"How did people live here? It's so dirty!"... "Well it didn't look like that back then..." (in other words, a small castle)



Proof of how cool my car could be (if this comes to the States, I believe you are all viewing my next car!)



We all decided that these houses looked very Irish... and that Bono probably owns them.



Here's what we learned today:

1)Kopparberg (a pear cider) is VERY good and tasty. It comes in what we would call "tall boy" or "magnum" sized cans, yet to our surprise, a can that size is only half a pint. So, the fact that we can put back a WHOLE pint makes us feel very... well, tipsy, but also very proud of ourselves.

2)We figured out, starting last night, how to speak with an Irish accent. Here's our system: simply replace any "th" sounds with a hard "t". It goes someting like tis... "It were tree tirty of te clock, when Timoty tougt tat te tird tree was tirsty." In American; "It was three thirty, when Timothy thought that the third tree was thirsty." Easy.

3)Some DART train cars smell like old salt and vinegar chips stored in a gym bag full of musty socks. Makes you kind of uncomfortable to be in contact with the seats. Mine was moist, I swear...

4)We learned how to flag down a bus-- point your finger (pointer finger, guys) exactly where you want the bus to stop, permitting that you are actually at a bus post and not wherever the heck you feel like.

5)As much as we are wanting to fit in with the Irish, sometimes a good old pizza dinner from Dominoes (which, by the way, is endorsed by none other than Homer J. Simpson... strangely) and a viewing of the Lion King makes for the perfect American-style evening. And, point of pride, we remembered all of the words to the songs.

6)JTT (you know who I mean, girls) has a cat named Simba. Also, Billy Crystal is NOT the voice of Timon, Raven Symone is NOT the voice of young Nala, and Kelsey Grammer is NOT the voice of Scar. We have been living a lie.

7)We don't know where Bono lives, so we just made it up.

8)Even babies smoke here.

9)...just kidding...

10)But they do curse.

Aaaannddd... that's it for today.