On the Move - Dublin
We had a wonderful, quick weekend with the Kehoes in Dublin and got to meet
their very cute, cuddly new baby, Patrick.
Our flight over on Friday evening was delayed by almost an hour, so we
missed drinks at the Shelbourne and headed straight for the restaurant
instead, where we arrived just moments before the rest of our party. I had
enjoyed Jacob's Ladder so much in October that I really wanted Jason to
have a chance to try it. It was great to see Brendan & Elana and Richard &
Marina--who are now expecting, as well--and we had a wonderful meal. I had
their shellfish coddle (a mix of mussels, clams, salmon and prawns in a
butter sauce) to start, followed by a slightly-too-medium, but otherwise
good fillet steak, and topped off by something called a passionfruit brulee
that was not at all crisped, but quite tart and tasty. Jason started with a
lovely stack of goat cheese with salad and nuts between light, crispy
crackers, followed by the roasted wood pigeon, and followed my lead on the
passionfruit brulee. I think he was not as impressed with it as I was, but
I think it stacks up to the finest of the French fusion places we've dined
at about half the cost of most of them.
After dinner we said goodbye to the Cordens and went back to the Kehoes'
place in Dun Laoghaire ("dunleary") to meet the baby. He's a big boy--tall
and heavy for just six weeks--with pretty blue eyes. I got to hold him for
a little while and then Elana took us across the street to the guesthouse
where we stayed, very conveniently. Our room was in the front, so we could
see when our hosts raised their shades in the morning and head over to join
them for breakfast at the Red Onion Cafe around the corner. Afterwards we
went for a walk around the long block of the park and DART tracks before
heading back to the house. The sun was shining, but the wind was fierce!
We hung out for a while, watching the baby and continuing to catch up with
his parents, but it was a pretty day and we thought we really should see
something touristic. We hopped on the DART and went up to Dublin,
unfortunately leaving the blue skies behind us. We visited the National
Gallery, which has now opened its new Millennium wing, so were able to see
the whole collection this time. We thought we would wander down Grafton
Street, but as we left the museum it was beginning to rain more heavily, so
we opted to head back to Dun Laoghaire instead. Brendan & Elana were
enjoying VH1's 80's weekend, so we watched some of that and kept the baby
awake in the hopes that he would sleep more solidly at night.
Dinner was a very tasty lemon herb baked chicken with roasted vegetables and
a wonderful sticky toffee pudding with dates for dessert. After our meal we
tried out the game we'd brought and, as expected, Elana beat us all. We
went back over to our b&b and turned in, but Patrick apparently had a very
restless night, so there was little sleep in the Kehoe household. Despite
this, they were pretty chipper when we turned up after breakfast on Sunday.
We'd been served a nice cooked breakfast of fried eggs, sausage, bacon,
broiled tomato and toast.
We hung out for a couple of hours--noticing the sun shining in the windows, I
decided to take a walk and wandered up the high street for about half an
hour--and got to see some wonderful pictures of Patrick at his cutest and of
their new house in Maine. Then we all piled into the car and went up to the
airport, where we had a quick lunch together in the food court before it was
time for us to say goodbye.
Our flight was delayed by about half an hour, but was otherwise fine. I
read the Sunday Express newspaper all about the death of Princess Margaret.
Very sad stuff. Arriving back in London we zipped through the airport and
onto the tube.
their very cute, cuddly new baby, Patrick.
Our flight over on Friday evening was delayed by almost an hour, so we
missed drinks at the Shelbourne and headed straight for the restaurant
instead, where we arrived just moments before the rest of our party. I had
enjoyed Jacob's Ladder so much in October that I really wanted Jason to
have a chance to try it. It was great to see Brendan & Elana and Richard &
Marina--who are now expecting, as well--and we had a wonderful meal. I had
their shellfish coddle (a mix of mussels, clams, salmon and prawns in a
butter sauce) to start, followed by a slightly-too-medium, but otherwise
good fillet steak, and topped off by something called a passionfruit brulee
that was not at all crisped, but quite tart and tasty. Jason started with a
lovely stack of goat cheese with salad and nuts between light, crispy
crackers, followed by the roasted wood pigeon, and followed my lead on the
passionfruit brulee. I think he was not as impressed with it as I was, but
I think it stacks up to the finest of the French fusion places we've dined
at about half the cost of most of them.
After dinner we said goodbye to the Cordens and went back to the Kehoes'
place in Dun Laoghaire ("dunleary") to meet the baby. He's a big boy--tall
and heavy for just six weeks--with pretty blue eyes. I got to hold him for
a little while and then Elana took us across the street to the guesthouse
where we stayed, very conveniently. Our room was in the front, so we could
see when our hosts raised their shades in the morning and head over to join
them for breakfast at the Red Onion Cafe around the corner. Afterwards we
went for a walk around the long block of the park and DART tracks before
heading back to the house. The sun was shining, but the wind was fierce!
We hung out for a while, watching the baby and continuing to catch up with
his parents, but it was a pretty day and we thought we really should see
something touristic. We hopped on the DART and went up to Dublin,
unfortunately leaving the blue skies behind us. We visited the National
Gallery, which has now opened its new Millennium wing, so were able to see
the whole collection this time. We thought we would wander down Grafton
Street, but as we left the museum it was beginning to rain more heavily, so
we opted to head back to Dun Laoghaire instead. Brendan & Elana were
enjoying VH1's 80's weekend, so we watched some of that and kept the baby
awake in the hopes that he would sleep more solidly at night.
Dinner was a very tasty lemon herb baked chicken with roasted vegetables and
a wonderful sticky toffee pudding with dates for dessert. After our meal we
tried out the game we'd brought and, as expected, Elana beat us all. We
went back over to our b&b and turned in, but Patrick apparently had a very
restless night, so there was little sleep in the Kehoe household. Despite
this, they were pretty chipper when we turned up after breakfast on Sunday.
We'd been served a nice cooked breakfast of fried eggs, sausage, bacon,
broiled tomato and toast.
We hung out for a couple of hours--noticing the sun shining in the windows, I
decided to take a walk and wandered up the high street for about half an
hour--and got to see some wonderful pictures of Patrick at his cutest and of
their new house in Maine. Then we all piled into the car and went up to the
airport, where we had a quick lunch together in the food court before it was
time for us to say goodbye.
Our flight was delayed by about half an hour, but was otherwise fine. I
read the Sunday Express newspaper all about the death of Princess Margaret.
Very sad stuff. Arriving back in London we zipped through the airport and
onto the tube.