Disney Cruise and Western U.S. Trip Report - Day 2

Day Two – June 26, 2015

I got to sleep in a smidge while Parrish was off acquiring a new tire (and some oft unavailable to us Texans, Dunkin’ Doughnuts).  We still hit the road by about 8 AM and knew that it would be a rougher day, as it would mostly be smaller highways, as opposed to the much easier-to-travel interstates.  We passed Shiprock on our way to Colorado, and after a couple of hours this other former homestate of ours, including much time stuck in road work traffic, we were in Utah. 

I had been through and to Utah several times over my lifetime, but had never been through Salt Lake City.  Little sidenote here - I converted, briefly, to LDS (Mormon) in high school and so was curious to see the temple in SLC.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to see it as we passed by on the interstate and there just wasn’t time to stop.  We continued on to Ogden and decided to get some dinner at Denny’s. 

Parrish, Ellie, and I headed in to make use of the facilities and to get a table.  More than five minutes had passed and Mom and Dad still hadn’t come in.  We peeked out and saw them fooling with  something in the car and shortly after they came through the door, looking less than thrilled.  As it turned out, someone had accidentally left their brand new camera (they bought it for the trip) on top of the open cooler lid and it had fallen into the melted ice at some point.  Needless to say, it was probably ruined and would have to be replaced.  We were all worn out.  We had intended to get well into Idaho, maybe even to Boise, for the night, but instead called and looked around and after some searching found a less than desirable hotel and stayed in Ogden.  Parrish took Ellie swimming and that was pretty much that!

Disney Cruise and Western U.S. Trip Report - Day 1

I wish I was better at recording my vacations in written form, but I’m going to try to record all the wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) things that happened during The Horton Family’s Marvelous Adventures West…which included a 7-night cruise on The Disney Wonder, sailing to Alaska.

First, an overview in order to keep my memory somewhat organized

June 25, 2015 – Parrish’s 34^th birthday and our departing from Fort Worth Day.  Spent the night in Farmington, New Mexico

June 26, 2015 – Farmington, NM to Ogden, Utah

June 27, 2015 – Ogden, Utah to Vancouver, BC, Canada

June 28, 2015 – Day in Vancouver/Victoria, BC

June 29, 2015 – Debarkation Day

June 30, 2015 – Day at Sea

July 1, 2015 – Tracy Arm, Alaska (essentially a day at sea with great scenery)

July 2, 2015 – Skagway, Alaska (with lots of rain.  Overall a Thumbs-Down)

July 3, 2015 – Juneau, Alaska (Deluxe Tour of Juneau Port Adventure)

July 4, 2015 – Ketchikan, Alaska (Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show Port Adventure)

July 5, 2015 – Day at Sea

July 6,  2015 – Debarkation Day; Vancouver, BC to Salem, Oregon

July 7, 2015 – Voodoo Doughnuts in Eugene, Oregon; Giant Redwoods in California (none of which we got photos of); scary mountain driving; Salem, Oregon to Sacramento, CA

July 8, 2015 – Sacramento, CA to Las Vegas, NV

July 9, 2015 – Day in Las Vegas

July 10, 2015 – Las Vegas, NV to Winslow, AZ; Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon

July 11, 2015 – Winslow, AZ to Amarillo, TX

July 12, 2015 – Amarillo, TX to Home

Secondly, an overview of our cast of characters

Me – Deedee, single, 39

Sister – Parrish, single,  mom to Ellie, 34 as of Day 1

Niece – Ellie, daughter of Parrish.  4, almost 5.  Light of my Life!

Mom – Candy, married to Tom (Dad) turned 67 on Embarkation Day

Dad – Tom, married to Candy (Mom), 73 also awesome

Day 1, Thursday, June 25, 2015  

We drove  to Canada, in two cars.  This is due mostly to the fact that Dad is a wheelchair driver and has a large electric wheelchair which takes up most of the back of his accessible van.  Mom and Dad drove  in their car, we three girls drove in Parrish’s mid-size SUV. 

We planned to leave at 6 AM.  When The Hortons make grand plans to leave early, they typically fail.  Somehow, this time we managed.  We pulled out of the driveway around 6:08.  This was after planting birthday cards for Parrish in her car AND having to chase my parents down the street because they failed to shut the driveway gate behind my car once I drove it in for safe keeping.  We hit the Sonic drive-thru for some greasy fast food breakfast, then we were off.

The Texas leg of our journey went off without a hitch.  We stopped in Amarillo around noon for lunch at a restaurant we had frequented on our trips to and from New Mexico during my high school years.  The place:  Calico County.  It had lived in our memories for years as some sort of legendary country cooking icon of greatness.  It did not, however, live up to my memories of it. 

Due to 75 MPH + speed limits, the trip went really quickly.  We finally hit New Mexico, which I think we were all looking forward to.  We had plans to drive to Albuquerque, then up through Farmington, which is where we lived 20 some years ago.  The original plan was to stay in Albuquerque for the night and drive through Farmington on our way to Utah the next day.  We were making such good time that we changed plans and decided to stay in Farmington.  There is a stretch of road between Albuquerque and Farmington that is basically nothing and requires a 3 hour drive.  On the second half of that, I was driving, and suddenly, we had a flat.  In the middle of nowhere.  We were going to call roadside assistance, and wait for however many 500 years it took them to reach us.  Fortunately, a state trooper pulled up behind us shortly thereafter and spent the better part of an hour changing the tire.  Yeah, we both probably should learn how to do that ourselves….

Ellie really wanted her picture taken with these "horsies" outside of a gas station somewhere in New Mexico.  :/

Finally, with another 80-90 miles to go, we were back on the road.  Driving at about 34 MPH due to the temporary spare on the car.  We finally reached Farmington and not much had changed in the two decades since I’d last been there!  We decided we’d (okay, Parrish would) get the tire replaced as soon as Wal-Mart opened up in the morning, at some Burger King, then hit the hay.

Adventures in Ireland Part Two

So I shared my Top Ten yesterday and really it just didn't cut it as far as all the cool things we got to go, see, and do.  So here are a few more highlights for your viewing pleasure.

Hook Head Lighthouse

We didn't get to venture in, because by the time we got there, they were closed up for the night. But man, the roaring sound of the surf and the gorgeous view made it totally worth our while.

The "Freak Waves" are my favorite part of this sign.

The Kennedy Homestead

Well, we tried, but after 30 minutes of driving down the skinniest little road you've ever seen, we were terribly disappointed to find it was closed for the season.

The Rain

It rained and rained and rained and rained. I think we had 3 sunshiney days the entire 5 weeks. Maybe 4. But the company I kept made it all worthwhile. Plus, we didn't let some measly rain stop us!

We pretty much took these two umbrellas with us everywhere we went and they can be seen in many a photo taken in many a locale.

Nights Out

We went out several different times during my visit. I was introduced to an amazing beverage called Tia Maria. And I drank a lot of wine. Some nights, too much wine.

Our first official night out in Limerick of 2012!

White Russians at the Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin.

We're looking a little like we've had one too many nights out here.

 

Meals

I make no bones about it. I love to eat. And we had a lot of amazing meals on this trip. And I took a lot of pictures pretty much anytime we sat down, but rarely seemed to capture pretty pictures of the food itself this trip.

Dublin Lunch Pre-Phoenix Park Florence & the Machine/Snow Patrol

Chinese food in Waterford.

I made this sandwich with some crazy combination of Southwestern cheese, onion chutney, and lettuce.  It actually turned out to be quite tasty, thank you very much!

Brunch in County Wicklow.

Vinegar and Ketchup.  Two chip-eating condiment staples.

Costa Coffee Break in Dublin.

The Beach

If there is one thing Lisa loves, it's the beach. We spent on particularly chilly (for this Texas gal, anyway), but fun afternoon on the beach at Lahinch. We even bought a kite cuz we're cool like that.

Please don't steal our stuff of this rock.

Let's Go Fly a Kite....and it will stay up too if it's not too windy.

...And then she falls in.  Only not really, because she was just pretending.

The Circus

I had not been to a circus in years.  We had a blast!

Fossett's Circus:  Ireland's National Circus

Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me in reliving our Irish adventures! 

Adventures in Ireland Part 1

Hey everybody!  I've been back from Ireland a little over a month now and it's taken some adjusting, in addition to the fact that there was a ton of stuff going on from the moment I got off the plane.

I had a great time with my girlfriend and we did a LOT of sight seeing.  This was my third trip over and it was definitely the busiest.

Please note that all of these photos if not taken by me, were taken by Lisa. 
My TOP TEN list of things we did in Ireland this year*:

*This Top Ten was virtually impossible, so I'll be posting some other highlights tomorrow.  An addendum, if you will...

10.    Guinness Store House.  This was really pretty cool.  Seven floors of Guinness information (how they make it, starting with the farming) and memorabilia.  Plus, I got to try my first pint of Guinness though I'm sorry to say, I just couldn't get through the whole thing.

My first pint of Guinness!  (And probably my last...)

9.  Craggaunowen.    This is a cool archaelogical open air museum in County Clare.  The downside is that it was pouring rain the whole time we were there, but we made the most of it.  I think we particularly liked the Woodlands Walk portion the best.  That's where we got to go on a little walk....through some woodlands.  There was also a reconstruction of an old boat called The Brendan.  The whole boat story is not coming back to me just at this moment...

8.  Dublin Pride.  We were supposed to go the Pride parade, but due to some navigational difficulties, we missed it.  We still got to go hang out a the block party.  And the highlight for me was a happy little boy on his (I presume) uncle's shoulders carrying a handmade sign saying "Gay or Straight, My Uncle Is Great!"  It made me think of my niece.  :)

7.  Hampton's.  This is my FAVORITE restaurant in Limerick.  Being the food lover that I am, I figured this deserved a spot on my top ten list.

6.  National Leprechaun Museum.  This was a fun little touristy stop.  Lisa, being a Leprechaun herself, really enjoyed it. 

 

5.  The Burren.

4.  Dunbrody Famine Ship.

3.  National Irish Heritage Park.  County Wexford.

2.  Cobh.  This is the town that used to be Queenstown and was the last port of call for the Titanic.  It's the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, so they had a coupla interesting things going on.

1.  The Long Room at Trinity College Library - Dublin.  OMG.  I can't even describe how amazing this place is.  Shelves and shelves and shelves of old books.  Bibliophiles like me will find themselves drooling here.  Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside the library, so here's a link to an amazing picture. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  And check back tomorrow for some more Ireland Highlights!