Capilano Suspension Bridge

The good news is you get a discount on the ticket price if it's raining. 

And you get a free disposable parka.

The bad news is it's rainy. 

Kind of a bummer you're not aloud to throw anything down. Because I happened to bring one of those little plastic parachute guys. (Would've been sweet.) He never saw flight. I even chickened out throwing him off the balcony of the hotel. 

And here's the hotel. Kinda rustic.

Like I'd really put my hand so close to a giant owl's beak. If I saw an owl that big I'd probably pee. Then run.

Here I am visiting the Ewok village of Endor.

Vancouver

First thing we did upon arriving in Vancouver was go to Granville Island. 

Stopped at the big farmer's market they have there and bought some produce for the room, like knobby little carrots. 

No parking is enforced by ninja.

There was an awesome sushi place about a block from the hotel. We ate there about five times.

Beth has an aversion to cilantro and coriander so that pretty much kills Indian food for her and pretty much us. (Except for Gulab Jamun) But there is still takeout. Here I'm having tandoori trout.

By the way when you finish with your fish remember to flush it down the appropriate drain.

Emmys

I know I'm supposed to be writing about Vancouver now but I just had to make a short report on the Emmys.

It was a fun night. Gervais stole the show. And I got to run into an old friend.

Did I ever tell you that John Krasinski and I both did our first pilot together? It ended up being called "The Originals" and it was for UPN (back when they existed). We had a nice little moment of "can you believe our lives?!"  

Ireland's Last Leg

So from Clifden back to Dublin. We looked at the map and pointed at what looked like the halfway point. That was a town called Athlone. Not much info about Athlone, we were on our own looking for a place to grab a bite. We stopped here. But it was a big mistake. We walked in and they informed us that they were currently out of Guinness because their delivery didn't come in. Okay maybe that was a red flag. (Or a red car, they seemed really popular in this parking lot.) Beth made the biggest mistake by ordering the chicken curry. I tried to warn her. 

When we finally got to Dublin we were exhausted. Look at the map. 

We did this all in one week. We should have done half. We ended up just staying in the hotel the rest of day. The next day we flew home.  Whew! So that was my Irish trip. Next up Vancouver...

Ireland: Quay House

Pronounced "Key Haus" this place was a charming little B&B in Clifden. The owners were super friendly. But be warned, we nicknamed this place the "museum of death" because it is chock full of exotic hunting trophies. Way too many in my opinion. I mean sometimes you see one or two but this was insane. If dead animals bum you out, avoid this place.

And then there's the fish...

This one lost it's protective case.

 

More Ireland:random pics II

Not only is it scary to drive in Ireland. Apparently it's also scary to walk. I think I shot this at the Cliffs of Moher.

Hey Chef! Sorry 'bout the thumb.

This toilet is a free for all! I walked into it and locked the door behind me because who knows who would walk in. I noticed a piece of string with handle on the end of it. Kind of like those plastic pieces you hold onto at the end of a kite. Not knowing what it does, and being the curious mind that I am, I pulled it. Apparently it's an alarm for someone should they "fall and can't get up." So naturally I bolted to the car and took off.

It took us forever to find this Dolmen. We were trying to find it as we drove through the Burren. Thought we had passed it somehow. Turned around. Asked a random guy. He said we were on the wrong road. Turned around again. Gave up and continued on our way. Presto the Dolmem shows up a few hundred feet later. This is me say "There it is! Found it!"

Dromoland II or I guess it's III

We loved this place so much and it was such a step up from some of the other places we stayed at, we didn't want to leave. 

We had room service. Now remember when I found that nipple on the piece of pork belly? (Check out the March 2008 blog "Mystery Revealed") now that's understandable. 

But a nipple on a poached egg?

We also got massages at the spa. But first I took a bath.

My new toy

Ooo! I can't wait till morning. 

Gonna make me my citrus punch*. 

My new juicer just came in this afternoon. 

I'm just so thirsty...

*citrus punch - The juice of a grapefruit and two oranges. 

Re-Run

Hey since now that I've got to the part about the castle you might want to re-visit the first mention. I tried posting the link but it didn't work. So you'll have to dig into the June archive for it. It's called "Dromoland." 

Then we stayed in a CASTLE

The trip's other big turn-around (aside from replacing the flat tyre) was the night and day we spent at Dromoland Castle. 

The place was pretty sweet. 

The first thing we did? Have tea.

Lots of hunting trophy's (heads) all over the place. 

Though nothing like the museum of death we stayed at later (another blog).

Man these pots are huge!

Check out these sprouts!

Man, I'm gettin' pretty good at this green thumb stuff. (Except for white flies they're still attacking my peppers the jerks!) 

These are the new baby heirloom tomato plants I sprouted from seeds I had scooped out of their parents. 

Holy crap! That could result a lot of tomatoes if these all mature at the same time. 

Ireland: Anascaul: Tom Crean

Annascaul's (this is the Gaelic spelling by the way) favorite son is Tom Crean. He was an Antarctic explorer and hero. And he loved puppies because the picture of him and the puppies is everywhere in the pub he used to run.

 And it's also the subject of the statue that was erected in his honor.  

It Must Be Dingle

Whatever it means store, you said it.

We hit Dingle in the late afternoon. It's a sweet small town but the rain was coming down and it was becoming a bit of a ghost town. 

However we did duck into this amazing crepe place. 

So if your in Dingle go there. And get the egg, ham and cheese crepe. It comes folded into a square with the unbroken yolk sticking out the middle. It was awesome. 

We probably should have stayed here. 

So we can say we were at the "berry" lodge of dingle. I'll let you work on that for a minute. I got so excited when I saw this sign because I was making jokes the whole trip that as soon as we got to Dingle I wanted to sample their famous berry pie. This guy thought I was trying to get a picture of him. When I only wanted the sign.

Leaving dingle I had my hand eaten off by this tower. 

Weird huh.

Nose Hair

Okay. We were experiencing some serious wind in our travels like in this castle picture.  When we got to the B&B in Annascaul and took off my sweatshirt I noticed I had a hair in my face. So as I started to brush it away I could feel it was coming from my nostril. Somehow I inhaled a rogue hair into my nose. And once I realized it, my first thought was to run to a mirror to check it out. And my second thought was to get the camera. You gotta look close. The sensation of removing it was oddly pleasant. Of course I had to pluck it from my head as well. I mean gosh, it was inside my nose. I guess it would only be grosser if it was a rogue nose hair that somehow grew unnoticed to that length and ended up in my head. 

BTW

Is in stores now. I wrote the foreword (it's the best part actually). 

Ralph from the Dharmalars did an interview with the guys at www.geekscape.net. Check it out.

Ireland: Killarney and a new Tyre

We knew there was a tyre shop in Killarney so we rode the spare till we got there. 

On the way we stopped at my favorite place of the whole trip. It was "Molly's Tea Room." 

They had the coolest art work and souvenirs. A huge carved druid.

 And leprechaun holding an ice cream cone. (We're buds.)

 And the greatest scone with clotted cream and jam I've ever had. 

It was chilly in the place so the tea was nice too. 

Then we finally made it to Killarney and found a tyre shop (not the one I saw in the phone book but all the same). These are the guys who saved the trip. 

They had the tyre for my car. 

And it was just our luck. They just opened up their shop like a week ago. 

New Garden: Right from the Box

There is still much to blog about my trip though Ireland and we haven't even scratched the surface of my trip to Vancouver. 

But I thought I would pause a minute and show off the garden I set up at the new place. 

I decided to mingle my plants this time. So I built a giant five foot by eight foot box. And filled it with soil. (It took a lot!) I took the plants I had in pots  and planted them in the box as well as added a few others that I picked up at different nurseries. (Oh man this blog is even boring me.) 

So far so good. Someone told me marigolds naturally repel bugs so I've added a bunch of them as well as other flowers to keep the bees coming around. 

Ireland: Tyre Troubles

Then we got a flat tyre. (That's how they spell it over there.)

How did we get a flat? Well it seems to have happened the only time that I was driving the car and was probably due to fact that I made the car do something depicted in one of the signs from the previous blog. 

I noticed it as we were about to descend a gravel hill in the most remote area of Ireland we had been in. We were in an area called Sheep's Head, practically at the tip of the peninsula. 

When I got out to look at the tyre there was only silence. I've never been in such a quiet environment that was outside. The silence was only broken by the sound of a sheep BAA-ing.

I changed the tyre and we turned the car around (because there was no chance we were going to risk going down a gravel hill on the "donut") and as a precaution, since the tyre was on my side I rode in the back seat. Which kind of made it feel like I was being chauffeured through the Irish countryside. 

Once we returned to "civilization" (the highway basically) we stopped at the first hotel we found. Just our luck there was a wedding going on that day. By the way I'm sorry if I seemed rude for refusing to pose for photos in the lobby, I was obviously not having the greatest day. 

This hotel was interesting. The elevator only went to second floor. Where you then had to walk through a hallway where the wedding party was watching a soccer game, and then go up another flight of stairs, down yet another hallway to the room. 

You know those luggage trollies hotels have to help you with your luggage? Yeah theirs didn't even fit in the elevator. 

We locked ourselves in the room and ordered pretty much one of everything on the room service menu. And... The best things were the grilled cheese and the "chips." By the way, here's a tip for American travelers. If you see egg salad on the menu? It's not what you think. It's hard boiled eggs on a bed of lettuce with a large dollop of mayonnaise  in the middle. 

Driving in Ireland is SCARY!

Aside from the fact that we have to drive on a side of the road we are not used to.

Irish streets have scary threatening signs that depict all kinds of peril your car and you can get into.