What started off as a quiet calm weekend on the McDermott dairy farm, became a celebration as the Wicklow Gaelic football team won a huge game on Sunday.

Steph took us all over County Wicklow, including Glendalough – where many of her ancestors are buried in an ancient Monastery. We also visited the site of her and Chris’ upcoming wedding and the beach by her farm. We learned how a dairy farm operates and even learned about the calving process as one of their cows gave birth while we were staying on the farm. Other highlights included Sheela’s cooking and incredible baking and a tour of the neighboring horse ranch.

Congratulations Wicklow on the big win!

We’ve just spent a wonderful week in Ireland, enjoying the very generous hospitality of Chris and Steph and her family. We spent a few days in Dublin and made trips to Counties Kerry and Wicklow.

Steph hooked us up with tickets to the Dublin city bus tours. It was a great way to get oriented to the city and our driver/commentator was hilarious! We also caught the very entertaining Seafarer play and spent several nights out on the town.

Ever since I first tasted Guiness, I’ve wanted to try a pint in Ireland. We skipped the Guiness Factory, but I sampled Guiness all over the city!

Last Tuesday we hired a car for several days to see the Irish countryside. Despite the bicycle-sized driving lanes and the speeding oncoming traffic, we really enjoyed the convenience of having a car and the opportunity to explore County Kerry.

We stayed in the town of Kilarney, the site of the Muckross House and the impressively restored Ross Castle. We walked along the lakes of Kilarney and even headed up to see the local waterfall.

We spent one day driving the narrow, beautiful roads of the Dingle Penninsula on Ireland’s west coast. Some of the ruins of previous communities dated back 1500 years!

Last Wednesday we ventured south of London to Blackheath, stopping in Greenwich on our way to stand on the Prime Meridian. Zero longitude was established at Greenwich in the 1850s as a convention to help marine merchants maintain consistency in maps used for navigation. Though the zero longitude line is somewhat arbitrary, we took advantage of the opportunity to be tourists and posed with one foot on either side of the line. Greenwich is also the site for official Greenwich Mean Time, or ‘GMT’ as it is often called.

From Greenwich, we met up with Nadia’s aunt and uncle who live in Blackheath – a neighboring village. We drove to the hill in Greenwich park near the Royal Observatory to take in the gorgeous view of the Queen’s old house with London skyline in the background.

We went to a delicious Thai dinner and took time to chat – it had been a few years since Nadia was in town and the first time I met the family. We had so much fun we decided to barbeque in Blackheath the following Sunday. We were spoiled by the ongoing sunshine and incredible spread of food. Nadia’s aunt and uncle prepared tandoori style barbaque with curries and other sides. The food was so tasty, I ate as if it were a  Thanksgiving feast.

Nadia and I had both visited London several times independently in the past. When people asked us if there was anything different about the city this visit, we replied “Yes, it’s sunny and warm!” The weather was wonderful the entire week we were in London.

We stayed with Nadia’s cousin Yasmin, who has a beautiful, bright flat just north of Central London. Yasmin was kind enough to host us and fit us into her hectic schedule. One of the highlights of the week was spending an evening with Yasmin and her mother Zaynab. It was fascinating to learn more about Nadia’s family and Zaynab’s cooking is incredible! We spent another day with Zaynab in Surrey and walked through the perfectly manicured gardens of Henry VIII’s Hampton Court palace.

We spend most of the days in London’s museums and parks and visited friends and family in the city during the evening. I especially enjoyed seeing the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, while Nadia would have loved more time in the National Gallery with it’s renowned collection of art spanning almost 1000 years.

London is so charming and relaxing when the city is hit with California weather. The streets are filled with people in the evening, spilling out of pubs and taking advantage of the daylight. It was wonderful to catch up with friends from AIESEC and spend a night on the town with Nadia’s cousin, Nadia.

We spent a really fun week in Boston, with a few days in Cape Cod and a daytrip to Marblehead. We stayed with my college roomate, Samantha, and her talented chef boyfriend Gendreau. We rented a car and spent last Thursday in Cape Cod. It was a beautiful and clear day, and we drove all around, starting with a quick look at Plymouth, first settlement of the pilgrims. Sadly, there was a construction zone around Plymouth Rock, leading Aaron to speculate there was a conspiracy and they had actually moved the rock.

We spent some time walking around Hyannis (home of the Kennedy compound) and then driving all the way up to the edge of the Cape at Princeville. We liked Princeville, it is a really cute beachy New England town, and we walked around and ate fudge, which along with salt water taffy is a staple in every New England tourist destination. Aaron was really excited by the Pirate Museum but there was a sign saying the grand opening was May 2 (the next day.) We drove out to the Atlantic coast (Princeville is a tiny town in between the Atlantic and the Bay) and tried to take a walk out on the breakers but were prevented from walking by a sign stating there was contaminated shellfish and it wasn’t safe. Foiled again! Nevertheless we enjoyed Princeville and would like to visit sometime again.

The next day we picked up Sam from Boston and headed out of the city again, this time to Marblehead, which is a tiny town on the outskirts of the city and is rich in New England maritime history. We were lucky enough to get a private tour of the Old Town Hall and even a trip up to see the belltower. We heard lots of great stories from our host and were charmed by the city’s history.

In Boston, we enjoyed great cuisine by chef/host Gendreau who is opening a restaurant in Boston (Circle) in the next few months. Thanks for the french toast!

The weather was pretty rainy for most of our visit, but we still managed to walk around parts of the Freedom Trail, including a memorable visit to Old Ironsides (the U.S.S. Constitution, an old navy warship) and the accompanying museum. We had never heard of the Barbary War before. We also hung out in Copley, and went out to Harvard Square, where we had brunch with friends Simonetta and Jan. Afterwards we went to an art show with Rabi, Dang and Chris and finished off the day with more great food courtesy of Gendreau (this time, it was duck.) The final day of our visit I took Aaron on a tour of my alma mater BU and we had lunch with Jeff, Aaron’s college roommate who is now getting his graduate degree at BU.

Thanks so much to Dang for the early ride to the airport! We had a great time in Boston and can’t wait to visit again soon.

We spent our last few days frenetically packing and trying to spend time with family and friends. Aaron’s brother David and his friend James came up to visit on Sunday, April 27, which happened to be an incredibly hot day. We headed to La Jolla and Pacific Beach to cool down at the coast.

In the late afternoon we went to Little Italy, in the downtown area, to catch an art show and ended the day with a great Italian dinner with family and friends David, James, Shireen, Sophia, and Henry.