Over to Wexford and Johnstown Castle

A gorgeous day on Monday. Can't waste a sunny day!! We looked over the map of Wexford and tried to choose between seeing Hook Lighthouse, Tintern Abbey, Wexford Town and Johnstown Castle. We decided on the latter two and I am glad we didn't try to rush through and see more. It was so beautiful wandering around Johnstown Castle for a few hours with Mitzi and then taking a quick walk around Wexford Town. That is what is so special about living here--it's not like we have to rush around, we fully expect we will be back.

Taking the Passage East car ferry across the River Suir

Johnstown Castle--our favorite place so far! We actually liked it better than Powerscourt although both are beautiful.

It was a perfect day for walking around the grounds. It was also so nice to be able to bring Mitzi along. Dogs must stay on the leash of course but she was very happy to sniff along the walkways.

Peacock walked past a very intrigued Mitzi looking at her as if to say "Bring it on dog!"

We had lunch at The Peacock Cafe and then I went through the Agricultural Museum/Famine Exhibition while Richard wandered around outside. The Famine Museum was heart rending for me and brought to mind what refugees must be suffering even in modern times.

This is my heritage. My ancestors survived the Famine, not sure how. I wish there were records but then even my great grandmother couldn't read or write. My great grandparents were born after the Great Famine, around 1857. So it would have been the generation before that scrabbled to survive and keep their land. Someday, hopefully, I will come across records from the area that they lived in that might help me to understand what they went through.

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Life on board the Queen Mary

Passenger's log on the Queen Mary 2: Dec 9th - First Day at Sea Didn't sleep well--think it was the soused mackerel at dinner. Anyway, R and I woke up at about 6:00 am and discussed the order of the day. Quite the swell outside and I can feel the roll of the ship. (No seasickness thank goodness!) Despite the mackerel, I was hungry so we went to King's Court at 6:30 a.m. Buffet with loads of choice of course. We sat in an alcove looking out at the ocean. Our server was from Croatia, Slavan. I asked him my burning question of the day--why did we get a free bottle of wine but a regular bottle of Diet Coke cost $3.75? Diet Pepsi is $1.00 less. Fruit juices are free on tap. Coffee, tea, milk, ditto. But you have to pay for soft drinks. Very odd. Slavan says it is because Cunard can't get a good contract with Coke. Hmmm.... our local School District back in Sierra Vista can negotiate .50 a can for the soda machines in the teachers' lounges but Cunard has to cha...

Duckett's Grove/Castle, Co. Carlow

Golly I am tired tonight! We had a really busy day. We went into Carlow town to return a pair of sweatpants that R. bought and didn't like. I also went to the Bank of Ireland and started up my bank account. They do things very differently here than in Sierra Vista. There are no tellers for simple deposits or withdrawals; the bank branch in Carlow consists of four ATM machines and one international exchange cashier. And three personal bankers who are extremely helpful. I discovered that you don't make a deposit, you make a lodgment. Weird, eh? We went to Tesco's after the bank to get our every-other-day food shopping done. Small refrigerators--have to be careful in buying. We also bought some new "orthopedic" pillows that will hopefully help our neck issues. Bought a couple of pre-made sandwiches and ate them in the car when we parked at Duckett's Grove. Duckett's Grove is a ruined 19th century great house whose owners kept redesigning the original house ...

There's got to be a morning after

And today is the fourth "morning after", with each "night before" a little easier, a little more "make the best of it but take care of yourself." Before I move back to writing this memoir style blog--going to continue with the South Africa trip of 1977--I feel I would be shrinking if I didn't say something about how I feel about this week's US election. As of this writing, Saturday, Arizona still hasn’t finished its count—the GOP did a great job of preventing the mail-in vote for being counted early and messing up the ability to use the machines—so I still don’t know if we are going to be saddled with the odious Kari Lake or whether the House is going to be Republican too. Still, it’s becoming more “academic” than visceral for me, if you know what I mean. Necesitamos avanzar. Sera dificil, sabiendo que muchos, especialmente aqui donde vivo, creen en los planes de Trump y Vance. (I have been practicing Spanish in preparation for a 10-day December cr...

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