We have been surprisingly busy so we don't have pictures. It actually takes me a while to get pictures ready. With the new camera, to get the pictures to look really good I have to do a form of digital developing. Let me just give a quick update of where we are and where we are going. The picture is of Helene and I at the workshop (that is me in the light shirt and Helene in the green shirt standing up, thanks to Laura!).
First, Wednesday night. Wednesday night was amazing. One of the Irish, government funded, technical organizations sponsored the whole night. Buses picked us up at our hotels and chauffeured us to the Guinness Brewery. That place is huge. Of course the whole time we are driving around it, I am whistling tunes from "Willy Wonka". We pulled up to the entrance to the museum/storehouse to find that our guess was right. The place was cleared out and the JWST project had the run of the museum. I kept looking for the Ooompa Loompas. While I didn't see any (they must be quick little buggers), there was a waterfall. It was mixing the water....actually churning the water (you know, no other brewery in the world mixes its water by waterfall). In all seriousness (well a little seriousness anyway) the tour was neat and fun to learn more about what makes a Guinness a Guinness.
As we moved through the museum, we were working our way upwards in the building till we reached the banquet floor. As we came up the escalator, servers were waiting with pints of Guinness. That is the life. The dinner and Guinness were fantastic and they had a live band with an Irish dancer. Helene and I even learned a traditional group dance. I am sure there are some pictures of this floating around that I will try and get up at some point. We had a great time and can't thank our hosts enough.
Yesterday I worked some in the morning. A little more than some really. Helene took the chance to walk around Dublin some more. We met up for some lunch in Temple Bar and yesterday evening went to the taste of Dublin with our friend Curtis and his in-laws. It rained a little. Just a little. Ok, a LOT. I would say we had a plethora of rain. By the time we walked back to the hotel (for those of you that know anything about Dublin, that is a walk from the south side of St. Stephen's Green to the north side of the Liffey by the Ha'Penny Bridge) we were SOAKED. I am talking drenched here. We had rain jackets on, but it was the kind of rain that just penetrates everything. After a hot bath/shower we were both feeling much better and got a good nights sleep. Oh, Helene asked me to mention the cold. Now, it wasn't anywhere near freezing, but for the middle of June, a pouring rain in the upper 40's/lower 50's was really chilly, chilled you to the bone.
This morning we bid Dublin adieu and head off to the west coast. Today we are destined for Clifden and on Sunday we head to Doolin, on the north and south sides of Galway bay respectively. This will be my first time driving on the left side of the road so there should be some interesting stories coming out of that little adventure. We don't know if we will have internet again before Tuesday so we say farewell for now and will post when we have the ability, hopefully with lots of great pictures!
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