
Shannon airport
We were waiting for Dr. J and Big T to arrive. We also played foosball.

Galway
Cracky, no?

Church of Ireland church
There were a lot of memorials in here to women who probably scrubbed their floors by hand.

More Galway
I thought this was a really nice city, though not chock-full of attractions.

Spanish Gate
As our guidebook promised, this was not all that exciting, though nice.

Milling about
Here we use the milling-about techniques we perfected in Germany.

More harbor
We walked around here for a while.

Even more harbor
It was pretty nice.

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Catholic church in Galway
The tourbook said this was the ugliest church ever, but we kind of liked it.

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Inside of Catholic church
The inside wasn't ugly either.

Dome
I thought this was pretty.

Robbie with jetlag
Robbie was also the only one of the four of us who could sleep through the nightclub activity below us in Galway.

Flat tire
Robbie and Big T changed the tire. Big T also chewed out Budget on the phone, which was pretty awesome.

Driving
Notice that Robbie is effectively staying left.

Dr. J in car
Notice Dr. J's cool new glasses.

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Spiral staircase
This was the first of many spiral staircases that we encountered.

Murder hole
If I wanted to, I could have poured boiling oil on Robbie's head from up here.

Rain
I'd like to say I was just being tough here, but my hood also kept falling off my head.

Lead mine
We toured a lead mine for Dr. J's birthday.

Beginning of the tour
Our tour guide was pretty awesome.

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After the lead mine
Somehow my freezing-and-hungry look is the same as my just-too-darling look.

Preparing lunch
I'm setting up Dr. J's birthday hoagie here, although you can't tell.

Lighting birthday candles
I'd never set up birthday candles in a car before, and I was a little worried I'd somehow set it on fire.

Candles, take one
I'm the one who took this photo, and Robbie wants you all to know that.

Candles, take two
It took us a while to sing.

Blowing out candles
It kind of helped that you can't actually fit thirty candles on a hoagie.

Robbie and banana
Robbie's opening this banana from the bottom, so he doesn't have to use a knife.

Sheep
There are sheep everywhere, even on fast roads. We had to modify the rules of cows-and-horses as a result.

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Roundstone
This town was extremely pretty, despite the rain.

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Harbor
The harbor in Roundstone.

Main street in Roundstone
You can sort of make out a dog down the street. He'll end up figuring largely in later photos.

Dog in Roundstone
This dog wouldn't move out of the road or take his nose off the wall. He didn't seem totally right in the head.

More of the dog in Roundstone
Robbie really liked this dog.

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Big T in the circle of trust
We took this one for Heather.

Dr. J and Big T
They are awfully cute.

Me taking photos
Dr. J graciously lent me this sweater, and I altered the drawstrings and made a sculpture out of a twisty in the pocket.

Mobile hospital
We were pretty sure that the mobile hospital was going to run over the dog.

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Spraypainted sheep
We think they were spraypainted so farmers could tell whose was whose, but we weren't sure.

Dr. J taking pictures
I kind of like this one. Note her fashionable Marmot jacket.

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Robbie & Big T playing checkers
Right before this photo was taken, Big T told Robbie to finish the game like a man.

Sky Road, Clifden
This was very pretty, though windy.

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Rest stop
Note Big T's fine impersonation of an Irish dog.

Me and Dr. J
One of the advantages of the fashionable Marmot jacket is that it does not inflate in the wind.

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Us
We are pretty much the best-looking people ever, I think.

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Phone booth
I thought this would make a great ad for Eircom, because this phone booth was in the middle of nowhere.

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Peat
There's a lot of peat in Ireland.

Bog
This is where peat comes from. Maybe not right here, though.

Dog
The dogs we saw didn't correspond to any breeds we were familiar with.

Another dog
This one looks like a sort of sheepdog, which stands to reason.

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Chicken
There were chickens in the backyard of the bed and breakfast where we were staying. They all liked Dr. J.

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Castle, 1968
Please note the tour bus. I wanted to buy this poster, but they didn't sell it.

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Us with graffiti on a battlement
This trip would have been even more fun if Larry and Tonya had been there, but we did what we could.

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While visiting Ireland...
...please consider driving your car off a cliff.

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Us at rest stop
We are really cute.

Us, again
We found a nice American family to take this picture, and then we took one of them.

Steep road
Big T navigated it expertly, though.

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Heather's sister
The girl on the right looked exactly like Heather's sister Meagan, although you can't tell because she turned away.

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Dr. J and Big T
Dr. J really looks like someone in this picture, but I haven't been able to figure out who.

Me and Dr. J
How does she come off looking taller in all these photos?

More of us
This misses being a perfect photo, but is still awfully cute.

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Cliffs of Moher
This was right after we jumped the barbed wire fence. This was my favorite hour of the trip for sure.

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Peering into watery abyss
This was actually not nearly as scary as it looks here.

Big T
Being sensible, Big T preferred to stay slightly inland.

Three of us, and a random woman
I'm hoping in twenty years we'll think Robbie is the other person in this photo. That would add a lot to it.

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Weird staring
Man, I love my feet. Even when they're soaked in mud.

Dr. J and Big T make faces
Apparently this was a painful part of our snack break.

Price tag guy
I know it's hard to overlook Big T's face in this picture, but please note the guy wearing a price tag behind Dr. J.

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Men-only candy bar
Ireland also has Kleenex For Men. I do kind of wonder what is being compensated for by this man-product blitz.

Celtic theme park
Don't let the name put you off.

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Stone circle
There were a lot of different coins in here, but no British ones, which we thought was odd.

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Big T on fort
This fort hasn't been excavated, but we still liked it.

Cool flowers
Dr. J really liked these flowers.

More cool flowers
We liked them too.

Bunratty Castle
This was touristy, but fun.

Dungeon
Note the rats for authenticity.

Dr. J and I operating drawbridge
This picture scares me a little bit.

Irish elk horns
You ever want to impress Dr. J, just correctly identify Irish elk horns.

Robbie and I in chairs
Someone corrected me for sitting in the man's chair, but I'm sure it's the sort of whimsical photo thing people do a lot

Big T and Dr. J in chairs
They got it right.

Dr. J and I in women's window
Since women weren't allowed to attend official functions, they had to watch from this window.

Leaving women's window
It's really not built for more than one woman at once.

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Um
Never you mind.

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Now we know where it comes from
"If it's winter and you fall down on the sidewalk it's because the sidewalk is what?" "Uneven due to earthquakes?"

Stealth-Lynndieing
On this trip, Robbie taught Big T about stealth-Lynndieing & Chia Pets. If they move to Luxembourg we know who to blame.

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Goat in Bunratty Folk Park
I wish this photo had Smell-O-Vision.

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Quicksand
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

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The Brendan
In the 1970s an explorer made a boat based on the story of St. Brendan going to Newfoundland and proved it was possible.

Wild boar
These were pretty cute.