An American Family Adventure in Dublin, Ireland: Sleeping In

Connor let us sleep in both days this weekend which was very strange, unexpected, and somewhat delightful. I think he might have been a little under the weather so I don't know if this will be a normal occurence on the weekends. The sleeping in threw us off our schedule a little bit but I think I could have slept in the whole day. I don't feel like I've truly had enough sleep since Connor was born.

We did a lot of laundry this weekend. Our washer and dryer are smaller that what we are used to in the States so its takes a lot more loads to do the same size of laundry. Starting work and the trip to Edinburgh put me behind in the laundry department and we were trying to catch up this weekend. We're not quite there as now we also have to hang our clothes to dry (small dryer that won't work if the load is too heavy) and that takes around 2 days to dry. Atleast we do have a seperate washer and dryer as I have heard the washer/dryer in one combo is really bad for drying.

Something I do like is that I have a double oven. I have been using that a lot when I prepare our dinners. When I have two things to bake for two different temperatures, I have compartments for both. Its great. I don't have a microwave and surprisingly, I am doing ok without it.

On Saturday, we went to the Temple Bar food market which I expected would be like a farmers market back home with fresh veggies, fruits and baked goods for a good price. I was disappointed when I got to the food market. It is in a small area and did not have that many stalls. The stalls that were there were mainly food stands. The baked goods seemed overpriced and there were not any fruit/veggie stands. It seemed like it was only there for the tourists, not really for locals. We walked around for 15 minutes and left.

We also took a train to Kildare from the Heuston Station. It was a 45 train ride through the country. Kildare is known for their horses and there is a big horse race there every year. They also have an Outlet Mall! Michael needed some work shirts and I just wanted to see it. Connor liked the train ride and behaved very well. It was a nice train and had tables, wifi, and electrical outlets through out. When we arrived at Kildare, there was a complementary shuttle to the outlets. The outlet was smaller than the ones back home which I expected and the stores were pretty posh. I missed my Ann Taylor and Loft stores. I didn't recognize a lot of the names of the stores but they were nice but not really my style. I did buy a really nice wallet at Ted Bakers which I could actually see myself wearing some of their clothes. There was a playground at the mall that we let Connor play in. There were also old ruins next to the outlet, which was pretty cool. Only in Europe!

On Sunday we woke up late and then went out to do some shopping at Jervis near O'Connell street. We also ate at a Chinese buffet which was similar to the buffets at home. After shopping and some more laundry we went to Merrion Square with Connor and let him run wild. Ofcourse he found some stairs and wanted to go up and down the stairs for a long time. All in all, it was very nice weekend with my family. Here are some pictures: