Because I was the one to book the trip and all the paperwork blah-blah was in my name, I was the legal driver of the car. Tron peer-pressured me into being a lead-footed driver and braker. Three days later, I told him to jump off a cliff. The girls were good sports in helping me pay attention to the roads, the signs, the oncoming traffic, the roundabouts, and did a good job telling me about all the scenery I was missing while I was a consta-stressball on the inside.


Ta fifth (and sixth) member of our party
I'm thinking you're sick of hearing about the crutches by now. I would be! But they were handy little guys, and some days I still wish I had them (true story!). I had to document these international travelers as they were verrrrrry happy about the stamps in their passports.

Ta Church
We were lucky to have found an LDS branch less than thirty minutes from our townhouse. Believing the time posted online was the time church started, we were a wee bit surprised to find out the time was incorrect. Only an hour, but we were already too early. 3-hour church turned into a near 5-hour marathon. But the people were lovely and diverse, and we were all glad to have included it in our travel plans.

In a failed attempt at humor, I told one of the sister couple missionaries that Mary and Julie have beautiful singing voices and would be happy to sing. Wrong move Wms. Before I knew it, I was playing the opening, Sacrament, rest, and closing hymns on a piano that's seen better days. Took my boot off for that too. Haven't played in public in eight years, and I'm playing across the pond. Stressball moment #2959u2. (Please note: this coming Sunday will be the first time in two months I won't have to wear knee-high socks to church. I am beyond thrilled.)

Ta Shopping
So you know I went to Ireland without a credit card. I don't think I've mentioned the debacle that was my debit card. In a nutshell, the rental car company ran a preauthorization of FOURTEEN-HUNDRED DOLLARS on my poor checking account the Friday morning we arrived in town. Typically, this kind of "charge" will clear the next day, but because it was a weekend, followed by the President's Day holiday back in the States, I was in the negative dollar amounts for the majority of our trip. That's right, I had not a dollar to my name--I never touched local currency. Stressball moment #53039. The other girls were fantastic in making sure I was taken care of, but drama rama, right?

Our last day in Ireland (the day after we got back from London), everyone kind of did their own thing. ("Own thing" ranged from never getting out of bed due to aviary influenza, taking walks, writing emails, etc.) Julie and I dragged ourselves to a mall, found some amazing deals, and I put my now-credited debit card into action. Not having bought a single souvineer in London, we went out with a bang! in Ireland. Lest I spoil any surprises for family members/friends who haven't received their token of Irish enjoyment, I'll just say we got some pretty amazing deals on stuff. I couldn't resist buying this for my sister Mallory. The bags aren't as full as they look (well, some of them). My favorite purchase were a few Euro-style coats. I had to emulate the London look, I just had to. **Not all those bags are Ju's. I was just lazy and unhelpful when it came to carrying things.

Ta Rest
There are a couple hundred other photos and random stories that aren't fit or interesting enough to share through this here medium. So let us close with the fried pork breakfast (my gag reflex flared up in the worst way when I decided to try the white pudding; aka "breakfast meatloaf"), the view of the world's smallest TV from my bed (we watched old Cary Grant movies a few nights when we were too ill to move), and one of my hands during Phase 10 (I was maybe trying to help someone cheat.)


DONE. Moral of the story? Take less photos or go on shorter vacations.