We've had a few adventures close to home this week, pathetically, one of them was to IKEA.  Several months ago we noticed that a bus was destined for the store.  I don't think I've even seen a public bus destined for a particular store before so we thought this must be an event that we couldn't miss in our Irish sojourn.  Sure enough, the bus terminated at the only IKEA store in Ireland; and it was a destination.  There was a large children's play room, a big cafeteria and acres and acres of retail space.  There was nothing else around.  It is in a warehouse location close to the airport.  We'd only been to one IKEA in the Washington area and it was nothing like this.  The store was packed, I was sure that there were people like us making it their day's adventure.  We bought a few things, had a bad, kid-filled lunch and came home.  It took 6 hours.  I wouldn't do it again but I have to say it was an interesting experience.  That store has everything, except what we were looking for as our excuse to go:  a butter dish and a meat thermometer, too old fashioned I guess, everything is modern in IKEA.

On a more fun note, I spent yesterday walking with a friend between two seaside villages, Bray and Greystones.  The path is one that's been around since medieval times and it was a beautiful, scenic walk.  Both are summer escape villages.  Bray is popular with the people from Northern Ireland in particular.  Seems that when the parade season (in July) happens in the north and the protestants and the catholics provoke one another with their marching many of the year-round residents flee to Bray.  I can see why, it has a wonderful beach but kind of a Coney Island feel, with rides and hucksters and fatty food vendors.  Greystones is much more upscale, no midway just what I picture when I think of a Victorian get away.  The walk between them, 6.2 kilometers (about 4 miles) is unspoiled and undeveloped it was just beautiful.  It is a cliff walk that hugs the sea the whole way.  We had lunch in Greystones and then took the train back one stop to Bray where we picked up my friend's car.  It was a really nice day and we didn't get rained on.

Tomorrow we are headed for a day trip to Moneygall, Obama's ancestral home.  He's a rock star in Ireland and he's put that little village on the map.  We will take a two-hour bus ride from Dublin and then take a tour of the home is great grandfather left and have a pint in the pub.  Tomorrow is his birthday and the Democrats in Ireland are putting on this bash.  It should be interesting.  Yesterday, during lunch I spoke to a man who asked me if Republicans ever come to Ireland.  I wondered myself.  Surely with the performance of Mitt Romney in this region last week, he'd be hard pressed to hold his own with the Obama fans.  Apparently by the time he got to Poland, he was done with Europe entirely and his press secretary told the reporters there to 'kiss my ass' when they asked him about his gaffs in England.  That didn't go over too well, although there's plenty of amusement about it. 

The other thing I've been doing this week is making arrangements for our first visit from America.  Friends from Wisconsin are coming and we will entertain them here for several days before we all go off to Kerry.  Unfortunately we will just miss the "Rose of Tralee" festival, which concludes on August 21st, but our plan is to do the Ring of Kerry and spend two nights in Killarney and one in Dingle.  In all of my trips to Ireland in the past, I have never seen this part of the country.  As anyone who has done the traditional tour of Ireland knows this is one of the 'must see' areas, so I'm looking forward to it.