My family and I recently went on a week long trip to Dublin, Ireland, a country full of history, stunning landscapes and of course some of the best pubs in Europe!!! I've travelled to over 31 countries and I have to say that Ireland has some of the nicest people I have ever encountered!! From the time we landed until our plane departed, we experienced nothing but warm hospitality. We stayed in the City Centre at Hampton by Hilton and loved it. A great central location which made the city very walkable. We actually never used any transportation other than our feet...except for the coach bus we rode on for our two excursions I booked. I'm also lucky to have a daughter with a built in GPS:-) We booked day trips to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway City and also to Northern Ireland that included Belfast, Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle. Shout out to Wild Rover tours!! The rest of our days were spent exploring Dublin, some highlights were walking around Trinity College, taking the Book of Kells tour, walking around Temple Bar, booking the Guinness Storehouse experience, taking a tour at Jameson Distillery, listening to some live music and walking around Grafton Street and also touring Marsh's Library.
Now for the fun part...
Ireland in photos!!!!
Day One:
We arrived at 8:30am and decided "NO Napping" and we all hung in there until after dinner!
After breakfast at the hotel we headed out to Temple Bar and got our first Guinness of the day from Dame Tavern. Cheers!!
It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to just keep walking around and taking it all in.
Our hotel always had something new posted at the entrance, which I thought was really cute!
Stopped in to the International Bar for another Guinness! We ended the evening at Trinity Bar for dinner and then back to the hotel for a nightcap
Day Two:
Woke up to a little rain so after breakfast we decided to do some more exploring and then onto the Guinness Storehouse for the Stoutie experience. We did pre-book this the week before we arrived. Highly recommend this tour, it was so much fun and make sure you head up to the Gravity Bar for a few more pints before leaving:) After leaving the Guinness Storehouse, we had lunch at The Brazen Inn, Ireland's oldest pub!
It was still raining so we decided to grab some lunch and then head over to Jameson Distillery for a tour. We actually just bought our tickets same day.
Day Three:
Up early to grab a quick breakfast and walk over to where we had to catch the tour bus by 7:00am for the Cliffs of Moher and Galway City.
Apparently we got a super lucky weather day for visiting the Cliffs, it was clear and sunny! The landscape and scenery was nothing like I've ever experienced and I really want to go back and see more!! It felt like we were driving through a movie scene. We stopped at the Barack Obama Plaza (who knew?!) for a quick break and then onto the Cliffs. After spending time walking along the Cliffs, which by the way were slippery and very muddy we hopped back on the bus and headed to Galway City.
Cliffs of Moher:
Galway City:
Day Four:
Spent the first part of our day at Trinity College, taking the Book of Kells tour and walking through the Long Room at the Old Library. Although we were a little disappointed that most of the books had been removed for cleaning, it was still a great experience and beautiful to see.
Lunch and Irish coffee's at The Landmark on Wexford Street:
Then onto Teeling Distillery, one of the first new distilleries in Dublin. You can take a tour, but we just decided to do our own whiskey tasting upstairs at their bar. It's a beautiful distillery and worth the visit!
Day Five:
Second excursion with Wild Rover tours to Northern Ireland, Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle
After we walked around Giant's Causeway we grabbed lunch at The Nook, which was the original schoolhouse dating back to the 1850's. They had a great menu and the inside was so charming and cozy! I mean just look at this place!!!
Day Six:
Our last full day in Dublin :(
We toured Marsh's Library, which is one of the oldest public libraries in Dublin, Founded in 1707. I highly recommend this hidden gem! Did some shopping at Zara (fam favorite store) and walked around Grafton Street. We grabbed lunch and a Guinness...well maybe not just one (haha)! at Slattery's Bar. This was an Anthony Bourdain recommendation per the sign in the window! I would also recommend this place. Later that evening we met our dear friends from back home for a Pub crawl, which was the best ending to an epic vacation!!
I've now come to the the conclusion that Dublin is one of my favorite cities, I would go back in a heartbeat, I really Love Guinness and no matter how old your kids are, take the family trip!!!!
If you've made it this far, Thank you and I hope this inspires you to visit the Emerald Isle!!!!
Debra xo
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Above right is the connecting house. It was simply stunning to see in person!!
My obsession with doors and windows has been ongoing throughout my travels and I honestly just love to photograph them...no matter where I am.
I'm going to show you some of my favorite ones that you can also experience on your own walking tour.
Just look at those windows and that cute palm tree. I am crazy about the exterior color as well. This is my absolute favorite!!
Here's a super fun surprise...gave me a New Orleans vibe :)
I didn't get down there as early as I had wanted, but early enough to see the docents getting ready for work! Did you know that St. Augustine was founded in 1565!!!
Here are just a few others photos I took that morning. There are so many hidden treasures around here and pretty cool to see all of this beauty around you.
Another picturesque area is Magnolia street. All the surrounding houses are so beautiful! Also, Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth park is here. I have not been there in many years, but I remember how beautiful it was and the pretty peacock's roaming the grounds. And I was able to drink from the fountain of youth :):)
Had a really good cuban coffee across the street at The Fountain of Juice!!
Thanks for reading and hopefully you'll be able to visit St. Augustine if you haven't already!
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We rented 2 Houseboats for 3 families and 1 dog. One boat we rented from Rainy Lake Houseboats www.rainylakehouseboats.com and the other from Northernaire Houseboats www.northernairehouseboats.com. We came to the decision that one boat would be the "kids" boat (actually they were mostly young adults) and the other one was the "parent" boat. It worked out great and there was plenty of room for everyone! We also had 2 fishing boats and kayaks and paddle boards. The Houseboats do not go very fast and so it took us a few hours to get to where we wanted to be and we found the perfect stretch of beach at Idle Hour Bay.
If you're wondering about the accomodations... each boat had a kitchen, bathroom with a shower and separate bedrooms. Of course, you have to be pretty comfortable with who you are traveling with :) Each family brought food to share, but the highlight was cooking and eating the fresh Walleye the boys caught daily! We tried four different flavors (original, beer, cajun and buffalo) of batter from Shorelunch mixes and Cajun was my favorite! The fish was cooked right over the fire on cast iron skillets and I have to say that might have been the best entertainment the whole trip!!
It was quite the show watching this fish fry!!!!!
So YUMMY!!!!!!!!
Austin loved taking this little fishing boat out every day!
We did book a fishing guide in advance for 2 mornings, which was great for the guys to find some awesome spots to fish in when they went back in the evening.
Bloody's in the morning was a great way to start the day :)
I was hoping for clear nights so I could see the Milky Way and capture some night photos, but the visibility just wasn't so great. This was the best I could do. Oh well, good excuse for me to to go back next year.
Here are just a few more photos of the Houseboats.
The "Kids" jumping off their boat.
Oakley, our friends dog, had the best time hiking and swimming everyday. She was awesome to have on the trip!
The day before we left, we took one of the Houseboats over to Anderson Bay and hiked the Cruiser Lake Trail. Let's just say, I burned some calories on this hike! We had read that hiking this trail was your best chance to spot Moose, hear Gray Wolves and see Beavers. Needless to say, we didn't see or hear any of that, but did witness lots of stunning scenery! Here's a photo of some of us on the trail.
The last night we moved the boats to Saginaw Bay. It was a little stormy, but once it cleared up the skies were so magical!! A gorgeous double rainbow and sunsets that literally were purple and then orange. Honestly, it was a sight to see!
Lexy paddle boarding to Canada! Ha
Keegan paddle boarding under the Rainbow!!
AJ and I chasing the rainbow
The next morning we were up at 5:00am, so we could get the boats returned by 9:00am.
Just a little more information on the trip, the Houseboat companies do supply large coolers and there is a refrigerator on the boat and one of the boats had a microwave. You can buy ice, firewood and bait once you get there and they will load up your boat with it for you. Also, if you need anything you can radio it into them. There was no wifi out there either, so you can really just escape from everything!!!
We plan to come back next summer and add a few days onto our trip. It did take us around 5 hours to drive up (from Minneapolis suburbs) to International Falls and on top of that it took us another 3 hours on water to Idle Hour Bay, so keep in mind that takes nearly your whole day. There were plenty of other things we could have done, but just ran out of time.
Until next year!!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read :-)
Debra
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The first day we arrived at Circle View Guest Ranch and checked in for our one night stay at an original 1880 Homestead Cabin. I have to tell you that there is no electricity, running water or bathrooms (there is an outhouse) so we were totally roughing it for the night and it was an absolute blast and the views we had were breathtaking. We could even hear the coyotes at night. The Ranch does have other lodging options if you're not wanting this type of overnight experience. www.circleviewranch.com
The next morning we packed up drove through Badlands National Park. We weren't able to walk any of the trails with the dog which we knew this before going, so we drove around and took in all of the scenery this gorgeous park had to offer! We were able to pull over and easily get out to take photos.
We then started our drive to Custer and made a few stops in between to see Mount Rushmore, Slyvan Lake and Needles Hwy.
Mount Rushmore
Sylvan Lake
Once we got to Custer, we checked into a different kind of lodging...a Glamping Tipi!!! This was pretty awesome as it did have electricity in the tipi, so we had lighting and were able to charge up phones and camera batteries!! We stayed at the Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort www.custerhospitality.com
Super comfy bed inside the tipi. Ours had a queen & twin size bed with a table and chairs.
Custer State Park had so much wildlife and you could really just make a trip in and around this park. It was actually pretty cool to be stuck in a traffic jam of Bison and honestly, I was sure one of those humongous animals was going to ram right into our truck!! Indy stayed calm the whole time, which we weren't sure how he was going to react to them. Most of the time we drove around with our windows rolled down and go out for walks and had picnic lunches. Dogs were welcome in all of the designated areas.
Prairie dogs are EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!
After being in Custer for 2 days, we headed to Wyoming to see Devils Tower. We weren't quite sure if there was going to be too much to do there, but our experience was one of the best and I am so glad we decided to go for a night. We made a detour through the wild west town of Deadwood which was pretty cool. They had reenactments of the legend of Wild Bill and the town was very cute to walk through. Its worth a stop!
The historic Fairmont Hotel and Casino. A formal brothel that's known to be haunted!!! Rumor has it that Wild Bill was killed at the Saloon right next door.
His chair is pictured below.
After our little detour through Deadwood we made it to Devils Tower and walked around the massive geologic monument. We couldn't walk the dog around the tower, but there were areas that we could walk him, so it worked out just fine. After exploring Devils Tower we drove on to our next campsite. At first we weren't sure if we were in the right place, so I gave the owner, Juliana a call and she came right away to meet with us and get everything set up. We were staying in a traditional Sioux-Style Tipi and it was awesome!! Let me be clear and tell you that this is in no way similar to the glamping tipi experience we had at Custer, but it was a super cool adventure and we're so happy we booked it!!! They can be found at www.devilstowertipicamping.com
We fell asleep looking at the Milky Way and we woke up to a beautiful sight of Devils Tower wrapped in massive fog. I'm telling you, there is nothing like this. It was breathtaking!!
We just stayed for one night before heading back via the scenic route (make sure you have a full tank of gas) through Montana to get to our last park destination which was Theodore Roosevelt State Park, ND
We made it to Theodore Roosevelt Park by late afternoon and drove around the park for a while before checking into our hotel and taking nice long hot showers. This was the only time we actually stayed in a hotel. We got up nice and early the next morning and went back through the park and then headed home to MN.
Thanks for following along on our adventure! We are heading out to Voyagers National Park on a House Boat next....so stay tuned!!!
Cheers!
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I offer these sessions for all ages of athletes and also as an add on to my senior portrait session.
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Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Schonbrunn Palace
Spending an afternoon here was blissful!! In between tiny rain storms, we walked all over the gardens of this magnificent Palace!!
We spent a day in Bratislava, but would have loved to have spent a few more.
Picturesque storefronts are all over
yummy ice cream from Arthur's
Again...it's a good choice to try the local beer :)
Everywhere you go there are beautiful streets and window boxes
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We started off in Budapest, Hungary and then took the train to Vienna, Austria and from there to our final destination of Prague, Czech Republic
My first blog post is on Budapest
I feel in love with this country and could have spent an extended period of time there!!
We spent the first day just walking around without an agenda...which is fun to do because you never know what you can discover
Always recommend checking out the local beer scene!
The Dohany Synagogue
Interior of the Dohany Synagogue
These views were so worth the massive hike up to the Citadella
Stopped in for a cappuccino at the New York Cafe, which is considered "the most beautiful cafe in the world"
Views from Castle Hill
These three images are from the shoe memorial on the Danube bank
This is a remembrance of those who were shot during WWII
The stunning Hungarian Parliament
We loved our hotel!!! Great views from our balcony!!!
I crossed the street to get this shot of Lexy and Austin hanging out on our balcony
These were all shot at sunrise at Fisherman's Bastion
This is a must do when visiting Budapest. The daytime is so crowded with thousands of tourist in this area. We basically had the place to ourselves. Easy taxi ride from our hotel.
]]>These two girls were super sweet and up for anything...which made my job all the more easier
I am now offering studio sessions with your BFF (up to 4 people) as an extra option on top of my regular Senior Sessions
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