The Joys of Retirement Production Company

Today we picked up our car at the Dublin airport and headed north!  Our friends,  Sharon and Marie McNeill live near Belfast and invited us to stop for lunch.  We had a lovely visit,  at Sharon’s new home right on water across the bay from Belfast.  We very much enjoyed reminiscing about meeting on our Baltic cruise in 2012, and talking travel,  since we all love travel!

We ended our day in our new lodging just outside Portrush, where had a delicious Indian dinner of Butter Chicken, Tandori Chicken Masala, and Jaljal with garlic cheese naan.

Around Portrush.  Sunset is around 9:45

More on our self-catering BnB tomorrow,  The Cottage on Corbally, a 3BR cottage, with all the amenities we would need.   We will just cook our breakfasts probably,  but most dinners out.   We have a washer and dryer as well so when we start our next leg off this trip, we will have all clean laundry!  We will have 5 nights here to explore Northern Ireland, the Antrim coast, Londonderry, and possibly even into Donegal and the Wild Atlantic Way… we will see!  Tucker has 2 opportunities to golf here in the Irish Golf Area around Portrush in the next 4 days.

Today we got to visit the Guinness Storehouse for the tour.   It is laid out very well to see not just the process of making it but to experience a taste as well! 

Inside it is shaped like a huge beer glass!  You start with the ingredients,  and move thru the process of making it.

Some of the advertising over the years

the views from the Gravity Bar on top

We were very lucky to get into the Kilmainham Gaol with a mini tour,  free at 1:20 PM. 

We all had a Guinness Stew for dinner tonight in the pub right across from the  Gaity Theater, where we topped off our Republic of Ireland stay with a performance of Riverdance. 

But it was all wonderful!

Tucker,  our 7th grandchild to go on a trip with us,  had joined us on our way to Ireland!  Aer Lingus direct Denver to Dublin

our first lunch in a very Irish pub,  Gogarty’s with some great Irish music!

Our walk today around the City

The river Liffy and the Ha’penny bridge

down Temple Bar area

And Trinity College.   No available tickets for the book of Kells. so we skipped.

and visited memorials to the 2 most famous writers,  Oscar Wilde

and James Joyce

We rested a few minutes when our hotel room became available,  then had an Italian dinner and a walk before going to bed at about 10.  An altogether beautiful sunny 77° day in Dublin! 

We staying in our timeshare on Granby. Colorado last night and we’re able to snag a last minute next day timed entry into Rocky Mtn National Park this morning between 9 and 11!  perfect timing! 

Our view from our 1 BR apartment, our pool,  the golf course,  a pond!

we watched ducks and these 2 muskrats. 

The drive thru the Park was splendid weather!  the views were unsurpassed!

A deer crossed the road in front of us,  a herd of elk grazed in a meafow down the slope from the peak and at the top. a huge surprise!  a moose!  Rather out of character for them to just be laying around at such high altitude,  not grazing marshes among trees!

At the Hidden Valley rest stop on our descent

Our drive today was all Utah, through gorgeous territory!  We have visited all the parks in past years,  and this year is just a transit,  on our way to Nebraska for the main event of our travels…. more on that later.   in the meantime,  Enjoy some of our views along the highway I 15 and I 70

Stay tuned for Colorado Rockies tomorrow!

Our 2026 Road trip has begun!  Today, July 22 we left home for Nebraska. staying overnight in 3 of our timeshare resorts.   Tonight we in St. George Utah, having passed thru California,  Nevada (Vegas) and a little too of Arizona.  It is a leisurely trip,  just 5-6 hrs driving each day this way!  the prettiest part of this drive is the forge along the Virgin River in the tiny corner of AZ we pass thru.

the highest temp we saw today was really 108, altho after a stop on the sun,  the car thought it was 112 for a few minutes!  better to keep driving.   Only 95 here tonight so far.  

Pray for safety of the roads and we will check in tomorrow as we travel north and east.

Our grandson, Tucker,  our youngest in Nebraska,  graduated yesterday.   He is valedictorian of his class! with all A’s in his whole HS career!  Plus an athlete with 2 state champion rings in Track.  

The day before,  the class walks each halfway in the school with undergrads, including the elementary kids, congratulating them. 

He led the class as they walked into the gymnasium.  As they approached the camera, he fist bumped the camera with his state rings.

His speech was excellent! 

Each kid also is introduced with a baby picture, graduation picture, a little about their family and plans after graduation.

Part of the ceremony,  each graduate picks up the class flower and delivers it to their parents.   It is so touching and sweet!  Their class flower was a white rose lily,  very unusual and beautiful!

The kids in the community have open houses and everyone celebrates the community graduates.   It is a nice tradition,  but an intense amount of work for family!  Today we all need a rest!

a little of our prep…. decorating and preparing food

Along with graduation is fun with family.

The sky tells part of the story!  The weather threatened hail, but did deliver thunder,  lightening and a lot of rain during our time at the party after.  Thankfully,  the hail missed Imperial as well as the farm.

Another adventure begins.   Our youngest grandson in Nebraska is graduating as Valedictorian of his class!  so we are off to celebrate with him! 

We have been watching a website forecasting the view of Mt Fuji for months,  checking the weather,  and frankly hoping we got a good week!  And we did!  Almost every day it forecast to be good sighting of the mountain, but Sunday the 19th looked the best!  We reserved a private driver for the day to take us to the prime viewing places on the north side of the mountain.   it was a bit more expensive than taking the train but we saw so much more and at a relaxed pace. it was well worth the money! 

Our driver picked us up at 6AM!  Sounds early but it was s great decision.   the crowds weren’t there at any of the sights we visited,  yet!  We started with the pagoda at the shrine,  seen in many Fuji posts. Luckily there were even still a few cherry blossoms in full bloom!  Great photos!

Next we visited 2 is the 5 lakes on that side of the mountain,  Kawaguchiko and Saito

There is a rebuilt village there,  once destroyed by a landslide in 1910, it was rebuilt as a tourist site,  an open air museum in 2004.  We visited some of the houses / shops and had a lunch of a local houtou noodle.

Lunch

we visited a couple spots to view Fuji made famous by Instagram,  but we had seen the best already!  having a private driver and stopping where we wanted was the best way!

spectacular Fuji!

Ueno park is just 3 stops up from our station and full of museums and flowers.  We had decided toto do 1 museum and choose Tokyo’s National Museum,  the oldest! 

The park turned out to be hosting a Sake tasting festival with entertainment and food!  Just in time for us for lunch!

Our afternoon we planned to add a workshop doing the art of Kintsugi, golden repair,  the Idea that just because something is broken it still has value.  It is the repair of broken pottery with resin (or super glue in modern times) and not hiding the crack, but embellishing the flaw with gold.  It is a wonderful concept,  that the old,  broken things can be beautiful and still useful!  Perfect for 4 Seventy somethings!

Great afternoon!  and a great souvenir of Japan when we finished