The day started with a wake up kiss from my wife and a long hug goodbye. She was off for a field trip in San Jose and had to leave early. That was also my signal to start my day. Got the kids ready and off to school and then finished the last minute packing and off to the airport. Overall the travel was not too bad. LAX was a long lay over and I met up with my fellow Automattician Yuki. After that 7 hour lay over was a 10 hour flight to Dublin. Upon arriving we grabbed a taxi with a driver that could have easily been a character in a movie. A native to Dublin and very outspoken. He was great. Got some good local tips too. Then we met up at the place we were are staying with several more members of my team. We set out to explore Dublin a bit and did so for several hours ending our exploration with a very long dinner at a nice 3 story pub.
Got some really great photos and had a great time with my team. The place we are staying is pretty nice. The challenge is the jet lag and schedule. I forced myself to go to bed at 10:00 PM, which was really 2:00 PM my time. I was exhausted from the long trip but managed to catch 4 hours of sleep on the plane, which never happens. So far, so good! It’s now 5:45 AM and I have been up since 4:15. 😉
Looking forward to CrossFitting in Ireland and getting some project work done with my team.
Ireland Day 2
Day 2 started with working together with my team at a co-working space here in Dublin. After that we hit a nice place to eat and grabbed some coffee on the way back to work on our project for the rest of the afternoon. Following our project we did an Escape room that was a lot of fun and then had dinner at The Crack Chicken. Not the best place we have eaten here, but it was okay. Looking forward to tomorrow and getting to CrossFit here in Ireland as well as meeting the local WordPress group.
Ireland Day 3
Day 3 started at 4:00 AM. I know, right? I could not sleep much at all. Being 8 hours ahead is just not fun. Knowing I had to be up at 5:00 and navigate my way to CrossFit Navitas by 5:30 made me a little anxious, but it was easy. Sunrise is 6:53 AM, and so it was dark, but walking 22 minutes to Camden was very enjoyable and felt safe, even though it was dark. The perfect amount of cold, one might say “a brisk morning”. 🙂 I got to CrossFit early and chatted with the coach. Everyone who came, about 7 people, were warm and welcoming. We did 3RM deadlift, I paired up with a really great guy and I think we did around 300+ pounds at the end. A little lighter than I am used to, but it was fun. Then 7Min AMRAP 30 Strict Pull-ups and Max Effort Calorie Row. It was really great. Not as aggressive as home, but we follow the outlaw program, which I don’t really like that much, and with some Jet Lag and lack of sleep, it was perfect. The coach also told me about Crossover Symmetry to get my shoulders back into shape from the injury on 2014. It looks promising.
The rest of the day was working on our project and then ending the day with a WordPress Meetup where we answered questions about WooCommerce and WordPress.
Ireland Day 4
Day 4 was mostly spent seeing Ireland! We all piled into a tour bus and traveled all over. We saw two different counties and even passed through the town where “P.S. I love You” was filmed, which is our favorite movie! We went to Kilkenny and Glendalough. Glendalough Monastic City was pretty amazing and we hiked a rather difficult hike to the top of a hill for a killer view. We saw so much and had such a great time together. This has been just so amazing. I love Ireland so very much.
When we returned we had a really great dinner where I had three different stews and some great cider. It’s the first time since being here that I went of my clean eating lifestyle. It was worth it.
Day 6 was mostly working, but we did have a really great time in the evening eating a second time at Boxty and then Karaoke. You’ll need to be on our Instagram to see those videos. 🙂
Ireland Days 7-13
I just got back to California and will work on the finishing touches for this blog post in the next few days. My wife joined me for days 7-13 and we had an amazing and magical time. We rented a car, which deserves a post of it’s own, driving in Ireland is it’s own adventure! We drove all over and stopped at places tourist never see, interacted with people and got an excellent experience. I have so many photos to work through, castles, scenery, people, our B&B, lighthouses, cliffs and the ocean and even dolphins. And of course some amazing food. It’s been a long time since I put a lot of time and effort into a blog post, I want this post to be perfect. Ireland was everything I had hoped for an more, and it’s rare in life to be able to say that.
