Dublin, Ireland

Look, A DOOR. This doors was once the front door of King John Edward the 3rd of Scotland and 47th of England. He is known for his massacre of the Serfs. Wait that would have to be King George, since these are Georgian Style homes, sooo.

OK that is just a lie, however, our tour guide took us to see about 400 doors, and each one had its own unique story and that is all. Unlike the states, the door is the only thing a famliy can do here to be unique. So there is some excellent craftsmanship. The city is known for a couple things. The River Iffy, Trinity College, and our favorite, The Guiness Factory. All were very fun to see and tour. Near our hotel was Temple Bar, which is a small gathering area for locals to do their thing. It was like 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica. Below is a picture of one of the buildings that was there.



These Statutes were outside of our hotel and were a memorial to those that suffer from the Potato famine. They consisted of a group of emaciated individiuals. As I looked at them all I could think of was John Belushi on SNL when he went through his luck of the Irish Spiel. However, on a more solemn note, Roz had family who went through the famine and had written a letter to her family in Australia, calling them out saying that they should get off their fat butts and send them some money since they had nothing. The severity of it really came to life as she shared her personal experiences.

This is the view from the Gravity Bar. This is the best view in all of Dublin. On the top of the Guiness Factory, is where this bar is located. You can see the whole city. It was a great view. I was glad that Ali allowed us to go to the factory. Below is Ali in front of the St. James gate. It was fun. To get to the factory we walked in place of taking a taxi, it was about a two to three mile walk. Phil did it well even though his leg was hurting. He ended up drinking our free beer that we got at the end of the tour.


On the walls there were quotes written. I'm not sure if they were over the place where the person was from, however, it added to the whole atmosphere.

The Brazen Head. The oldest bar in Dublin, it is rumored that Robin Hood had a pint here. The front is just a facade and the real bar is behind. It was cool to see a bar that is older than the U.S. I wished we would have had a chance to get inside, but we were lucky to get this picture as we drove past.

This is the Liffy. As the Brits call it the Iffy Wiffy Liffy. The cool thing is that the tide in Dublin is about a 12 swing, if not more. So at low tide as seen here you can see all sorts of things on the river bottom. Bikes, Shoes, Bodies, whatever. However, when the tide came up there was only about a meter of clearance. The better thing was that they had boats that were made like unto a dish that could still go under the bridges at high tide. They were bizzare looking.

Scotland

Scotland, what a great country. These shots are from the castle overlooking Edinburg. The Edinburg castle is a great one, in terms of inherent beauty. It is located on the side of a cliff and from it one can see for miles. The road leading into the castle is called the "Royal Mile" There are shops up and down, where you can buy all sorts of gifts. The castle starts like all castles should, at the front gate and then corkscrews up to the left.

All the way up there are Turrets that overlooked the city and down onto Prince's blvd.


Here is the Ceremony of the Haggis, it is quite spicy. The guy on the Left was the announcer and more or less entertaining. It wasn't until this night that I learned that the Scot like the Acordian too. Who would have thought it. I figured them to be more manly than that.

Ali even tried the haggis. I was suprised.








So like the other countries over there the stain glass is impressive to say the least. This one was a standout to me. I like the bible story that was included and before the actual stories were replaced by the apostostic teachings of the catholic church.

This one here is of Mel Gibson. Just kidding. Although they are quite proud of Braveheart over there. I'm sure they would have done more in the day had they known about the press they would be getting now. No this is WILLIAM WALLACE, yes the same who gave my fore-fathers " the Johnstone Clan" a castle since they were so good at killing the British. If you have met the a true brit you will know why anyone would want to kill them. HAHA This was found in the church that was in the compound of the castle. It was a tiny church but nonetheless beautiful

The Royal Mile leads up to the front gate of the Castle in Edingburgh and it is like the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica, there are shops and street performers everywhere. But rather than have that obnoxious black guy who paints himself silver and puts a whislte in his mouth, this here play the Bag Pipes. That is much much better

Now this is a cannon. Seems like it wouldn't be very practical, hence why it is in Scotland. That is a british joke. See that is why we hate them. Ali is there just for perspective. Thanks babe. In situations like this I would tell her to go and act like Vanna White. Here however she was too cold to put her arms up.

London

These are some of our pictures from London. We had such an amazing time. Not sure how we can put all our experiences down in words...




This is a lake in Hyde Park, in London. It is right near the Castle that Princess Diana lived before she was killed.

Below are pictures from Big Ben. The one in the distance shows Big Ben, with the clock, and the other, behind is the Parliment building. Both were amazing buildings. The second picture is a close up of some of the details on the buildings. We were amazed. There is nothing close to this in the US. We loved this area. We loved London. Actually, we loved our entire trip! We can't wait to go back again someday! We just barely scrapped the surface of things to do and see while we were there. We loved it!













The picture of us is in front of Pricess Diana's home before she was killed. These gates were the ones covered with flowers in memory of her. These are famous gates.

Above is the Tower Bridge, right near the Tower of London. It was raining all day, but the Bridge sure looked cool!

To the left is a model of one of the tourture devices used in the Tower of London long ago. This one was used to stretch people. There were other devices and it was all a bit creapy... although I think Ryan liked looking and reading all about it...

Catalina

Catalina Island!
This trip we did right before I began Law School - over a year ago! We left early in the morning and took the boat over. It was fun, a little cold, but very fun. There were pods of Dolphins that we saw while on the boat over, but I'm glad that it was only an hour because I thought that I was going to toss my cookies... In fact, we got there so early the shops were not even open yet! We ended up eating the breakfast that we had brought on some random park bench because nothing was open...

We snorkeled in the afternoon and hung out at "lover's cove." Not sure why they call it Lover's Cove becase there isn't really any place to sit down... It is all rocks, and no beach. It was a nice little cove and there were a ton of big fish. The only problem was that it was cold. We didn't bring wet suits, so we only lasted as long as our bodies stayed warm. Surprisingly, Alison wasn't as cold as Ryan was!

Avalon is the main town there, and it is quite small. We walked the entire thing several times throughout the day. Alison is here standing at the center of town... Exciting. We couldn't really find anywhere to sit or relax on the extemely small man made beach, so we went to a hotel. There was this hotel that had a nice grassy area with lounge chairs so we went in, grabbed a lounge chair, read our books and relaxed. It was great! We both fell asleep and it was nice.


Before we went our on trip we scheduled a helicopter ride home. We were so excited. The only problem was that we were tired and wanted to go home before our scheduled helicopter trip... So we tried to change the time we could go and got to leave about 30 minutes earlier. We were so excited! It was AMAZING! We video taped the whole thing, and then the video camera was stoeln... No more video... But, we will always remember the way it felt and the exciting 10 minute ride. It was so cool! We can't wait to do it again... when we save up our money... It was a pricey 10 minute ride, but totally worth it!

Jamaica

Hey all,

Just trying to catch you all up on the time since Ali and I got hitched.





We went on this trip in Aug. of 06. It was an awesome trip

Upon arrival we realized that Jamaica is a place that people come to party at. It would have been a lot different experience had Ali and I been drinkers. It is hard to get a drink there without any rum in it. In order to get a drink without Alcohol I had to tell the bartenders that Ali was pregnant. It was very interesting. People were very puzzled when we told them that we didn't drink. They kept saying, then why did you come to Jamaica?


The place we stayed was an all inclusive resort. I forget what it was called. The beach was divided into 2 parts, 1) the everyone beach and 2) the Fun people beach, which just happened to be the Nude Beach (amazing how that works). The nude beach was a much nicer beach... Weird how that works. We just tried to keep your eyes on the ocean... This beach was not as crowded and out of the wind. We had a great time!






What we discovered that 3 jacuzzis existed on the premesis. At the main one, everyone hung out and smoked cigars. The second was far from the beach, and the third in the nude area. Ironically, this one was always empty. So we would hit it up. It was surrounded by trees and at the far end of the compund and was very pretty and private. It was awesome. Below you can see Ali in the Cuzzi.








However, we still had a great time. There is nothing to do but relax and relax some more.

We laid aroung all day most everyday and it was great. The snorkling wasn't the best ever, but it was warm and not too windy so it was awesome. The resort we stayed at was a 14 and older place and was all inclusive. We had a great time.

While there we met a cool couple named Tracy and Art. We hung out with them and went to a concert that Bob Marley started up called the Reggae Sunsplash. It began about 11 P.M. The grounds consisted of a large empty field and had several stages + many vendors. They had the best Jamaican Jerk Chicken EVER. The US has nothing that comes close to what that was. It was HOT it burned your lips and throat as it went down but it was all you could do to not eat more. We were almost the only white people there. Furthermore, the lack of drug laws was readily apparent. There were guys walking around selling marijuana and cocaine. Ali kept telling me "When in Rome..., When in Rome..."








The people there are pretty cool. This is just an average guy that I took a picture of from the coaster that we were on. He looked over just after and asked for a tip. Hey that is just the culture over there. They love to work and love to get paid in cash immediatley, and have absolutley no Problem letting you know that they want to be PAID. It is very interesting.



Ali is a Huge BOB Marley fan, everyday she kept saying we have to go to see his memorial statute, his memorial statute. So she was sooo excited when we finally got here. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands. She was sooo moved that after she clapped she broke out into an accapela version of No Women, No Cry. Followed by Get Up, Stand Up. It was awesome.



These two fun loving people are Art and Tracy. I know that I mentioned them earlier. Here they are. He was one of those types that makes friends with everyone and talks like a Jamaican whenever possible. Hey Mon. It was amazing that he kept it up as long as he did. He was cool and we had a great time with them. As it turns out they are both from HB as well and that he can be found at Dukes on friday nights.





This page was written by Alison and if there are any typos it is Ryan's fault. Have Fun.

Blarney Castle

Well, we have over 800 pictures from our trip to England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Here is one of our favorites. The Blarney Castle! It was amazing to see such old structures and to think that peope actually lived in these castles. This castle is most famous for the Blarney Stone. We paid a lot of money to get into the grounds area just to view the castle, but luckily it was free to kiss the Blarney stone, along with millions of other people... Hmmm. Best kiss I ever had! Ryan didn't want to do much kissing, although he did kiss me afterward... The legend is that if you kiss the blarney stone, you have the gift of eloquence... Not sure if I have it yet though... You have to sit down, lean back and then hang upside down to make it happen... There is an older guy sitting there also, hoping to get a tip, who helps lower each person down to kiss the stone. Boy was that fun!

Here I am making contact... Just as I leaned back to kiss the stone, the guy helping me said, "Let's see how this pretty girl kisses in the daytime!" We had a good laugh...

This was just ONE of many amazing and beautiful sites and experiences we had on our journey. You should all go, it was such fun!!!