Awaiting the Results

Hmmmmm - so much for trying to do more timely posts. I had my surgery on Monday and spent Monday night and Tuesday mostly sleeping. We were hoping for some news regarding the results of the biopsy today, but did not get them (hopefully Monday). I suppose anyone who wants to see pictures should check Duane's Blog to take a look at the pictures he posted (he is ever camera ready). It was really great to have him here until Wednesday - no comfort like that of a loving son (child).

Max has been hard at work while Wanda and I have lazed around the house playing sudoku and reading "rag mags". Kathy brought over a wonderful lasagna, salad, bread and "to die for" chocolate/strawberry dessert Monday night, which was greatly appreciated by all. She then brought over a bunch of great colored pencils and books along with another sudoku book to keep me busy. I have been having a great time with the colored pencils - I love to do pencil coloring just like my mother used to do! She then brought strawberry shortcake - ahhhhh I am doing nothing but laying around and eating (I need to be up and about soon)!

Wanda and I ventured out today while Max was taking finals. We had our toes done and that was a real treat. The pedicure along with the leg/foot treatment and massaging chairs, not to mention the nice colored nails was a much needed uplight (followed by Starbucks and a Wal-Mart trip).

Wanda has to go home tomorrow and I will be sad to see her leave. I am sure things will be back to normal starting next week and hopefully I will get the camera in action and do some postings.

Still looking forward to a relaxing weekend. The weather has turned really beautiful and it is nice to have the windows open and experience a nice breeze.

Later . . .

Today is the DAY

So Max, Duane, Wanda and I are off to Kaiser Walnut Creek for my surgery. No food or COFFEE for me:(

May be a couple of days before the next post, but I will try to not make it 2 weeks.

Later . . .

Two Weeks!

I cannot believe that it has been two weeks since I have posted. Let me try and think what I have been doing . . .

The dogs are both well - thank goodness there was nothing wrong with Darci that a diet won't cure and Kodi's foot is all better (since I made him wear a sock for a couple of days to stop licking and picking). I think I was able to pull a sticker out and that was the problem.

We did manage to get some vegetables and flowers planted and I managed to mow the lawn. The result of the mowed lawn was Kodi sported green feet and a bottom from running and playing on the wet grass. He always looks so funny when every white spot on him turns green.

I occupied my time the first week with cleaning out kitchen cupboards and sorting through things that needed to be thrown out.

I spent the day Thursday in Manteca with Max's mother (Ann) while Warren (Max's step-father) had a pace maker implanted. Then on Friday Kathy, Paul, Max and I headed out for David Walley's Resort and Spa in Genoa, Nevada (we lovingly call the place Wally World).

We had a really great time spending the week there. Not only did Max do homework on a VERY slow dial up connection, we went to the local Starbucks to access the internet because something she needed for school was timing out before it could load due to the slowness of the connection, we accomplished a VERY difficult fish puzzle, I conquered four star Sudoku puzzles, Kathy read a Dean Koontz book, we did Thrift Store shopping, checked out the BLM land office for places to off road, Paul checked out bicycle shops researching for a new bike purchase, checked out the local "oldest bar in the state", visited the local "general store" for soup and ice cream, had some great food at the local eateries, had good food at the condo (filets with blue cheese to die for), sat in the hot tub in the snow and still found plenty of time to gamble. If you can imagine Kathy played the penny slots machines for FOUR hours on ONE DOLLAR! Unfortunately, I did not manage to conquer the Craps Tables (would have loved to repeat the $1000 win from a previous visit), but we did have many hours of fun there and the Three Card Poker and Black Jack tables!

We had to come down to Sacramento for a day because Warren had surgery to replace an artery in his leg on Tuesday. We came down to stay with Ann until he came out of surgery. Max did homework, Kathy taught Ann how to do Sudoku puzzles, I did Sudoku puzzles and Paul read bicycle magazines. It certainly made the time pass quickly. Warren came out of the surgery doing very well and his recovery looks very promising. We stopped by the hospital to see him on the way home Friday and he was being released to go home.

Duane came down for the weekend today (he will be here for my surgery, staying until Wednesday) and we went to look at light weight travel trailers http://www.trailmanor.com/. We were very impressed with how they looked and how easily they set up and came down. (Check Duane's blog for pictures).

Hopefully I will do better with posting and not let so much time lapse between posts.

Later . . .

Busy Weekend

The weekend just seemed to speed by. On both Saturday and Sunday we went to Pleasanton to watch Michael participate in the Northern California Special Olympics. His basketball team did really well and came away with a Silver Medal. The team that took the gold was an extremely aggressive team and basically intimidated all the other teams. By Sunday afternoon you could see the influence the aggressive team had on all the remaining teams – there was some serious blocking and ball stealing going on. We did breakfast/lunch with Kathy and Paul on both Saturday and Sunday. Michael bought a new recumbent bicycle on Sunday afternoon (sorry I have no pictures cause it is really cool) and we all went out for Mexican food to celebrate (the bike and the Olympics). This was the eliminations and I don’t think his team will go on to Sacramento for the finals. I have not taken any pictures in a while and I know I need to.

We are having a hard time finding time to plant things in between the rain. Hard to believe California is having this much rain this late in the season. I am sure it will all work out, but we have both vegetables and flowers that need to be planted. Yards need to be mowed and I hate to do it when the grass is so wet – not good for the blades of the mower.

Kodi has a big sore (abscess) between his little toe and the next one. Darci has some sort of lump on her hip – God, I wish we had dog insurance! I made an appointment for Darci for tomorrow afternoon and just found the abscess on Kodi this afternoon. I will talk to the vet and see if I can just get some ointment for Kodi’s foot. I would prefer not to have to take him in, but she will probably want to see him and check it out for herself.

Later . . .

Almost the end of the week . . .

Wow – where did the week go? I know I have been busy, but I am not sure what I have been doing. I guess I could mention I finished the video game I was playing (ya think that is where my time was spent)? We did have Kathy, Paul and Debby over for dinner on Wednesday night. Max put a couple of tri-tips on the barbeque and I baked some potatoes and after dinner we watched a NOVA special on “String Theory”. It was a three part series, which we finished tonight at Kathy and Paul’s after a lasagna dinner. It was quite an interesting series, but a bit over my head with all the quantum mechanics and scientific talk.

I pulled out my Irish scone mix that I brought back from Ireland with me and made a couple batches of scones. Whoa, I must say I did a good job (had to add milk and raisins and bake) and they tasted terrific! Now that I have accomplished the scones I am going to have to give the brown bread mix a try. Making something from scratch or making something from a mix – okay, I will choose the mix (how very simple it turned out to be once I found a measuring cup with milliliters).

I did mess around with my sewing machine and found an interesting embroidery pattern of a “sunburst”. I put one on the back of one of my “practice” shirts and it turned out really nice. I am thinking about putting a pattern of them on the back of a denim jacket that I have. I will practice a bit more with colors and sizes, but that was a fun project.

I finally caught up on my letter writing. I had many thank you letters to send to people in Ireland. I also made some disks with the pictures I took while I was over there. I made some prints for some people and added them to the letters I wrote. I also had a nice long phone conversation with my sister Kay who lives in Nebraska as well as my sister Joy who lives in Ventura. So I guess this week has been somewhat busy.

Max is doing homework, the dogs are sleeping, fireplace is keeping us cozy and I am thinking about starting a new video game. (Keeps me busy and off the streets)! Oh yeah, Max has been riding her bike every afternoon when she comes home from work. I have been riding with her when my knee will allow and today was one of the days that I did not make it (I continued to sew while she rode).

Not sure what the plans for the weekend are, but we would like to go pick up some straw and get the newspaper and straw layed in the garden. I am thinking there will be a bike ride taking place sometime this weekend if I can get some ibupropen in me and feel up to the challenge. I need to do what I can and take ibupropen while I can because the week before my surgery I cannot take any anti-inflamatory medication (tylenol is accepted, but it just does not work the same).

Later . . .

Blue Bike Monday

After paying bills and working out finances on Sunday, I realized we had way too much money in our checking account. After some panic trying to figure out WHAT I forgot to pay, I realized I had forgotten (if you can imagine forgetting) our TAX REFUND! Since the refund came from Max's income, it seemed only fitting that she should be able to buy the bicycle that she has been wanting. So after a trip to the local bike shop, numerous test rides on different bikes amd excellent information from the sale person (lady). Max is the very PROUD owner of blue & silver hybrid Multitrack Trek! It is a fantastic bike and very comfortable to ride. She wants to start riding her bike back and forth to work and this will be a very good one for that purpose. I am envious, but since I cannot really do much riding until I get my knee fixed, I will wait until I CAN actually ride to think about getting a new bike.

Prior to Max getting off work and going bike shopping, I decided I needed to take the cover off my sewing machine and do some sewing. I have had a couple of blankets I have been wanting to make and decided Monday was the day to get started. For not really knowing what I was doing besides sewing two pieces of material together (cotton material top and fleece bottom), I managed to get one finished (with several phones call to my sister Joy for guidance and encouragement). I think it turned out nice and it is very warm (Denise this should look familiar). I am going to try to make the other one, but I think I am going to lay it out on the kitchen floor to cut the pieces. My cutting table is just not big enough and every other floor in the house has carpet. This type of sewing is at least giving me a bit of confidence and I am looking forward to the day when I feel ready to tackle an actual quilt!

Later . . .

Busy Weekend

We finally made it outside to the back yard to do some work. You will just have to use your imagination as to how bad the yard looked prior to the photo (trust me - you could not even see dirt in the garden area and all the dogs toys were hidden under the grass). Max started pulling weeds while I mowed the grass. I had to set the mower's wheels up higher to be able to make it through the grass, but that was probably the best thing to do anyway. After I finished mowing, I helped with the weeding of the garden. Thankfully it was not a difficult job because the ground was so wet. It is always nice when you can pull a weed and have the ENTIRE root come out of the ground. We filled our "green waste trash container"(which is pretty good sized). It is amazing how nice the yard can look with just a little effort. My jasime is starting to bloom and I love the smell, but I also love the way it looks back there in the corner.

We went to a really cute, quaint Italian restraurant (Baci Cafe) in Pleasanton for dinner. First off being the water drinker that I am, their water was GREAT! They had a pitcher with water, ice, slices of orange, apple, lemon, lime, strawberries and mint leaves. The flavor of the fruit and mint was very subtle and I loved it. I had an excellent bowl of butternut squash soup and Max had a great Greek salad. Our meal choice was skillet fried skirt steak with red pepper sauce accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes and baby spinach leaves. The dinner was excellent and we finished the meal with coffee and cream brulee topped with fruit. Not too pricey considering restraurants these days - it was very nice and completely worth it.

After dinner we went to Lowes to pick up vegetable seeds for the garden. I picked up some additional Humming Bird feeders to try and entice my little friends to return to the yard. They seem to continue to come back, but they want to feed off the rainbow colored glass wind chimes hanging at the kitchen window. I bought a feeder with some colorful glass that hangs above two feeder balls (I have not taken it out of the box yet). I am going to put it outside the kitchen window and move the other wind chimes and see if that will bring them back to eat. I also picked up another colorful glass bottle feeder (still in the box) - I know they are out there and I want them eating in MY yard.

Max is working on updating her resume for a job posting at LLNL (requires a BS in Technical Management, which is what she will have the end of June). This would be a manager position away from locating, working with a different group of people in the same building. She really wants to get away from the stress and pressures of locating. She has a midterm to do later this afternoon and we are just having a lazy day around the house with the dogs and a cozy fire. Darci loves to lay in front of the fireplace and get toasty warm. She will be really warm to the touch when she comes for a pet (she likes to lay in the sun during the summer too).

I think I will play my video game while Max does her midterm.

Later . . .

Orthopedic Appointment

Since I mentioned the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, I guess I should share what happened. To make a long story short – according to the MRI, my x-rays, my symptoms and her manipulations, I appear to be a good candidate for arthroscopic knee surgery. I have some degenerate arthritis in the knee and also a torn meniscus (that is cartilage), both of which could be causing me pain; however, the promising aspect is all my pain is on the side of the tear and none is on the side with the arthritis. The surgeon thinks all indications are the pain is coming from the torn meniscus in my knee. She showed us the tear on the MRI and said she could almost guarantee that in the last two years (I had the MRI a couple of years ago) the tear had become bigger – hence more pain. I do remember going bowling some time after the MRI and REALLY messing up my knee and the pain increased from that point on (never tried bowling again). When I try to pinpoint the area of pain, it coincides to the precise area of the meniscus tear. The surgery is done on an outpatient basis and you can stand on your knee the same day (I WILL be having a conversation about local anesthetics and feeling pain before she starts).

The only down side of all the knee information is she wants me to complete everything I need to do connected with my breast cancer before she will schedule surgery. The hard part is my knee fricking HURTS and is limiting my activity and the breast cancer is painless (at this point). Of course she did point out the fact the pain in my knee is annoying, but not life threatening – OKAY, so point well made and well taken. She wrote the order for surgery, but would like to have me referred to an oncologist so she can discuss my treatment plan and the possibility of surgery. So for the knee surgery I am in a holding pattern, but at least I am confident it will be fixed in the near future (walking around Disneyland pain free with my grandkids is be my goal).

Later . . .

Another Day

I thought about taking some pictures to post of a before and after of the back yard and garden – you know, how bad it looked before we got it all cleaned up. Unfortunately, the now is only in the “talking about” stage. I know I am coping out, but at least I am not getting myself committed to completing the entire project. It will get done, but the question is when! Max has homework and a midterm this weekend, but our plans are to work in the yard. We really need to be planting the garden!

As if I don’t have enough on my plate, I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to discuss the future for my knee. One nice thing about the scheduled appointment is I have to go to Pleasanton and I can get my blood work and EKG (for the breast surgery) done at the same time. I made the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon when I got my last cortisone shot (before I went to Ireland and before I had my biopsy). I had made up my mind that I was way too tired of the limitations my knee was placing on my life – Ha! Bring it on . . . this could be my year.

I finally cleaned house today and am getting back into somewhat of a normal schedule; although, I have been spending a substantial amount of time loosing myself in my video games. I have also been working on my computer to get my pictures backed up (thanks, Duane). I have not even loaded all my pictures back on my new computer OR all my drawings and card information. I need to get back to drawing because it is a really good meditative experience for me. My drawing gives me an opportunity to express my emotions – love, gratitude, sadness, anxiety, fear, anger, serenity, joy, peace and hope! And at this particular time in my life I happen to be running many emotions at the same time.

Max and I are actually celebrating 6 years of being together on April 1st (could have been a joke, but NOT). Our Domestic Partnership certificate is October 28th AND yes, we do celebrate twice! We are going someplace nice for dinner, but Max is choosing the restaurant that will be a surprise for me and new for both of us.

Later . . .

Information Update (Cancer & Surgery)

Well I guess it is time for an update regarding this whole surgery thing. As most of you know the biopsy came back as cancer (right now it is classed as Stage I). Max and I went to see the Breast Care Coordinators and the surgeon on Tuesday and received a lot of really good information dealing with what is facing us in the near future.

Since the lump they took out was cancerous, I not only have to have my lymph nodes checked, but I have to have more tissue removed from the location where the cancer was found. When a lump is removed it is a requirement there be 2 to 3 millimeters negative (cancer free) margin around the cancerous tissue and that was not the case with what they removed from me (there was less than a millimeter of negative margin). So now the surgeon needs go back in the same incision and remove more tissue to give them the correct negative margin. Why did they not get it the first time? That was my question as well. They only knew to take what they were after according to the mammogram. The tissue that was removed was the correct tissue, but they did not know it was going to be cancerous; therefore, they did not know what margin they were looking for or needed. Since what they removed was cancerous, they now have to check the lymph nodes to ascertain if any cancer traveled to that area.

So here is the rundown as I know it – I am scheduled for tests (blood and EKG) and have a pre-op appointment on April 13th. My surgery is scheduled for “sometime” on April 24th. This will be a lumpectomy and lymph node removal surgery. To find the correct lymph nodes to be removed (the ones the affected area drains to) I have to be injected with a radioactive dye prior to my surgery so the surgeon will know the correct nodes to remove. I am scheduled to receive my injection April 24th @ 9:30 A.M. and I will not know the exact time of my surgery until the Friday prior to Monday the 24th. The radioactive dye they are inserting takes several hours to move to the node area – so my surgery will be later, but I will not have the exact time until the 21st.

The only good news about all this is this time it will not be done with local anesthetics! I will be put out and will not have to FEEL any of what they are doing (unlike the previous biopsy I went through). The down side is that removing lymph nodes tends to be a painful surgery with a painful recovery. That is what they make pain pills and ice cream for – RIGHT?

Once everything is completed and all the appropriate tests have been run, all the information will be forwarded to an oncologist who will then devise a treatment plan based on the findings. As it stands right now I know I will have to do five weeks of radiotherapy (radiation treatment) and what else (hormone therapy or chemotherapy) will depend on the results obtained from the completed surgery.

So now you all know pretty much what Max and I know, but if you have any questions and don’t want to do the internet research, feel free to ask. I really don’t want to talk this to death, but emails (drae@sbcglobal.net) will be answered.

All you women out there who have NOT had a mammogram in the last year – GO GET ONE! EARLY DETECTION SAVES LIVES!

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.
I love you all!

Later . . .

Misc Shots

Here is a shot of Kevin dressed in his motocross gear right down to the new boots I carried over in my luggage for him. He was very happy with the boots and especially the fact that they fit him!

Jessie and family have a wonderful little grouchy dog named Trudy. I met Trudy when she was just a puppy and loved her to pieces. She barks and carries on with everyone who comes to the house, but after the first day she stopped barking at me and we were fast friends. Jessie was going to do some laundry for me and I laid my white clothes in front of the washing machine. Jessie suggested maybe she should put the clothes in a basket to keep Trudy away from them. Well this picure shows how we found Trudy the next morning when we all got up - snuggled and very cozily asleep on all my clothes. Cute! She really is a very sweet little thing. Here is a picture of her dressed up in her "reflector" jacket to be seen at night.

She had some puppies (she was a naughty girl with the boy next door) and Paddy gave one to Aoife, Adrianne's daughter and Jessie's grandchild (pronounced for you non-Irish folks - E-fa). The puppy has long hair is an adorable little thing. You can see the puppy is living "the dog's life" spread out on the rug in front of the fireplace for an afternoon nap.

I had a really fun time in Ireland, but I am equally pleased to be at home where I belong. It is comforting to have the dogs once again following me from room to room, sleeping in my own bed cuddled up to Max and actually back to "regular" food is good for me. The whole time I was in Ireland I drank instant coffee, which not that bad, but there is nothing like a fresh brewed cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

I guess that will bring to a conclusion the pictures from Ireland. I have a lot of pictures that I have not posted with the majority of them being of people. I will probably put all my shots on ImagineStation and will send out invitations for anyone who wants to take a look.

Later . . .

Ahhhhhhhh Irish Food!

OMG - we have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes, but there is absolutely NOTHING that can compare to a traditional Irish dinner (at least not for this person). This plate displays the gorgeous meal, which Adrianne (thank you, thank, you, thank you) prepared especially for me. Let me tell you I was a VERY happy person that night. And I am proud, or ashamed, to tell you I completely cleaned the whole plate - not one little drop left on that baby! The meal consisted of ham, stuffed boned/rolled chicken, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips and parsnips all lightly glazed with a wonderful cream sauce. THEN after I completed the meal, I followed it with a bowl of homemade deep dish apple pie, smothered with fresh hot custard. I could eat food like that everyday EXCEPT I am sure my life would not last long when I reached 350 pounds! But that was a heavenly treat of all my very favorite things to eat while I am in Ireland. Ham over there is NOT like ham here and neither is the cabbage and custard is just GOOD.

Almost done with pictures . . .

St. Dominic's Abbey

What a beautifully quaint old building. It was completely open (no roof) and was still being used as an active grave site (there were fresh flowers on one of the graves inside. I would never have assumed this was a grave site from just looking at the building from the outside. The stone and rock work was amazing. The part that really attracted Jessie and I to this site was the sign on the front of the building indicating where you could get a key if you wanted to enter. Can you imagine - "a keeper of the key" for entrance into a secured building that you could have access to by just finding the correct house and knocking on the door. You know I had to have a picture of THAT!

I guess it really is the rock/stone work that draws and fascinates me . . .

Rock of Cashel

Continuing our tour of the Cork area lead us to the Rock of Cashel. Large and impressive, but unfortunately very badly run down on the inside. I suppose it is difficult to keep things together and preserved in the kind of weather they deal with on a regular basis - still impressive to say the least. I think the part that probably fascinates me the most is the overwhelming use of rocks and stones in all their buildings and structures. This cross has been made from just a large stone AND preserved through all these years!

I think what I especially like about the country is that even with all the new building and houses there is still the "feel" of old Ireland.

Still more pictures to follow . . .

Kelshea Castle

Jessie and I decided to give ourselves a treat and have lunch at a REAL castle. Kelshea Castle is a place that Maxine and Kathy stayed when they visited Ireland and actually the first place and time they met Jessie. Check out the copper top on that fireplace! I knew Max had been here and it was not far from Jessie's house so I wanted to see the place. We could not see much of the grounds and surrounding builidings because it was raining really hard that day. We had a great lunch of creamed soup (what else) and sandwiches and it was not even absurdly expensive (17 Euro).

Blarney Castle (County Cork)

Another area of Ireland I had not seen was the Cork area. We decided to head down that way for a day drive on Sunday. Most people have heard of the Irish "gift of the gab" and you are suppose to able to get it by kissing the "Blarney Stone" located at the top of Blarney Castle. I made my way to the top of the castle (unfortunately Jessie gave up about 3/4 of the way up) climbing a "gazilliion" tiny little winding stairs. The winding continued to become narrower and narrower and the steps became smaller and smaller.

The inside of the castle was actually quite interesting with all its small little rooms everywhere (check out the picture at the bottom).
I passed on actually kissing the Blarney Stone - I gab enough and the idea of kissing something that many gazillion people had already kissed did not actually appeal to me (not to mention the laying on your back suspended with some strange man holding on to you). The left shot is of the "stone" (that smooth part at the bottom). The right shot is of the the man who holds you and the man who takes your picture. I blew a kiss to the stone and there was no picture to be had because "little miss chicken-little" Jessie was safely waiting down on the FIRST FLOOR of the castle.
It really was quite the climb and even though my knee was screaming "stop, oh please stop", I decided that I needed to make the climb to at least SEE the stone. And the castle itself was quite interesting and the surrounding grounds were really beautiful.
The castle would actually be a really nice spot to bring a picnic and spend the day roaming about the grounds and the castle itself. I think Blarney would be a place I would also visit again and do a bit more exploring of the castle (with a knee that is cooperating with all the stairs and climbing around that could be done).

There are still more pictures to come . . .

Carrick-a-rede Rope Suspension Bridge & the Coastal Towns

After exploring the Giants Causeway we went in search of this rope suspension bridge that Kevin and I had heard about. We both wanted to walk across it, but unfortunately the way to get there was not compatabile with my bum knee. We found information on how to get above the bridge so we could at least see it and get a picture of it. It was pretty overcast and quite some distance and I was not even certain the picture would show up at all. This is something that I will do again in the future because I think it would be a real kick to walk across this bridge (Jessie did not care that we could not get to it, but Kevin and I were a bit disappointed).

The bridge was about a ten mile drive above the Causeway and afforded some really pretty scenery. All of Ireland is dotted with old castles and a variety of picture worthy scenic tours. I personally think the coast of Ireland (all sides that I have seen) is fantasticaly beautiful. What a treat to have an island that has the Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea surrounding it.

After we saw the suspension bridge (located near Ballycastle) we headed back down to the coast to check out the towns of Portrush and Portstewart. They were both quaint little coastal villages much like seaside towns in the USA, but the architecture was MUCH better! It could be Morro Bay, but like I said - better architecture. We had a nice time hanging out around the towns and stopped and had some lunch (creamed soup and chips). I have to mention the creamed soups over there are really delicious - not to mention rich, since they are actually made with real cream!

The bottom picture is of the park that is pretty much set in the middle of the downtown area of Portstewart. After lunch we basically just got back in the car and made the long dirve back to Ballybrittas (where Jessie lives in County Laois). The roads were good and the drive was still very scenic (we took a different route home). So I now feel I have a good sense of what the North is all about - all my previous trips were during a time frame when traveling to the North was not that good of an idea (especially if you were from the Laois area since that is where the prison that houses all the political prisoners is located).

Still more to come . . .

Giants Causeway

Unfortunately by the time we reached the Giants Causeway my knee was really swollen and walking was somewhat difficult (who am I kidding - it was really painful). So we now faced the dilemma of how to get down to the coast - you could walk or take a bus. Jessie does not like to ride buses and there was no way I was going to be able to walk down and back up - so I won and bought us some bus tickets and away we went.

The Causeway is amazing and reminds me of the Devils Postpiles at Mammoth Lakes. Because it was misting and raining it was really difficult to walk on the rocks or do much climbing (no way was I gonna chance taking a fall on my knee). We did manage some nice walking along the path and I ventured out for my picture on that very cool rock.

Kevin managed to travel around the rocks and pick me up a bunch of really nice sea shells that I was able to bring home. The place has a lot of really neat places to explore and a lot of walking could be done, if one was in good shape and did not have bad knees!

Unfortunately my knee was placing limitations on the exploring I wanted to do, but nonetheless, we had a really nice time in a really beautiful place.

I had a horrible time getting these pictures posted - so sorry if the spacing and such is messed up.

More pictures to follow . . .

B & B at Portballintrae

The B & B Jessie found us was really quite nice. It was colorful, warm and cozy. We had two double beds and two twin beds, a living room area with coffee table and chairs, an electric kettle with coffee and tea and a nice bathroom with a shower. The one problem I continued to have was hitting my head on the ceiling. I had the hardest time remembering how the ceiling slanted and I must have banged my head three or four times - finally I remember and stopped banging my head. For the nights stay and breakfast for the three of us it only cost us 60 Euro (nice bargain that was). We went down to the local "Chipper" and picked up sausage, beans, fish and chips and brought them back for a good warm meal. I guess it might be the Irish patotoes, but there is NO comparison between our "fries" and their "chips". Yummm and I ate many orders while there. The Irish breakfast that was served the next morning was really good. There were a couple of things that were a bit strange - soda farel being the strangest, but it was tasty and a great way to start the day. I took a picture as we were leaving the B&B at the miserably cold and rainy day we were facing, but off we headed for the Giants Causeway and the coast.

More pictures to follow . . .

Belfast Ireland

I really am not sure where to start with my Ireland trip. A lot of the trip consisted of just visiting friends. I suppose I should just post all the pictures on ImageStation, but I will try to post a few with some details. This is my first Ireland trip that I made it up North. I must say Belfast is a very pretty city and well maintained. It was an obvious change crossing over from Ireland to Northern Ireland - better roads, cleaner landscapes and more open fields and spaces. If I thought Irish accents were a bit difficult to deal with - Northern Irish talk VERY fast with a a different accent altogether.

As an interesting note, we stopped to get something to eat in a large shopping center's food court. I choose Burger King and when I asked for "milk" to drink, the response was, "We don't do milk". When I asked for salt and pepper, the response was, "We don't do pepper". I was getting some very strange looks and I am sure they thought I was some strange alien (which technically was the truth).

Jessie, Kevin and I spent several hours walking around Belfast. We could have spent all day roaming around (it is a huge and beautiful city), but we were headed further North to the coast to check out the Giants Causeway and the coastal ports and scenery. Even though Ireland is a small island, it still takes time to drive from place to place and we needed to make it to our B&B before it got dark. Directions are not the greatest and signs are not easy to see - especially in the dark.

I will add another post for the pictures of Giants Causeway and the coast.

Later . . .