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This past August, my youngest sister and I spent 23 days traveling together in the United Kindom, Ireland, & Holland. Chelsey is 10 years younger than me so it’s been a really long time since we have vacationed together. She was still a kid when I left home for college so we have an interesting dynamic where we are sisters but haven’t actually spent as much time growing up together and living together as most sisters do. I am so glad we did this together because it was fun exploring with her and also creating a deeper friendship with each other which can be hard with such a big age difference.
I’ve been dying to share some of the pictures I got while I was there, but derby and work have had to come first these past few months. So I’m just now getting to share some of what we saw while there. We flew from DIA into O’Hare airport early and actually had a whole day to explore Chicago since our overnight flight didn’t leave until the evening. I decided that it would be fun to show her the Bean and grab some lunch downtown. We were definitely dressed appropriately for sweaty/hot Chicago summer weather and were in for quite a shock when we arrived in Dublin to pretty chilly weather. Now I know that it’s colder in the UK than over here, but I expected it to be a little warmer in August than it was. We spent a night in Dublin before taking the train out to Galway. I think the best thing about Ireland was how friendly the people were!

Chelsey’s first time at “The Bean”

Here we are a little closer to the Bean

I love that thing. Coolest public art!

It was soooo hot and muggy that day, but Chelsey wanted to head over to see the Lake better. We stopped for a few photos along the way.

The BP Pedestriant Bridge is pretty neat

Another view from the bridge

One last shot of Chicago

Chelsey enjoying her first legally purchased alcoholic beverage.

We decided the easiest way to get around when we are tired on the first day would be to do the Hop on Hop off bus tour which took us by this Cathedral. I think this one is St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Being the good Irish gals we are, the Guinness Storehouse was our first tourist destination!

The building had really beautiful light throughout.

And of course we spent some time getting our Guinness on in the Gravity Bar at the top.

Double fisting=Classy

This is what you see from the top of Guinness.

Our sleep schedules were so off that we woke up really early (at like 3:30 am!) the next day of our trip and decided we’d take our time getting ready for the day and fit in a workout at St. Stephen’s Green which was near our hotel. But we discovered that no one is awake in Dublin around 5:30 am and they actually lock their parks at night! (What?! Guess they are a lot nicer than Denver’s parks which have no fences so are impossible to technically close…) so we had to wait until later to get that workout in. We ended up wandering around and seeing what the area looked like when barely a soul was awake. I don’t think I could have got this awesome shot of St. Anne’s at any other hour though. Fun to see the streets so empty.
View of St. Anne’s in the early morning from Grafton Street

I want this door. I love yellow!

Next to St. Anne’s Church

We were dying for something to open so we could have some breakfast. Luckily Fixx Coffeehouse came though

Our early morning treat from Fixx Coffeehouse

Saw this when walking around Dublin. It’s for my friend Becky:)

I have no idea what building this is, but it was directly across the street from the Heuston Station in Dublin and I thought it was pretty.

This was a pretty familiar scene from our travels. Chelsey and I on a train with a coffee (and a big smile:)

I got a little lazy with the photo taking once we reached Galway, but here are a few.
Caught a quick glimpse of the Galway Cathedral before boarding the Corrib Princess

View from the Corrib Princess boat ride up the river Corrib

Another view from the boat ride

Haha…we drank a lot of Guinness on this trip:) The rain forced us inside the boat soon after I took this shot.

View from the Galway City Museum

Probably my favorite photo from this leg of the trip. It sums up Galway pretty nicely if you ask me;)