Day One

We arrived at Dublin Airport about 8:15am Saturday morning just slightly bleary-eyed, which may have been a blessing as we went immediately to the endless winding queue to be admitted to the country with all the other non-EU residents (John and Lilli will breeze through the other line!). The agent checking us in said, "There can't be too many Kellys in Minnesota."  If he only knew....

We stopped at the official information booth and asked about the best way to reach our hotel (Sandymount Hotel.). There we were advised that with 4 of us, it might be more cost-effective to take a cab.  Our cab driver gave us an annotated short tour of the city center (well-annotated, as you might guess) which might not have been more cost-effective, but was definitely more colorful.). We asked for advice about a local pub, and he suggested Paddy Collins in Ballsbridge.)

We dropped off our luggage, and headed out to Paddy Collins on foot (at about 11:30am) for our first Guinness of the trip....