An Irish Rehearsal Dinner

    After 14 hours of sleep, PDub and I headed back to the airport to pick up our friends, TrustFall and John Mayor.  We crammed both them and their luggage into our "SUV" and headed for the rehearsal dinner, which happened to be on the other side of Ireland.  Before I proceed, I must share with you some of the town names that seemed to have a running theme of beginning with "Kil" and ending with what I took to be a person's name.  For instance, there was a Killarney and a Kilkenny.  I later learned that "Kil" actually means "church of" which was quite settling since previously I found these town names quite morbid.  Anyway, on our journey cross country, we decided to stop in at a pub for some grub and bev.  Where else would we stop other than Kilcock?  According to the sign, the pub did not open until noon, so we strolled around Kilcock taking in the breathtaking views and sereneness of the small town.  We were finally allowed in at 12:30.

The town of Kilcock....refreshing to be outside the city of Dublin in the heart of Ireland

Thomas O'Keefe Pub Restaurant for lunch.  Oh yeah, meet John Mayor and his wife, TrustFall.

Behind the bar at the pub....well organized if I don't say so myself.

    We ate, hit the road, and finally made it to our destination.  Finding one's destination in Ireland is quite difficult due to their lack of road names.  Yes, they do have road names and addresses similar to the U.S., but they tend to forget to mark them on the roadways.  Therefore, the little blue dot on AppleMaps was our guiding savior.  Every once and awhile you might find a road sign informing you of its name, but these were usually posted on the side of a building at an inconsistent height.  So, when I say we made it to our destination, I truly mean we overcame winding, hilly roads in a manual vehicle while using a blue dot and a map (that often didn't have pub names).  Let's just say our marriage was tried during this time.
    At the rehearsal dinner, we met up with all of our friends and exchanged our Ireland stories.  Luckily, we weren't the only ones who were given a manual instead of an automatic.  The parents of the bride evidently burned out their clutch in the rental parking lot leading them to drive an automatic; I guess we should have performed such a task.  The stories brought a little comfort to our own travels.  We also met some locals who were very happy to meet some Americans.  One man complimented and told two ladies of our party they were very beautiful.  He followed this up by saying he was drunk.  Irish men really know how to hit on the ladies.  After the dinner, we had an Irish dance lesson, so we would be prepared for the wedding reception.  Yet another day in Ireland...

Rehearsal dinner destination.....a Pub, but of course.

TrustFall and John Mayor pumped for dinner!

PDub and I finally relaxed after a rough day in the "SUV"

Some friends....

I found that you must drink at least one Guinness per day.

The dancing barn....not that the barn was dancing but that we were dancing in the barn.

Our fearless teacher with a kick-butt headset.  I was really expecting him to bust out some Oops! I Did It Again, but Irish jigs were my only entertainment.

AJacks and KielMac getting their groove on.

Professionals.