The Family Dollar stores are all over America, but I didn’t expect to find one in Florence. I thought you might enjoy seeing this, so if you travel to Italy you can save money by buying water and other small items here! They really have quite a bit, it’s amazing how the store looks small on the outside, but upon entering it’s quite big.
If you save on water, etc…. you can enjoy a gelato!
Change is good, I know, but Crate & Barrel, the flag ship store, 3 stories high with all glass windows has been on Michigan Ave for 28 years. I still remember the excitement when the store first opened. All the “oohs and aahs.” Just a few years ago, we learned that Macy’s was buying Marshall Field & Co., now Crate & Barrel is gone. Please, allow me a few sniffles.
This picture will go down in the retail history books. I wanted to get the last photo of Crate & Barrel with their signage. Chuckling though, because somehow, the way I took this picture it looks like the second “leaning tower of Pisa!”
As most of you know, the papers say retail is dying, not 100%, but enough to have different store closings. This is sad, but we have to go with the times. When I look at this photo, I can absolutely see a Starbucks there. It’s a beautiful store with it’s open windows, elegant escalators and the location on Michigan Ave can’t be beat. This is prime real estate. The biggest Starbucks in the world. WOW – in Chicago!
I didn’t realize this, but Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks, said that 30 years ago Chicago was where they opened their “first” Starbucks outside of Seattle. This is sentimental, of course. So, 30 years later, Schultz is going “really big” with Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which will be a four story, 43,000 sq ft interactive coffee shop. They will roast, brew and package coffee there.
Is Amazon next? Chicago is still on Amazon’s top 20 list for a second headquarters. So, maybe, just maybe, we will have TWO heavy hitters from Seattle moving into Chicago!
Stay tuned, book your flights is all I can say! Tourists will be coming!
I’ve always been fascinated by eagles, falcons, and owls. They are powerful and mysterious. So, I was excited when my ex/husband suggested that after our daughter’s graduation (University of Limerick) that we head over to Adare Manor Castle Hotel (Adare, Ireland) for some Falconry and Archery.
Right now, they are doing a lot of refurbishing at Adare Manor, so, I was unable to take a picture to share with you.
Our Falconry Instructor was a nice fellow. He had a variety of birds for us to look at. First, he would tell us about the bird. Then with heavy glove on he assisted us to hold the birds, being very careful of their feet/talons. With the falcons, we could FEEL the strength in their feet through the glove. When they go for their prey, watch out!
Sometimes in photography, we get a FUNNY shot. For example, if you look at this owl, at first glance the owl appears to have headphones on, BUT then if you zoom in, you’ll see that when I took the photo, the eagle was directly behind the owl. Very amusing!
Here are a few more photos I thought you might enjoy. Owls have amazing eyes! I have never seen one up close, have you?
Next, a falconry show must have a falcon, right. Here you go…
Now, this owl had enormous FEET.
Finally, the Eagle…
And for the grand finale… drum roll please… I bet you were wondering how I did in Archery. Well, I got a bulls eye, right in the middle of the apple – 3 times too! I have two brothers, so you KNOW I’ve been bragging about my Archery skills! A friendly bit of competition is good.
Ireland is beautiful and a lot of fun. Similar to Seattle with the weather and they really enjoy their outdoor sports, I like that.
The Falconry fellow said Adare Manor should be open to the public November 2017. THEN we can go back for Trap Shooting! I smiled and thought, “Good marketing! I’m on board for that!”
Today it was late afternoon and I was looking for a place to take a break, rest my feet and get some tea. I looked across the street and felt like I was in Paris when I saw “Le Petit Parisien.” You know a place is good when you walk in and it is vey crowded.
They had different desserts to choose from, I chose a lemon meringue. Here is what arrived, lovely and delicious. I’ll have to ask my Seattle Blogger friend, “Travel-Gourmand,” how this bakery compares to her write up on Seattle Bakeries. If you are headed to Seattle, you’ll want to see her post, “Seattle Bakery Recommendations.”
An Irish fellow Blogger (Hope I can find her name and thank her.) recommended I try a place called, “Queen of Tarts.” I tried to go there, but it was raining and people had taken shelter inside… good plan!
There are a lot of wonderful cafes/bakeries to go to.
Makes me wonder, if there is ONE FOODIE BLOGGER out there who has focused on visiting/writing about different cafes around the world. I’d love to see a Blog focused on that.
Anyone have cafe recommendations for Vienna? It’s on my Bucket List.
By the way, I looked up “cafe” to see if it had to have an accent or not. Sounds like BOTH work. What does the Chicago Manual of Style say?
Now, how do I find that specific cafe Blogger? Does this Blogger exist?
I’m back in Dublin and I am THANKFUL for these messages painted on the cross walks. I almost got hit by a car. I forgot they drive on the LEFT side (wrong side) of the road! Or like a funny Pub goer said, “Depending on how many beers someone has they might drive on any side of the road.”
As you can see, they must have had this issue in the past with foreigners crossing when they shouldn’t, because they CLEARLY write, “Look LEFT” or “Look RIGHT.” This is full proof. Thank goodness!
My daughter has been living in Ireland for 4 years, so she’s an expert at walking fast and just crossing at a moments notice. I find it amusing when she reaches the other side of the street and looks back at me with the expression of, “Mama, WHAT are you doing over there?”
THEN, like a true Italian, I give her a frustrated look while I move my hands pointing to this huge commuter train that could have smooshed me and that I was “trying” to STAY ALIVE! We both chuckle at that!
On a lighter note, here is a map of the main part of Dublin. I think you can probably enlarge it. Then you will see that I was exploring the Trinity College area.
I was looking into taking the “Hop On, Hop Off” tour bus. As I was doing this, I heard Italians speaking. There was a big group of them. Made me think of my Mom. They told me they were from Milan.
Which reminds me. When I was at the airport there was a Spanish speaking woman in front of me. It didn’t look like she had flown before, because she asked me “in Spanish,” if I could help her. I spoke to her in Italian (some words are similar) and moved my hands to show her that she needed to take her shoes off, throw water bottle away, put her purse in her main bag, etc. She was sweet and hugged me. It is a bit stressful, even if we are a seasoned traveler, because we are trying to get through the x-ray machine at the same time our carry on comes out.
It feels good to help someone! That good feeling stays with us for a couple of days!
The week is not over… SHARE YOUR STORY of helping someone!
For those of you who travel, you know it is hectic and after a long flight ALL we want to do is get our luggage and head to the hotel. When I landed in Milan//Linate Airport I went to Baggage Claim. It seemed like we were waiting forever for luggage to come out. That is when I thought, maybe I should find a place to sit. As I looked over to the bench area I saw what appeared to be a “book shelf.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t in a rush for the luggage, because I was in “exploring mode.” I love books and was pleasantly surprised to see that this airport had a “book sharing” post.
What a “brilliant idea!” I had just finished a book on the plane and was wondering who I could give it to. My plan was to leave it at the hotel, but THIS was even better! I started browsing through the books. Unfortunately, the selection was disappointing. The books were ALL in Italian (of course), but they were high level academia type books, which I found interesting. Not one novel to read or any children’s books.
Sadly, this meant two things. First, the airport has not promoted the “Book Fly Zone” area enough. Second, maybe with most of us being able to read ebooks, people are not traveling with hard cover books anymore, so there is nothing to share or donate (hard to believe). What a shame! I would have LOVED a book from a different country/author to read while on my trip.
I did add my one book. I hope someone snatched it up.
Let’s make this work. If you travel through Milan/Linate airport, plan to donate a book. I know I will again!
While exploring Dublin, I came across “Powerscourt Centre,” off of Grafton Street, which was a very charming looking house that had been converted into a shopping center.
You can see an inside view of the building. It appears this must have been a courtyard and they added a window covering above.
Walking up the stairs the first thing I saw was the tall ceiling, staircase, open eating restaurant below AND this beautiful display of hats by Irish Hat Designer, Jennifer Wrynne.
The British and the Irish take their hats seriously. In the U.S. I think we only wear special hats to the Kentucky Derby, maybe I am wrong, but it is not as common for us to wear hats.
As I continued along in this building they had another small cafe on the second floor where we ate. They had wonderful pastries and a view into the courtyard.
Of course, my phone was malfunctioning while I was trying to take more photos with a message, “storage full;” otherwise, I would have had a few more photos for you. I would highly recommend visiting this place. They also had antique shops, a yarn shop, jewelry, flowers, a shop with housewares and wedding dresses too.
Learn more about Powerscourt Centre online.
The other day, as I was exploring Alghero, I was approached by young students. They were wearing white T-Shirts with their school logo on them. They were carrying a clip board. They were a bit shy, whispering back and forth to each other, but there was one in the group saying in Italian, “Come on, we have to do our assignment. She looks like a foreigner.”
As they approached me, they said in their newly learned English, “Do you know about the Santa Barbara church? Can we show you? Are you English?”
I smiled knowing that how I responded would determine the next 40 minutes of my time. Yes, I said, “I speak English. Are you going to give me a tour of this beautiful church?”
Once I said that the excitement started. The group immediately shuffled me over to the front of the church. I could see on their clipboard that they had memorized different scripts, like tour guides would do. Also, they were determining what order they would speak.
A young girl started telling me about the front of the church. A boy was “reminding her” of everything the teacher had told them to do (make eye contact, point to the objects you are discussing, etc.).
As we entered the church, I was truly amazed. I would NEVER have found this by myself. Incredible the bright colors of the murals all over the walls and ceiling in such a small space.
One of the students was talking about each mural, but was not showing me where they were. Keep in mind, they had memorized everything, so their goal was to make sure they finished their script without mistakes. A boy behind the girl, told her to point to what she was talking about. Soon my head was going from side to side, to the ceiling, everywhere to catch up with how fast they were talking (smiling).
The boy took over, he had a strong voice and was wearing cute round glasses. He looked like a mini professor, which was amusing. I followed him to the alter area and he started to speak about this.
The church was crowded with many groups of students talking to tourists. Before the children let me go, they had been instructed to have me write in a book, my name, where I was from and any comments.
They were very sweet, hanging over my shoulder to see WHERE I was from and WHAT I would write. I joked with them, “Should I tell your teacher you were excellent or terrible?”
It took them a minute to decide what “terrible” meant and then, as true animated Italians, they said in unison, “No, non terrible, excellent!” I gave them a thumbs up!
As I left, I said, “Don’t you recommend a restaurant?”
They looked at me confused. That was not part of the teacher’s assignment!
We’ve all read or seen a pirate movie, YES? In the pirate stories they usually hide their loot in a hidden cave. When I heard there was a beautiful cave in Alghero called, “Neptune’s Grotto,” I was curious to see for myself “how it feels to be in a cave” and “what it really looks like.”
Local fisherman discovered the cave in the 18th century. They named the grotto after the Roman God, “Neptune.” There are two ways to get to the grotto. Option 1: Park at the top of the cliff and walk down 654 steps and THEN walk back up 654 steps. Choose Option 1, if you want a good work out. Option 2: (which I felt was the better option) Take a boat ride to the entry of the cave.
The top photo is where the boat let us off in front of the grotto. Getting off the boat was definitely an “adventure!” Imagine, the front of the boat comes in to the grotto, and has a plank that they extend out to the grotto’s entry way. The waves were very rough, so when we started to walk the plank, which was jerking back and forth, we definitely felt like there were pirates behind us and if we didn’t hold on to the plank’s railing and move fast, we would fall into the sea and be eaten by the sharks! ALL of us tourists were a bit shaken by the disembarkment.
The second photo is what we saw once we got off the boat. This is the entry way into the grotto. To the left are stairs that you start to climb, which bring you inside the grotto. Very beautiful you can see.
My camera was not cooperating “inside” the cave, so I found this next photo thanks to www.pixabay.com. When you are inside it looks like this photo, but it is ALL WHITE, not orange. You need to use a flash to take photo and this is how it turns out.
The tourist books say, “This is a place you want to see once in your lifetime.” There are many wonders to see throughout this world. For me, I have always wanted to see “inside a cave,” so I am happy to have checked this off my “bucket list.”
It was wonderful being on the boat for 2 hours round trip. The sea had the most beautiful blue color. Smelling the salty sea air with the wind blowing in our faces was just fabulous.
On to the next adventure!
I told you in my last post I had stopped at another site on my “road trip.” What I found interesting is that only 2 hours from the “Garden of One Thousand Buddhas,” I found another shrine. This was of the Virgin Mary called, “Our Lady of the Rockies.” If it weren’t for www.roadtrippers.com, I would not have known about these sites.
This is a wonderful story of a man who prayed to the Virgin Mary that if his wife survived her cancer, he would build a statue of the Virgin Mary and place it in his backyard. Well, his wife survived! In talking with his friends and people around town, his small statute became a BIG one 90 ft high. With the help of many volunteers and donations, they found a spot for the statue up in the mountain.
While I was there, I wanted to go up to the statue, but they said they did not have tours until the summer months. At night, the statue is lit up, so that you can see and feel her presence watching over Butte, Montana.
I slept very well that night under the protection of “Our Lady of the Rockies!”
Brilliant Viewpoint 