Photos from Randy & Lisa's Visit and Our Trip Together to Dublin

Thanks to Randy, we now have some photos from the weeklong visit of our friends Randy and Lisa and their wonderful kids. They flew in from Singapore on the Friday before Easter and left this past weekend. While they were here, we all did a quick two-day side trip to Dublin -- for no particular reason, just because we could!

Coming from everyday temps in the 80s and 90s in Singapore, they were surprised, thrilled, and chilled to find snow here on Easter Sunday.The weather didn't stop these intrepid travelers from enjoying the sights.On Easter Monday, we all went to Arundel Castle.D and Randy particularly enjoyed the soup tureens... ...which reminded us of our (not popular with the guys) stop at Delaware's Winterthur Estate on the way home from an Army/Navy football game weekend 10+ years ago. D and Randy still talk about being forced by Lisa and me to walk through Winterthur's soup tureen exhibit when they could have been watching the NFL on television...!

On Tuesday we hung out in Horsham, and Tuesday night we went to see the show "Jersey Boys" in London -- awesome! On Wednesday we visited the chalk cliffs in Beachy Head.Lisa and Kyle braved a peek over the edge of the cliffs...
...and despite appearances to the contrary, Lisa didn't actually fall over the edge! (No one was hurt in the staging of this photo. But do not try this at home!) It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and we found this cool 15th Century pub on a quaint little green near the cliffs where we enjoyed a leisurely outdoor lunch. On Thursday morning, we took a one hour flight to Dublin. We crisscrossed this charming city on foot and in a doubledecker bus.

On Friday, we toured Dublin's Guinness brewery.As those of you who have ever done any tours with us know, D likes to make everyone ask the rest of the group a trivia question at the end of any tour. This causes (forces?) us all to pay attention so that we ask a great question and have a chance to answer questions from the others. We should have known better than to play with Lisa -- who has a nearly photographic memory and can recall facts and figures unlike anyone I've ever met. She knew the answers to even the most obscure questions...and then she regaled us with random Guinness facts for the rest of the trip. (Her kids finally cried "Uncle" after being quizzed repeatedly over dinner about the exact process used to make wooden beer casks!) Here we are at the Guinness bar atop the brewery, enjoying a pint at the end of the tour and trying to stump one another with our tour trivia. Slainte!

Upon our return home, we played many hands of Foot-n-Boot. Kyle and I were declared "Champions of the World" after our decisive wins. (Well, OK, we declared ourselves as "Champions of the World." But it was hard for the others to argue!)It was a wonderful visit with wonderful friends.