Paris - October 2015

The girls have the last week of October off from school, so we decided to spend part / all of that week in Paris.  (I had to return on the Wednesday morning to teach, but LBJ and the girls stayed until the weekend.)  I spent a productive day at the OECD and had a meeting on Sunday, so we could legitimately expense the apartment, my flight, and my per diem.

We rented an apartment through AirBnB and it worked great. It may not have been the most exciting location, but it had plenty of shops and restaurants within walking distance, a bus route very close by, and walkable to the metro.  We felt like Parisians for the week (at least those who speak very poor French, except for LBJ who is, as far as I can tell, fluent).

The weather was quite warm, so we spent a lot of time outdoors.  On Saturday, we went to the Magic Museum and then walked around a lot.  Including this spot on the Seine...

My girls along the Seine

This chocolate shop had some great Halloween themed chocolates, so the girls each got one.  FABJ got a bat and ORBJ got a pumpkin.  Hmmm....Parisian chocolate.

How do you say Halloween in French?

Another thing to love about Paris is that kids are free for the art museums.  And the girls loved the ipads which some museums rented. The audioguides were good but not quite as good...

Little miss art critic at the Musee D'Orsay

Needless to say, we ate well.  We particularly like the "old man bistro" - clearly a sign of good value if "old men" eat there.  The markets had great food as well, not to mention the boulangerie.

My meetings went well, and it was a pleasure to see my friend PS who works there.

Ladies enjoying some chocolat chaud

Ah, it was a good trip (except that FABJ was very stressed in the morning for some unknown reason).  Very sad to think that only two weeks later, such bad things happened.

Look - no jackets!

One last thing - the weather was amazingly warm.  Sadly, the best day (60s) was my day of meetings (where I was inside from 10 to 4 except for the walk to / from lunch!).

back to school etc. 2015

After the challenges of last August / September of moving out of rental but our new house not being ready until November, it was nice to have a calm, uneventful start to the school year (for the girls and for me).  Well, I made it a bit more eventful by getting laser eye surgery on the girls' first day of school.  So I'm glasses-free, but I can't see very well at night yet (temporary side effect).  Thus, my tennis game has not been great, as I mostly play at night this time of year (i.e. all year except the summer).

ORBJ started in Ladybirds, the Irish version of Girl Scouts (or the equivalent for kindergarteners).  She was SO ready to join, as illustrated here:

Big sister escorting her little sister to her first day of ladybirds

FABJ still enjoys Brownies.  They are different branches, which LBJ says is a good thing to give them some separation.  It's tough to beat ORBJs location - 5 minute walk if that.

The cat has been pretty entertaining.  Except when she jumps on me in the middle of the night and wakes me up.  For some reason she doesn't do that to LBJ...

cat in a shopping (not in a hat)

Once we started back to school, we starting thinking about FABJ's birthday party.  Even though her birthday is in August, we have the party in September once she's back in school (first day of school is September 1st or a day or two before). As expected, LBJ made another impressive cake - a pirate ship:

Ahoy, mateys!  Thar be birthday cake (pirate booty?)

The other hit of the party was the pinata, although the thing took FOREVER to break (even though some of LBJs friends gave it some impressive, solid THWACKS - a technical term, I know).  (My apologies for no pictures of the pinata, and for not knowing to type the 'n' with the ~ on top.)

We had great weather and the girls had a great time.

Next posting is for October 2015, including our trip to Paris for the Bank Holiday weekend.

summer visitors

We had two sets of visitors in summer 2015.  First was a friend of LBJs from San Francisco. GS is now in London, so it was an easy journey.  We did the usual sights, including Glendalough.  Here are the girls enjoying a walk (earlier, we saw deer on the trail):

Staying dry in Glendalough

Then, a week later, friends of ours from DC visited: DR, JR, and Dom.  They spent a week in Ireland, so we spent a few days in Dublin before taking the train to Galway, where we rented a people mover for a few days (same price as renting it from Dublin).

People mover in the scenic Connemara

We enjoyed exploring the Connemara, based out of Clifden.  The weather was not great, but good enough to enjoy exploring the area.  Alas, LBJ had to work, but the rest of us managed to have a good time without her.  There were beaches, Kylemore Abbey (with a tour and a concert), walks, other stuff I can't remember, and of course good food.  Clearly I need to get more up to date on my postings!

Kylemore Abbey in the mist / rain

Three happy kids at the beach (10 minutes before the rain started)

I almost forgot - we had another set of visitors this summer.  The niece of friends of ours from the U.S.  visited (she was visiting Oxford).  The girls called her "Vorgan" and she brought a couple of friends with her.  The girls loved having so many college students around!

pan am games 2015

After some quality time with my sister and brother in law in Wisconsin, we returned to Canada for a couple of days before heading back to Dublin.  When we landed in Toronto, I think we would have gladly caught a plane to Dublin right then and there.

In immigration, they asked me if I had a letter from LBJ since I had the kids but no wife.  Fortunately,  I did indeed have such a letter.  Unfortunately, I didn't know the name of her solicitor, and LBJ forgot to change it from X before printing it and giving it to the solicitor to sign.  The immigration looked at the letter, then at me, and decided that no one would be dumb enough to make up that story and try to kidnap the kids.  So we were back in Canada.  We took the subway to the hotel, dropped the bags, and got a bite to eat.  The girls watched the Pan Am games on TV (diving), so they were happy.

The next day we went to the Pan Am games after a post-breakfast swim at the hotel pool.  The events nearby were sold out or not of interest to the girls (team speed skating sold out; beach volleyball not interesting to the girls) for that day, but they still had tickets for gymnastics the next day.  It was men's (not ideal for the girls), but it was the medal round for the all-round individual competition (good - medals!).  So we had a plan for the next day.

Honey I shrunk the kids!

We enjoyed the fan zone at the Pan Am games, but the kids' zone was only ok - the one at the Montreal jazz festival was definitely better.  But they did have free frozen yogurt on a stick, so we had plenty of that.  It was warm by Toronto standards, around 80.  But the girls said they were "roasting" so we headed back into town and went to the movies - Minions.  Apparently they have already forgotten how to handle heat despite being born in Kentucky.

We topped off the day with a soak in the rooftop hot-tub.  It was pretty nice - good view of the city.

We had a nice time at the gymnastics, even if it wasn't beach volleyball.  The girls got a little bored at times, but there were 4 events going on at any one time (rings, floor exercises, etc.), so boredom was minimized.  The girls were excited that an American won (for my sake, apparently, since they tell me that they are Irish!)

Enthralled by the action at the Pan Am Games

Beginning of the medal ceremony

We popped back to the hotel for a quick dinner nearby (burritos) and to pick our bags.

The trip back was a little tough because we spent nearly 2 hours - 730pm to 930pm in line to go through security.   The poor girls were wrecked (nowhere for them to sit).  Once through, they promptly fell asleep in the waiting area, and I had to wake them to board the plane (at which point poor ORBJ had an accident, so we ran to the bathroom for a change of clothes before being the last people to board the plane).  The girls slept almost the entire flight and we were thrilled to see LBJ when she got home from work.

A tribute to Mama

Another tribute to Mama

Wisconsin 2015

WI was good, although we missed having LBJ and my parents there (my dad was sick - temporarily - and could not make the long drive).

The "barn" (as my sister calls it) is great, although it would have been a bit cosy if all of us were there  (which is understandable - they did not build it to host all of us at the same time).

We spent a lot of  time in the water, as the weather was very good - only 1 day of rain, and even then it cleared up in the afternoon.  The local library is great, so we had plenty of reading material.  And we had plenty of toys / activities for the girls (and a good book to read for me - Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid).

I got to go on several kayak trips, including a guided trip (with UM) on Lake Superior to visit the ice caves - part of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  ORBJ enjoyed telling UM where to go in the tandem kayak.  The look on her face was awesome - such a big grin!

FABJ did a great job of stand up paddleboarding (SUP), better than either PL or me.

The only down side is that I cannot find any of my pictures of the trip.  They do not seem to be on my phone, my computer, my Dropbox or my Google drive folder!  So much for technology!

Instead, here are some other random pictures of the family:

Christmas 2013

ORBJ the cowgirl

FABJ getting a workout (unlike the guy in the background)

Montreal 2015

The first stop on our summer vacation was Montreal.  The trip did not get off to a great start.  LBJ went to the doctor the day of our departure to learn that she had walking pneumonia.  So she spent most of the flight sleeping (thank goodness it was nonstop), and then the rest of the day and the following two in bed.

On the other hand, the girls declared that Air Transat was their favorite airline because it had such good food (chicken and rice for lunch).  So at least they were happy.

I spent the first three mornings of our trip at a conference while the kids played in the apartment (we did a house exchange).  Then I got home for lunch and afternoon sightseeing with the kids.  For the first couple of days, we spent a fair bit of time at the Montreal Jazz Festival.  It was quite an enjoyable event, although the girls were bored by the music after about 10 minutes.  But they had a good kids zone, and - more importantly - mango on a stick:

Arm painting and mango on a stick

By Sunday (we arrived on Thursday), LBJ could not take it anymore - she had to get out of the apartment.  So we went for dim sum - we had forgotten how much we liked it.  The girls were a bit less impressed.  Then we went to the Maguerite Bourgeoys Museum, about Montreal's first teacher.  It had a nice view from the top (although it was raining that afternoon) and a great display of her life using dollhouse size toys and a sequence of 25+ cubicles.  Ugh - it's hard to explain but great for kids.

We ate a lot of ice cream in Montreal.  I don't even think we visited the same shop twice.  It was all good.  We also had great bagels (they add honey to the water when cooking them) and pan aux cholocat.

Despite LBJ's illness and an ill-fated museum attempt on a rainy day (tried to go to a museum where half of Montreal was either in the museum or in the line to get into the museum), we had a nice trip.  We would definitely go back.  I even got to attend a couple of sessions at the jazz festival - I don't think I had been to a concert since FABJ was born in 2007.

A little rain but still an enjoyable evening of jazz

The highlights for me were the jazz festival, dim sum, and a bike ride along the Lachine canal.  For the girls, I suspect it was the ice cream, a trip to a local swimming pool, and the Montreal Biodome.

For LBJ, it was getting out of bed.  Ok, probably a bit more than that.

We foolishly decided to drive from Montreal to Toronto, as we flew out of Toronto because it was way cheaper to fly from there rather than Montreal.  It took ages (in part because we had no map and I left Tom Tom, our GPS with North American and European maps, at home).  But we enjoyed detours to the thousand islands on Lake Ontario and Kingston (and we took a while to find an acceptable restaurant for dinner).

We dropped LBJ at Toronto airport and then went to our hotel for the night, as our flight to Minneapolis was not until the next day.  Alas, she had a regatta the following weekend to attend and not enough vacation days to go to Wisconsin with us.

Montreal sculptures and an unhappy ORBJ

On Wisconsin...

Nevian - June 2015

As mentioned in my last posting, we were in need of a vacation after surviving first communion.  The kids had the whole week off from school for the June bank holiday (first Monday in June), so LBJ's parents invited us to visit them in France.  Airfare was quite expensive unless we left a couple of days earlier, so we were terrible parents and left 2 days early.  LBJ had a big meeting so she joined us two days later.

The weather was glorious - sunny and warm every day.  Highs approaching 90 by the time we left, but no humidity.  It was a great trip, starting with an airport pick-up by LBJ's dad.  We spent a lot of time in the pool and a lot of time outdoors.

ORBJ: "I'm a flotation monster"

Breakfast outside every day!

Other highlights were a family bike ride (although it was getting too warm for LBJ by the end of the trip, even though I had ORBJ on kids seat and she had FABJ on a tag-along) and a trip to the local Michelin-starred restaurant (with a taxi home so no arguments over who was driving - LBJ's dad dropped us at the restaurant).

It was French Mother's Day while we were there:

Happy Mother's Day!

We even took a hike...

A walk along the local hiking trail

And, of course, a trip to the beach.

Can you tell that this was on the first day of the trip?

The girls went back to the beach later in the trip with LBJ while I rented a bike and cycled along local bike paths - flat road and on a bike trail rather than the road.

Ath the end of the trip, we felt refreshed and ready for the end of the school year (for the kids, that is) before our next holiday at the end of June (due to a conference in Montreal, otherwise we would have spread out our travel more).

FABJ's First Communion

One of the few downsides to living in Ireland (in my opinion) is the big deal that is made concerning first communion.  FABJ's was in May, and I think LBJ was a bit tense about it.  An understandable concern is that for most kids, it is a big gathering of family, and my family doesn't like to cross the Atlantic.  However, I thank my sister (PL) for being the family representative.

The weather on Friday, the day before, was miserable.  It poured ("bucketed", as they like to say here).  FABJ got out of school early, so we went to our favorite neighborhood restaurant for lunch.  Kindly, LBJ's parents, brother, and the girls' cousin APB joined us.

Fortunately, the weather on Saturday was great, as the photos show.  Everything went very smoothly, aside from an unfortunate child in the choir who became ill during the ceremony (none of the first communion-ers noticed).

The paparazzi descend on the girls

FABJ was thrilled with her outfit, and ORBJ got a new outfit for the special day.  Come to think of it, all the women involved got new outfits, and the guys did not.  That's ok - I try to avoid wearing my suit as often as possible.

The happy family after the event

The school hosted a nice reception.  All the food for the girls was white to minimize the likelihood of ruining any dresses with stains.  Then, we returned to our house for an enjoyable lunch (made by LBJ) with family and friends.  I was worn out afterwards, and LBJ did more work than I did, with the clothes purchasing and the cooking (even if I did most of the dishes - i.e. "washing up").

Ladies' day (looking into the sun, again)

Perhaps the best quote of the day was from FABJ's fairy godmother, who, upon meeting my sister, responded: "It's nice to finally meet her REAL mother."  Notice any similarities in the photo above?

After this event, we (at least LBJ and myself) were ready for a vacation.  Good thing we had one planned...

However, I'll leave you with a picture of the back of Dublin Castle, as my sister and I enjoyed a visit to the Chester Beatty Library during her visit:

View from the lawn outside the Chester Beatty Library

ADDENDUM: A couple of weeks later, I attended ORBJ's ballet "concert" (she did ballet as her after-school activity).  Alas, the pictures did not turn out very well at all, but it was a rather entertaining event.

Sweden and Finland 2015

In April, I had work trips to Stockholm and to Finland.  In Stockholm, I gave a talk at the Stockholm School of Economics.  The night before I visited a friend of LBJ's, who happened to be visiting us in Dublin the weekend before.  So it was nice to have a casual dinner with people I knew to start the trip.  The talk and visit went well, although the talk was not well attended (a combination of people traveling and out sick, I was told).  Still, I got a few good comments.

Because my flight the next day was not until 5pm, I took the opportunity to do some sightseeing (as I'd never been to Stockholm before).  My main activity was the Vasa Museum, devoted to a boat that sank on its first voyage in 1628.  It is amazing how well preserved it is:

The ship in its museum

I also enjoyed a brief walk around the neighborhood near the museum.  If I had more time (and been visiting in summer), I would have taken a boat cruise - would have been a great way to see a bit more of the city.  Instead, I walked and took a couple of streetcars.  Maybe I'll visit the Nobel Prize Museum even though the prize in economics is not technically a Nobel.

Just another view of the water in Stockholm

The only downside of the trip was that my flight home was cancelled.  So I was put up in a mediocre hotel in the middle of nowhere, when all I wanted was to get home and see my family.  Instead, I took an 8am flight the next day.  I have had missed connections or cancellations 2 of the 3 times I have flown SAS. Grrr (but it's the only non-stop option to Stockholm).

Just a few days later, I was back to Northern Europe, with a trip to Finland to visit and work with my co-authors there.  I spent a day in Helsinki before taking the train north to Jyvaskyla (ugh, can't figure out how to add symbols in Safari - sorry).  I also gave a talk there (same paper as in Stockholm).

Water view in Jvaskyla, near the University

It was a good and productive visit, and it was nice to see a bit of the Finnish countryside.  I joked that Jyvaskyla is the Cedar Rapids of Finland (my family lives in CR), but, to be honest, Jyvaskyla is prettier with the lakes.  Again, it would have been nice to visit in the summer and get out on the water.

Yet another picture of the water (Jyvaskyla)

After this trip, I was happy to be back in Dublin with no travel plans until the end of May.

Oh, one last thing.  I discovered in Stockholm these robots that will mow your lawn for you.  I thought that was pretty cool, although a bit expensive.  It appears that they sell them in Ireland, too.  Once I win the lottery ....

Robot lawn mowers in Stockholm airport

Easter 2015

Sorry for the lag in posts.  As the kids always have 2 weeks off school over Easter, we decided that late March / early April would be a better time to visit the U.S. than, say, New Year's.

The trip began, like usual, with a visit to Chicago.  We knew this trip was going to be different when I was offered an upgrade on the rental car to a BMW for $10 a day.  I decided that this was the only time I'd ever rent a BMW-er, so I went for it.  I have to say, it was a nice car, although I'm more used to Japanese cars.  So no worries about a mid-life crisis involving a BMW.  A kayak, maybe.

Alas, our hosts were away themselves on Spring Break (Florida), but they kindly let us spend the night at their house.  So instead, we visited another graduate school roommate, JPD and his wife TD. They have two girls a bit older than ours.  The visit was great - I hadn't seen them in ages; LBJ had never met TD.  The girls had a great time, and we were well fed and beveraged.  We had to drag the girls away at 9pm (which would be 2am Irish time)!  They fell asleep in about 2 minutes on the drive to our host's house.  And did great with jet lag the rest of the trip.

As usual, we enjoyed our Chicago visit.  Aside from catching up with TK, JK, and the kids, we managed to see a play (for kids), visit the Lincoln Park zoo, and visit the Grove / Kennicott house (historic house and grounds from from 1800s).  Hmmm...can't seem to find my pictures from this portion of the trip.

Then off to see the family in Iowa.  A good time was had by all.  The girls enjoyed the Iowa Children's Museum (again), but the highlights were likely the Easter Egg hunt and the horse riding lesson.

Safety first!

Careful, ORBJ!

Ok, these pictures were taken as the girls waited for their horses to be brought out from the stables.  The facility is very nice, as is the woman who runs it.  It has an indoor riding area (which we used since it wasn't all that warm in April).  It warmed up a bit later in the week, so the Easter Egg Hunt was outside.

ORBJ enjoying her horse ride

Then, we spent a couple of days in Northern Iowa, where we stayed at a cabin inspired by Little House on the Prairie.  It was great.  It was cosy, nice and warm, and breakfasts were great.  Plus it had lots of period pieces (despite being recently built), and the girls had a wonderful time.

We visited the nearby Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum (a hotel, not the best place she lived) as well as the Effigy Mounds National Monument.  It was a busy but enjoyable day.

You can take the girl out of Iowa, but ...

Freshly laid eggs for the next day's breakfast

LIW (or is that FABJ?) outside our cabin

Then we drove to Madison, WI to have lunch with a college friend (who also lived in KY when we did) before returning to Chicago.  Alas, I came down with a cold that day that eventually developed into a chest infection.  Nonetheless, it was a great trip.

Mayo 2015

Sorry for the delay in posting lately.  Still recovering from first communion, I guess (keep watching for that post).

Now, though, a trip back to the past.  Imagine a time not too long ago.  Say ... February.  Mid-term break for the girls' school.

A couple of my colleagues highly recommended the Mulranny Park Hotel in County Mayo (in ... Mulranny, of all places, on the way to Achill Island from Westport).  They were offering mid-term break deals which included breakfast, two dinners, and kids' club activities (for the mornings).  We were sold!

I have to say, this deal was the best of both worlds.  We had the comfort of a two-bedroom apartment, but we had breakfast and dinner provided at a restaurant in the main hotel, a short stroll away (3 minutes at ORBJ's pace).  Plus, the food was good - I quite enjoyed my dinners, as did LBJ.

The hotel has another advantage of being right on the Great Western Greenway.  This is the longest bike trail in the country, and it runs through beautiful, and sometime spectacular, scenery.  We arrived late Thursday night in a downpour, making us question the brilliance of the holiday (at least they have an indoor pool!).  But Friday morning wasn't too bad - reasonably warm and no rain.  So, after putting the kids in the kids' club, I was off on the Greenway (LBJ and I brought our bikes).  It started to rain within 5 minutes of departure, but I was prepared - pulled over and put on the rain gear (rain jacket, rain pants, "gaiters", and a hat).  But 5 minutes later it stopped raining.  So I enjoyed a beautiful ride.  I stopped a bit short of Achill Island to conserve energy for the rest of the day.

My turnaround point for my solo bike ride

I even had time to stop in the visitors' center and find out the location of a lunch spot just off the bike trail (in the opposite direction of my morning ride).

Then, we collected the kids from camp and walked one minute from the apartment to the bike rental spot, where we got a tag-along for FABJ and a trailer for ORBJ.  Off we went, with the wind at our back A couple of minutes before reaching our lunch spot, it started to rain again.  But the girls were tough (well, just FABJ - ORBJ was nicely covered in the trailer).  So we stopped for a well deserved pub lunch.  We lingered a bit at lunch to let the rain clear, but it did nicely.

Alas, for the return journey, we went directly into a nontrivial breeze.  If you don't already know, a trailer has quite a bit of drag, so I got a workout.   ORBJ fell asleep.  FABJ did great - pedaling away and helping her mama.  I was happy but exhausted by the time we returned to the hotel.  I didn't even mind waiting 10 minutes for the bike rental person to return.

ORBJ, her chariot, and her chauffeur

Two happy pedalers (is that a word?)

The trip was already a success, and it was only the first day.  FABJ and I needed a nap after that outing!

The next day (Saturday) was the one day a year that the Greenway was closed (so residents on the trail get a day off).  So LBJ and I went for a short hike near the hotel, where I managed to step in a deep puddle (in my low-top hiking shoes) and soak my foot.  And we got hailed on.  But it was a nice hike nonetheless.

The hotel (see, it snows occasionally in Ireland)

We then drove to Achill Island, which is gorgeous.  I had been there years ago (2002?  2003?) on my own, and it was better second time around with family.  We had lunch at a nice cafe, and then we hit the beach.  It's not an Irish vacation without a trip to the beach, preferably with hats and gloves!  But this time I had a secret weapon ....

Irish holiday: beach, hat, gloves, sand castles

Hot chocolate!  Yes!!!  The girls got me a thermos for Christmas, and, believe me, it was put to good use on this afternoon.  Even after sitting in the thermos for 2 hours, it was the perfect drinking temperature.

View from the beach at Achill

We left before it started raining again, and enjoyed an afternoon swim in the indoor pool, followed by dinner.

Sunday wasn't so great.  It rained steadily most of the day.  The girls got a bit of kids' camp while we finished packing and loaded the car.  Poor ORBJ threw up in the car on the way back (into a plastic bag, fortunately), but she felt better afterwards - and after a bit of lunch.  LBJ found a nice lunch spot in Longford, which was a nice break from all the rain!

It was a lovely weekend.  We would certainly enjoy returning again.  FABJ is ready to bike on her own, and ORBJ should be ready for the tag-along in a few months.

Bonn - January 2015

What better time to go to Germany than mid-January, right?  I was offered the chance to give a talk at a very good research institute, so I was happy to visit in January.

I quite liked Bonn - reminded me of Lexington (KY, where I lived before moving to Ireland), but bigger.  It doesn't have much industry (recall that it was the capital of West Germany, as well as unified Germany, until 1999).  Although I had several meetings and received useful feedback on my talk, I was also able to do a bit of sightseeing (as my flight back to Dublin wasn't until nearly 9pm).

So, what did I see?  Well, the research institute is near the University, so I walked by the University:

University of Bonn

Then I walked along the Rhine.  Germany has lots of off road biking / walking paths.  I could see an enjoyable few days spent cycling along the Rhine.  Wine country is nearby.  Just not sure who will watch the kids!


The old town is compact and pretty, with lots of shops and places to walk.  I particularly liked the old town walls:

and the old city hall

as well as an old fort perched above the Rhine

I spent the bulk of my time at a museum of Germany history since the end of World War II.  Although only 20 percent of signs had English (in addition to German), it was fascinating.  I learned a lot, although I skipped a lot of the stuff on politics.  Probably the coolest bit was seeing a piece of the Berlin wall (although I did have to put up with a few noisy and obnoxious Russians).

Surprisingly, there was no bit on how the current insistence on austerity is hurting all of Europe (and even the global economy), although Germany is not alone in this stance.  Paul Krugman has some very good articles on this topic.

But I digress.  I also enjoyed the food in Germany.  Lots of sausages and potatoes (and a bit of beer to wash it down).

All in all, a good trip.  I have enjoyed both my trips to Germany so far, and I look forward to the next trip.