Etie Zanger Visit 2023

TLDR – John and Jim came to Ireland for a visit. – Zetie Invasion !!

Note – it took ten months to finish writing this. I probably missed some stuff, sorry.

Arrival – Friday night

Picked up our fine friends John and Jim from Terminal 2 at the Dublin Airport on Friday. Khaleesi left school early to accompany me to collect them. We managed free parking by accident. The parking ticket was invalid when I went to pay, and there was no one at the pay station. At Exit, I tried the card again, pushed the button to ask for help and the gate lifted before anyone said anything; happy days. Dropped the Zetie team at the Clayton for a nap and snack, back home for us until the kids were all out of school.

The original plan was Dun Laoghaire for the evening. John forgot his jumper in Madrid, it’s a windy night – We changed plans to a Dundrum shopping trip. John and the girls picked out a china tea cup pattern fleece jumper at Penny’s, our first stop. We walked around the mall, had some fries, picked up some wine, and looked at ferns before catching the train back to our house for Apache and chats.

City Center Day

Saturday, we met at Central Park LUAS for a train ride into the city – we got off at Stephens green. The first stop is the mall at the corner for Coffee, Chips + Guac, and pizza cones. Yes Mila had a pizza in a cone. It was brilliant, as were the guac and chips. We ended up with a few orders. At Trinity, we looked into a tour of the bookless Long room. Sadly, it’s already sold out for the day. No worries; a short walk away is Gino’s gelato shop, where you can drown the sad in ice cream, and don’t forget Hanleys for empanadas. Temple bar, Hey Penny Bridge, Spire – we had a good walk around the city center and took in most of the sights. I even found another public toilet on the second floor of Eason next to GPO we never know existed.

Sunday work day

Sunday is a work day, and it’s not easy to cover as I’m the only one on shift. The kids were in homebody mode and not up for adventure, leaving the Zeties on their own to train into the city and explore. They did call in after the adventure for some dinner, wine and a hang out

Monday a Titanic day

The kids are back in school. The boys and I drove up to Belfast and toured the Titanic museum for the day. It was great being trapped in the car for chats and catching up. We used to randomly drive to San Diego once or twice a year to visit John and Jim. We have not seen them since we moved to Ireland six years ago.