Ireland planning 🇮🇪

March 24, 2025October 23, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

As I prepare to turn sixty in 77 days, I am working on my Bucket List (things I want to do and places I want to see before I “kick the bucket”). I’ve always been one to keep a “to do” list (I like getting stuff done), but this one is fun. I started it shortly after my dear friend Carla unexpectedly got sick and passed away in 2022 at age 57.

I try to really think about places and experiences that call to me, not just rack up instagrammable, exotic locations. I have reasons for wanting to see these places. For the bigger trips, I try to keep the budget to $10,000 (or less) for the two of us for a full week. I know that’s a lot of money for a lot of folks, but believe me, I know people that spend a whole hell of a lot more than that on their luxury vacations. I would say we are “budget conscious” travelers, but I will splurge on special experiences like dinner in the Eiffel Tower or a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

Here’s where my Bucket List stands now:

Grand Canyon ✅ (June 2023)

Paris ✅ (December 2023)

Finger Lakes & Hot Air Ballooning ✅ (May 2024)

Tanglewood ✅ (August 2024)

Yellowstone National Park ✅ (September 2024)

Northern Lights ✅ This wasn’t a planned trip, I just got lucky! (October 2024)

Key West ✅ (February 2025)

NEXT UP: Ireland ☘️

Is there any other foreign country that looms quite so large in the American psyche? I don’t think so!

Like millions of other Americans, I am a descendant of poor Irish immigrants. My great grandmother Mary Barry was from Dublin.

My mother’s father’s mother, Mary Barry, with six of her children, including my maternal grandfather Henry (far right). She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1880 and died in Queens, NY in 1952. She immigrated to America, through Ellis Island, in 1903. She was 23 years old and arrived with *three* US dollars to her name.

This trip to Ireland will mark my first group tour experience. We’ve never been on a weeklong tour before. I usually book the hotels and do all the planning myself, but since it’s my birthday, I wanted to give myself a break and have someone else do the planning.

I looked at many types of tours (including on bikes and boats), but ultimately decided to try a Rick Steves tour. Good old Rick—PBS super nerd! I love his guidebooks and his travel philosophy in general. Plus, he is a well known weed-smoking liberal, so the chances of having any Trumpers in our group are slim.

So now, I need to start reading more about Ireland. I’ve already watched many of the recent TV shows and movies set there, including the excellent miniseries about The Troubles—Say Nothing.

Our tour is in the Republic of Ireland only, but I’m contemplating taking a trip up to Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) at the end of the trip. We will be staying a few extra days in Dublin, where our son will join us, so I need to make some plans for that time.

Please send your Dublin recommendations and any advice you might have about planning a day trip to Belfast.

Also, books! What should I read to help truly understand the heart of this country and its people, from whom so many of us Americans descend?

I’m open to the classics, as well as modern fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction.

TYIA

☘️ 🇮🇪

Greetings from Ireland

More Ireland

I’m a Dubliner

Last Stop in Ireland

Food and Signs in Ireland

Thursday Doors—Dublin Unitarian Church

Birthdays not a given

March 18, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

I and all of my high school and college classmates are turning 60 this year.

It’s interesting to see how people are marking the occasion. It looks like a lot of trips (and some parties), but mostly trips. People want to travel at 60, while their health is still good and the expenses of child-rearing are mostly behind them.

Today would’ve been my college friend Carla’s 60th birthday, but she didn’t make it. She died at 57 from a brain tumor. She was perfectly healthy and absolutely gorgeous, until that dumb tumor.

I wonder if she would’ve taken a special trip.

Shortly before she got sick, Carla shared this photo of her beautiful grey hair. She never colored it. It was just naturally gorgeous like her.

The Best Key Lime Pie

February 16, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

On my recent trip to Key West, I ate key lime pie five times. One night, I was too full for dessert and on the last night, I succumbed to the siren call of a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. But every other night I felt a certain obligation to try a different version of the island’s signature dessert.

Here’s where I went:

Key Lime Pie Bakery (Greene St)

Kermit’s Key Lime

Red Shoe Island Bistro

Salute! (Same owners and same “mile high” key lime pie that is served at the famous Blue Heaven restaurant)

Limes & Pies (Duval Street)

And the winner is: Red Shoe Island Bistro

The entire meal was so good, it’s no surprise their pie was perfect. It also happened to be my husband’s birthday, so the delicious pie was on the house.

And the loser is: Salute! (Blue Heaven)

The “mile high” key lime pie is basically regular key lime pie with a ton of meringue piled on top. It just doesn’t work well. It looks cool, but the meringue does nothing to enhance the flavor of the pie. Any of the many grab-and-go key lime bakeries (Kermit’s, Limes & Pies, etc) are better than “mile high” in my opinion.

There is one bakery I really wanted to try for pie, but they close early. It’s possible that Old Towne Bakery could’ve been the winner. We met the founder (and recipe developer) at his satellite location and really loved his pastries. He’s a Boston expat and professional baker who relocated to Key West years ago.

Next time…

It’s all vibes

Farewell Key West

February 12, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

I really do not want to leave Key West and go back to the cold and snow tomorrow. We’ve had fantastic Caribbean weather this whole week. It’s been gorgeous – day and night.

Hand-painted sign on a cute little Key West house

On the bright side, I get to see my granddaughter this weekend.

That makes going back easier.

Bucket list booking: Key West

It’s all vibes

Key West vibe re: politics

Hemingway’s polydactyls

February 11, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

The main attraction in Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home (now a museum) is the cats. 59 of them! About half have six or more toes (polydactyls).

The story goes that a Massachusetts boat captain sailed into Key West with a white six-toed cat named Snowball. Hemingway became enamored with the cat, so when she had kittens, Captain Dexter of Massachusetts gave one to Hemingway for his sons. They named the kitten Snow White.

Hemingways is quoted as saying, “One cat just leads to another.”

The museum staff includes many world class cat ladies (and gentlemen) who love taking care of them and even sleep over in the museum with them during hurricanes.

My husband on the veranda of Hemingway’s Key West home

Picking up the cats is not allowed, but you can pet them

I’m not even going to pretend to be a big Hemingway fan. I vaguely remember being forced to read “Old Man and the Sea.” I’m sure he was a great writer and all, but he did have four different wives (he divorced three of them). He also collected antique birthing and midwife chairs, which seems odd (and a bit creepy) for a man.

Birthing chair at the foot of the bed in the Hemingway’s bedroom

Bucket list booking: Key West

It’s all vibes

Key West vibe re: politics

February 9, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

During the American Civil War, Key West remained under Union control despite Florida joining the Confederacy. Its strategic deep-water port and existing naval base made it a crucial Union stronghold for blockading Confederate shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently some Key West residents didn’t like that and left the island permanently. (Good riddance assholes!)

Today, there is a big and thriving LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 community here. Along with all the artists, this makes for little to no open MAGA support. I have not seen one Trump hat or shirt on anyone. It’s great. There are also no Trump lawn signs or boats flying the obnoxious flag.

There is just one seedy store on Duval street, that carries the offensive paraphernalia. And because I am a leftist Boston MASShole, I had to stop and Flip the Bird to this particular retailer.

Other than this one tacky store, the coast is clear for MAGA haters to come to Key West.

Not so much for Kansas City fans though…I’ve only seen Eagles shirts. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Key West is rooting strongly for Philly in the Superbowl.

Go birds 🦅

Bucket list booking: Key West

It’s all vibes

February 7, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments

A few photos from my bucket list trip to Key West.

It started out as many winter trips from Boston to Florida do:

But things quickly got better

We have an amazing balcony here.

I’m settling into the vibe here. I know I was worried about getting bored on such a small island for a whole week, but Key West is actually a very lively town with many good restaurants and lots of live music. There’s definitely a lot of Yacht Rock here (I’ve heard multiple renditions of Steve Miller Band’s The Joker), but there’s also a lot of real talent playing in the bars.

The town feels safe, but colorful. There are some beautiful buildings and lots of cute houses, but none of the highrise condo buildings that are in virtually every other city in Florida.

The roosters are real and they are everywhere. Apparently they were originally brought here by Cubans for cockfighting, but then cockfighting got banned, so the Cubans retaliated by letting the birds go free. They are now a protected species here.

Iguanas (“Key West dinosaurs”) are everywhere too, but they are not protected. They are an invasive species.

Despite my understanding that recreational weed wasn’t going to be available here, a very close hemp substitute is sold everywhere. This enhances the vibes, especially for those of us who aren’t big drinkers.

The food has been really good.

Blackened mahi mahi wrapped in banana leaf with mango salsa

And the legendary sunsets are truly spectacular.

To enhance the vibes, I’m reading Florida, short stories by Lauren Groff. They’re fantastic so far. She’s an amazing writer.

Before I left, I read The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton, historical fiction set in The Florida Keys in 1935, when the “Labor Day Hurricane” demolished Flagler’s wondrous railroad.

See? I got to the end of this post and haven’t mentioned Jimmy Buffett once.

🦜

A time-honored tradition

February 5, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

It’s that time of year when Bostonians who don’t ski set their sights on the Sunshine State.

These are some of the rituals:

Get a pedicure

Pack sandals in your carryon so you can change shoes on the plane

Pray your flight won’t be canceled due to incoming snow

Leave your winter coat in the car and dash into the terminal coatless and freezing

Sit on the plane and nervously watch the wings get de-iced

Pray this bird gets airborne

Lift off – ah

Watch dirty, grey old Boston recede from view and mind

Touchdown in the Land of the Mouse.

😎

Photo digitization project

Here’s to Canada & Mexico

February 2, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

Fun times in Quebec, 2008. Je me souviens.

And gorgeous Tulum, 2011.

The Dumbest Trade War in History

The Cape

January 28, 2025September 18, 2025 ~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been digitizing old photos over the past few weeks. I have a ton of them. There’s no way I could save all of them in the event of a fire. I wouldn’t even want to. There are too many.

Walt Whitman’s lines “I am large, I contain multitudes” keep popping into my head. I’ve gone through so many phases in my nearly 60 years. I contain multitudes. We all do.

One theme I’m finding is that we (like everyone) mostly took photos on vacations and holidays. And there’s one vacation destination in Massachusetts that everyone knows: Cape Cod. It’s known simply as “the Cape.” (There’s another popular cape in Massachusetts, but that one gets referred to by its full name: Cape Ann.)

Cape Cod is where the Kennedys summered and it’s just one of those places that everyone in Massachusetts has memories of. If you didn’t have a friend with a house “down the Cape,” then you probably rented one or stayed in a Cape hotel at least a few times in your life.

My earliest memories of the Cape include barfing after eating scallops at Thompson’s Clam Bar, having my grandmother tell me that they thought I’d drowned when I went missing at the beach one day, and waiting for the sun to come out.

I’ve been lucky to visits “The Islands” many times too. (If you’re from Massachusetts, you know that The Islands are Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.) But the Cape is where my earliest vacation memories happened.

I’m realizing that the places where our memories were made—where our lives have played out—are quite meaningful. They’re the settings for our stories.

50 Happens

Gen X Mom Keeps Calm & Carries On

Travel

Ireland planning 🇮🇪

Birthdays not a given

The Best Key Lime Pie

Farewell Key West

Hemingway’s polydactyls

Key West vibe re: politics

It’s all vibes

A time-honored tradition

Here’s to Canada & Mexico

The Cape