See!... The Cliffs of Insanity!

The Princess Bride may be the most perfect film of all time.

Yes, I know... Citizen Kane (but has anyone actually ever watched it all the way through?), The Godfather... (I'm a G1 guy, and I feel you G2 people). We could go on forever. So many great ones. But darn it, Princess Bride—give it another watch. It just might be. And may God rest your soul, Rob Reiner. Thank you for the music. May you be with the angels.

And so, it was with sheer delight that we finally got to see the actual Cliffs of Insanity up close. In real life, they are the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland.

Inconceivable!

A Puffin surveying her domain

Sadly, the clifftop path that we had intended to hike (with Lori blindfolded of course because she is very afraid of heights) was closed due to erosion; which wouldn't have deterred me one bit, but nevertheless probably isn't ideal for a path that is just few feet from the edge of a 5-mile long, 750-foot-high cliff, unless you are the Dread Pirate Roberts of course. Instead we did the boat trip out and back along the base of the cliffs. This also allowed us to see the famed puffins along with some of the other 700 species of sea birds that call the cliffs home.

Mainly however, I was daydreaming that I was Vizzini being trailed by Wesley through eel infested waters.

See! (click to play)

After the cliffs, it was time to meet up with our old friend Ross. I met Ross at age 22 when we both attended a training school outside of Chicago. He was based in Dublin and I in Seattle. We stayed in touch and 3-years later when Lori and I embarked on our 17-month honeymoon around the world (which you can read about here), we made our first visit to Ireland.

36-years later, neither Ross nor I had matured much (beyond the color of our hair —darker and lusher now). Emotionally, we remain small boys. Though he is doing the very grown-up thing of abandoning his long career in tech and studying for a Masters in International Human Rights Law with the intent of selflessly making the world a better place (which I would surely do, if I weren't so busy with the blog...).

Then & Now (on a mountain & in a snug)

Ross was our guide to the best pubs and music in Galway, as well as for one of our more unforgettable drives through the countryside.

Loop Head

If you are considering a trip to Ireland, and I hope you are, be sure to include the Loop Head Peninsula in your itinerary. Dingle, the Ring of Kerry, and The Cliffs of Moher are all justifiably famous, and so Loop Head gets a bit overlooked. But trust me, you should not overlook it. Base in Kilkee which is a sweet little seaside town full of Irish holiday makers and then spend your days walking the nearby Kilkee Cliffs and driving the rest of the peninsula, to the Bridges of Ross (no relation), down to the Loop Head Lighthouse and over to the charming little village of Carrigaholt where I insist you eat at the award-winning pub The Long Dock.

In and Around the Lake

Despite Lori's very understandable misgivings about the plan to have me pilot an automobile in a place where everything driving-wise is backward and opposite—I managed to navigate us through a decent chunk of Ireland without colliding with anything larger than a few errant schoolchildren, whom I'm hoping no one will miss.

As with Italy, I was in heaven. This is real driving, demanding your constant attention and dexterity; not the somnolent experience of cruising on America's wide straight thorougfares where you can read the news on your phone while driving (I once had an Uber driver do this while driving me on a Louisiana freeway at 70mph).

Mountains Come Out of the Sky

Ireland's roads in the western counties are spectacular. We wound our way up from County Dingle, through Clare, Galway and Mayo over about a thousand kilometers. Endless miles of twists and turns through lakes, mountains and hedgerows, with only the rarest stop sign or stop light. It was a dream drive. And as with the comfort hikes of the week before, each day's drive concluded in a pub.

And since you brought it up, let's talk about pubs.

So, whether you sing or pull a pint you'll always have a job

'Cause wherever you go around the world you'll find an Irish pub

-The High Kings, The Irish Pub Song

In my corner

I became a bit obsessed with Irish pubs. True to the song, they are all around the world, but the best Irish pubs are in Ireland, strange as that may seem. I won't belabor my love affair here, but I decided that I need to open an "authentic" Irish pub back in Vermont. Because I too want to make the world a better place.

Luckily, Lori is 100% on board with this plan. She said: "if you go through with this, I will hit you on the head with a board."

Still, I think it might be worth it.

The first order of business with any big investment like this is, of course, market research. I know this because I'm a market research professional. So as soon as we got home from Ireland, I boarded a train to New York City to visit the 2,137 Irish pubs there, along with my erstwhile research team.

Thank you kind sir

Here is one member of the team, and I'm not making this up, accepting a swig of vodka from a random stranger we just met in the subway while taking shelter from a downpour. I mean you can't buy that kind of professional dedication.

On E. 36th at Peter Dillon's, my research team and I met Irish Katie, a real Irish person, who understood that if she laughed at our jokes and bought us a round of Jameson that we would tip stupidly. So studpidly that she bought us a second round.

Irish Katie

I will let you know the date for the grand opening of the Mar is Mian Leat Pub!

Hopefully, Katie will submit a resume or else you might get this guy pouring your pint.

Kind of a natural right?

Until then, more research is needed.

As You Wish.