Day 2

Today got off to an earlier than expected start when the fire alarm went off in the hotel at 2:15 in the morning.  Naturally being the people that we are, we weren't going to go down in our pajamas so we changed into clothes.  Hey if we are going to burn up, we are going to look nice doing it.  The problem is that the rooms don't start until the 4th floor, so before we decided to take off for the stairs we saw a big congregation of people looking over the railing to see what to do.  Naturally what does Lance do, he takes out his camera and films it and takes pictures of the scene.

Initially they told us it was a false alarm and to go back to bed, which Julie did but Lance stayed up to watch.  Ten minutes later the tune changed when the fire department showed up and we were all told that we had to go outside.  Lance went to get Julie and we made the trek down 4 flights of stairs to get outside.  Once we got outside it was quite the scene and naturally Lance again videotaped it and took a selfie next to the fire trucks.

They finally started letting people back in at 3:45 which was great, but the escalators and elevators were not working which was a problem when we were on the 4th floor and Julie's legs were killing her.  Finally at 4:15 in the morning they came up with a solution and drove Julie around to the employees entrance and took her up in their private elevator.  We finally got to sleep around 5:00 and got up at 6:15 to get ready for our 7:00 departure.  It was a crazy night, but one we will not forget.

When we finally departed the hotel around 7:15 we headed to Kilare to see the Irish National Stud Farm.  We weren't really excited about this, but we both actually really enjoyed it.  It was interesting to listen to the stories about the horses and to walk the grounds.  Shameless plug alert:  Lance took some really great pictures so make sure you check out the Flickr link on the right hand side to see the pictures.

After we finished at the Stud Farm, we loaded the bus again and went to Stokestown.  This was a two hour drive, so we caught up on a little bit of sleep along the way.  Once at Stokestown we got a little bit too eat and Lance had his best meal so far this trip:  Lamb Special.  Lance is not a big lamb fan, but he really, really enjoyed it.  When the meal was finished we took a tour of the Stokestown House which is a restored 1740's mansion.  The history behind it was amazing and the architecture was incredible.  

Finally we made our way to Claremorris and checked into our hotel.  Tonight we had a dinner with the group and it was really good again.  You can see the menu and we both made sure that we used our beverage coupons on alcoholic beverages:  Julie was a white wine and Lance was a Guinness.  Lance made sure he told the waiter that he wanted it cold though because some places in Ireland serve it warm.  That's it for Day 2, we'll blog again tomorrow.