Reno – Then Las Vegas

The Biggest Little City in the World

Nineteen years ago I first visited Nevada on a work trip. It was mostly at Lake Tahoe, but driving back we stopped at Reno to view the casinos. It was there and throughout the trip that I got a sense of dirtiness as if something wasn’t quite right in the town. Maybe it was the casinos with their blacked out windows keeping patrons from seeing the position of the sun and how long they’ve been there. Maybe it was the patrons’ greed in striking it rich. Maybe it was the fact that the gamblers were rich themselves and decided to throw their money away. More still it could be those who were dirt poor due to their gambling problem.

Regardless of wh

From Dublin to the airport

I sit here at my gate ready to fly home in about 2 hours. I woke up at 5:30AM, got a shower and started packing. Sharon got up at around 6AM. After getting ready we had our breakfast in the shared kitchen area. We took assessment of the food we’d be leaving behind and whether or not we could take it with us.

We checked out at around 7:10AM. We ended up taking the wrong bus going away from the city center. I noticed it and motioned Sharon that we needed to get out at the next stop. With a bit of confusion we did catch a completely different bus number to the city center. After about 20 stops we finally made it and connected to bus 700 going to the airport. It wasn’t an official city bus therefore we had to pay 7 EURO each to ride, which we gladly paid. We were tired of riding all over the place and really just wanted to go to the airport.

We got our boarding passes at the ticket counter and proceeded through security. Ireland is unique in that their two airports which have

Dublin Day 3: From Castle to Jail

We slept in today. The only other thing we wanted to see was Dublin Castle and it didn’t open until 9:45AM. After getting ready and figuring out the toasting mechanism on the toaster, we actually didn’t leave until about 10AM. Sharon had mapped out our route on her phone.

Dublin Castle is not a castle in the traditional sense. Rather it is more of a residence for entertaining dignitaries on state visits etc. We saw beautiful rooms including a state room with the Irish throne (with a sign saying “Don’t sit in this car” for obvious reasons.

There was also a room with portraits of the Irish presidents. Ireland has only been a republic since 1960something. There was little room for more portraits so I guess they’d need to move them to a bigger room(?)

There was a nice blue room, a sitting room, a dining