So plans changed in the second half of our trip to Dublin, but it turned out to be amazing, way better than if we had stuck with the original plans.
On Tuesday, we ended up going to see the new Lilo & Stitch movie. The animated original is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I had some trepidation about the live action remake. But I thought it was incredible, and Russ loved it too, and it filled my heart so much to see the love of my life have this movie that meant so much to me resonate with him. After the movie, we had a really nice dinner date, with some really good conversation and some good food. After dinner, we decided to go for a long walk, and getting a chance to just walk and talk with someone as amazing as my husband felt like such a privilege.
We were initially going to fly home Friday, then changed it to Wednesday, and then decided to take the opportunity to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary (which is on the 19th, but why not celebrate it now?!) and decided to stay until today. Some part of me knew that getting to be in Dublin with Russ on Wednesday was going to be the right call, and I was absolutely correct.
Russ agreed to come with me to explore a comic shop, so we went to one that I had researched before leaving. Sub-City Comics had such a great energy. The cashier was so friendly and had the coolest Spider-Man earrings. New comic books come out every Wednesday, so we got to be in the shop on New Comic Book Day, and we wandered and I picked out a few to purchase.
We then decided to wander the area and we stumbled into a fantastic brunch place. We decided to split a traditional Irish breakfast and a croque monsieur, and they were both unbelievable. The little brunch place was so cozy, and getting to share such amazing food was awesome.
After that, we wandered the area a bit more, and Russ decided he wanted a Smithwicks. So we looked for pubs that had it on tap, and found one that was pretty quiet, which was good because the area was hectic. Russ got his Smithwicks, and I got a Guinness 0.0, which tastes almost exactly like the real thing and is non-alcoholic. I love that I’m sober now, but I will admit that the idea of coming to Ireland and not having a Guinness made me pretty bummed, so I’m REALLY glad I got to sit with Russ and have a “beer” together.
We then came back to our hotel, and I enjoyed relaxing for a while as Russ napped. We went for a little stroll after Russ woke up (we went on lots of walks while we were here), then we got ready for our dinner reservation.
The restaurant was in a really cool location, and I have to say, Russ looked super handsome. Our waiter was super friendly and asked what brought us to Dublin, and we told him we were celebrating our anniversary. He was really sweet about it, and apparently told the other wait staff, who came by to congratulate us. Russ got a little buzzed, and it was really cute to see him that way. The food was absolutely amazing. My favorite part was my dessert - a lemon tart with raspberry ice cream. Unbelievably delicious. Then our waiter brought out an extra dessert with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate syrup. It was so incredibly sweet of him.
We went for another little walk after dinner, then decided to try to call it an early night. This morning we’re all packed up and ready to go!
Here’s my list of the best parts of our trip:
Making friends with Milo the dog at our hotel
Seeing how obsessed Russ became with Irish sausage
Seeing Lilo & Stitch
Howth - everything about it, but especially walking out to the lighthouse
Going to the comic store and info-dumping about comics to Russ
My dessert last night
Sharing stories of our queer marriages with one of the wait staff last night
Some new inside jokes
All that said, what was really amazing about this trip was just getting to spend so much quality time with Russ. The secondary motivation for this trip - celebrating our anniversaries - became the primary motivation for the trip, and turned out to be an INFINITELY better motivation. Russ and I get so busy with work and our daily routine that, like most long term couples, we sometimes don’t get to focus on each other the way we’d like to. Getting to see Russ’s face light up in Howth, getting to laugh with him so much, and having both fun and meaningful conversations with him throughout this trip was such a blessing.
I’m going to post some of my favorite pictures from this trip below, but because I’m updating from my phone, the formatting will probably be weird, so I’ll clean it up when I can get back to my laptop. Thank you, as always, for reading.
