Jen's food, fun, and exploration: Skipping ahead... I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS…FIRST TRIP BACK TO THE USA

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS…FIRST TRIP BACK TO THE USA

Matt and I decided to go back to the US for Christmas this year because for us Christmas is the one time of year where we have to see family and friends and it has been tradition to see both our families over this time. We had a bit of a mess before we left dropping the puppies off to be minded while we were out of the country. Lester decided to christen our most recent car (umm, yeah, been here 6 months and we've owned 4 different cars) with 4 vomits and a poo. This is not the first time I've had to stick my head out the window with him in the car. As much as I love that little guy, car trips are not for him. He gets upset, then things start falling out both ends and then we're all miserable. If he weren't so cute it would have never worked.

That's Lester trying to escape before we even got going. LapDance was much more stoic about the whole thing.

He REALLY wanted out.

SERIOUSLY! Let me out!!!!!

The trip over took us from Cork to Manchester England (need more than 1 hour between flights if you don’t want to feel like a chicken with its head cut off), to Chicago where we had a 6 hour layover and then finally to St. Louis where my mom met us at the airport. From the time we left the house in Ireland and the time we landed in St. Louis, it had been 20 very long hours. We had packed carry-on bags with all of our stuff and then 2 full sized suitcases full of presents and candy for friends and family. One thing we’ve learned is shipping stuff to and from the US and Ireland is EXPENSIVE so we’ll be bringing all gifts with us whenever we come visit.

Immediately I was struck by how different it is in the US. After 6 months, Ireland really has begun to feel like home, in fact it felt like home within a month of living there, but it was not HOME. For me that will always be Missouri, and more specifically with my Mom in St. Louis or Curtis and Sarah’s farm in Columbia.

Curtis and Sarah's house in CoMo. My Noah's Ark of fun when we visit!

Gorgeous sunset along I-70 near Sedalia.

For Matt it is probably Sedalia and Columbia. While in Ireland I constantly find myself comparing everything to the US and now that I’m here I do the same for Ireland. There are some massive differences between the two places, but for me neither one is “better” than the other because each have things than make them “better” in one category than other. Many of the things I have always disliked about Missouri, I find to not be in Ireland, and the things that I dislike in Ireland are not in Missouri, so it’s actually very nice to be able to spend time in both places. I miss rifle hunting and target shooting in Ireland, but I miss fox hunting in Missouri. Yes, we have a club here in MO, but there is 1 in the whole state so it isn’t as accessible as it is in Ireland (or Maryland for that matter). I miss the wide roads of the USA, but I also miss the landscape and constant feeling of being on Toad’s wild ride when we drive in Ireland. I miss the familiarity and cosmopolitan feel of St. Louis, but I miss the community and close ties of everyone in Ireland. Of course I miss family and friends from the US most of all, but luckily they can come to Ireland as well so, they're not strictly a USA only group. As I said before, I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to spend time in both places. The ideal situation I think would be if I could spend 6 moths in each place, but don’t see that happening any time in the future, maybe if we ever win the lottery… guess I better start buying tickets, huh?

So what were the must do things while we were in the US? See family (my mom, some cousins, & Matt’s family & the horses) and friends (Curtis & Sarah, Lydia & Pat, Ginger & Kyle, Maggie & Dan, Tiffany & Elfin, and the Dryers of course!), mail everyone’s Christmas gifts, go to Lion’s Choice for a roast beef sandwich and an orange freeze, eat as much Mexican food as I can, go to Panara Bread at least once, go shopping at a Mall and an Outlet Mall, visit a boot shop/farm store, go to Soulard Spice Shop to refill the necessities, milk a goat, collect some eggs, visit Target, and drive across the state 2-3 times to fulfill all these requirements.

Tortillas and salsa!!! It was so good!!!!

Taco & Chile Rellanos!

Tamales & an enchaladas and Mexican rice, oh my!

And a trip would not be complete without a stop to Chipotle for a burrito bowl

The original idea was to leisurely drive from St. Louis to Sedalia, then back through Columbia on the way back to St. Louis and fly home. That is WAY to tame for us, and the planning Gods who in fact hate me. Instead the trip went like this, Day1-4 St. Louis, Day 4-6 Sedalia, Day 6-7 back in St. Louis, day 8-9 Columbia, Day 10 Kansas City and St. Louis, Day 11- back to Ireland. That means instead of driving 333 miles, we drove 831. To put this into perspective, Ireland is 170 miles wide at its widest point and 301 miles long from its longest points. So I pretty much so could have driven all the way up and down Ireland twice and still had enough mileage left to drive across it another 1.5 times in the 11 days we were in the States!

Ireland overlayed on a US map. It is nearly the same size and Indiana. Missouri is the state with Jefferson city and for some reason they stuck Topeka on there too. Ignore that, it's in Kansas, no Missouri.

I came with a list of things we needed to get while over here because some of the silliest things are the most expensive over in Ireland. Sheets. Plain old cotton sheets are REDICULOUSLY expensive in Ireland! Most of the sheets are 125 thread count and they don’t come in sets like they do in the US. So for me to get a flat sheet, fitted sheet, and 2 pillowcases in 250 thread count it tends to cost ~$103. Walmart was having a special on 600 thread count sheets, $25 for a set in Queen size (that’s King size in Ireland). I know 600 thread count is a bit over kill, and would have preferred 300, but who was I to argue with $25?! SOLD! That means I now have 4 sets of sheets for the price of one set in Ireland! What else can’t I get over there… tart cherries and butterscotch chips. I need the cherries for cherry pie and the butterscotch chips for Oatmeal scotchie cookies. So 3 cans of cherries and 10 bags of chips later (plus 3 bags of Ande’s mint chocolate chips) I’m ready to leave the grocery store.
Hmmm, what else on the list?? Random things like solid deodorant. Not something they carry in Ireland, you get spray or liquid roll on, that’s all I've found! Contact solution. I am allergic to a number of contact solutions so rather than feel like I’m bathing my eyes in acid I’d rather just stick with the kind I know doesn’t make me look like a pot head. For one bottle of this brand in Ireland it is $24. For 2 of those bottles in the US it’s $15. So as you can see, some things you can get in Ireland but they’re more expensive, others you can’t get at all. Spices from Soulard Spice shop definitely fall into the latter category. I highly recommend the Applewood smoke spice, Soulard Grill, Beef rub, Taco seasoning, Burgandy pepper, and their Hickory Salt to name just a few. Why do I need these things so badly??? Because they don’t have good smoky barbecue sauce in Ireland and as a Midwestern-American I NEED barbecue sauce! So far I’ve made nearly 5 gallons of the stuff and have used more than half of that to feed friends and co-workers.

Soulard Spice Market! My mecca!!! This place has every spice you'd ever need, and the ladies are so helpful! If you are in St.Louis or live there, GO HERE! If you don't live near St.Louis, they ship! Look them up, download the "menu" and order some soulard grill and a few other lovely things!

This is just one case, they have 5 of these FULL of spices along with the racks along the walls. God help me I spend so much here, but if the spices were more available in Ireland, I'd not spend as much!

Now, that is not to say I don’t have things from Ireland I’m having trouble living without. Barry’s tea? Yep, I packed my own tea to visit here. There is not much I love more than a nice tea in the morning and afternoon. Especially since it is SOOO much colder here in Missouri than it is in Ireland (think -11°C or less Irish friends!), so some nice hot tea after playing with the horses is a definite requirement!

Oh hello snow! Nice of you to show up just as we're leaving!

I was consistently struck with the enormity of everything in the US and how inexpensive things are over here compared to there. Six months in Ireland and I forgot that some of the towns we visit could fit in the Super Walmart down the road from my mom’s house. Yes, the WHOLE town could fit within the SuperWalmart. We currently live outside of Cork which has a population of 150, 000 people in the city and 330, 000 if you include all the outlying/suburb areas. St. Louis and its surrounding counties has a population of 2.9 million people, and it isn’t even close to the second largest city in our country! Many of the Irish think we are nuts that we’ll drive up to Dublin for the day. It’s a 2.5 hour drive, which can be long and tedious, but most of it is on highway (motorway) and it is a very easy drive, so no big deal, but that is 5 hours of total driving in one day. One day we drove 6 hours to see friends and family. A 2 hour drive from Columbia, MO to Kansas City, and then a 4 hour drive from Kansas City to St. Louis because our plane was leaving the next day. When the option is to drive 6 hours in one day and see family or not see family for a year, you drive the 6 hours, especially if there are cute nephews involved that won’t be toddlers forever.

The McClure family with 2 toddlers that won't be that size forever!

In Ireland you can’t drive more than 20 km without driving through a town unless you’re on the motorway. In Missouri, there are large stretches of land for farming and there will not be a town for miles and miles. Hundreds of acres of farm land stretch out before you. Many of these used to hold corn or soybeans so they are tilled up and brown or only have stubble left in the field. The landscape is very brown with blue or grey skies. Ireland is green year-round; the skies may be grey more of the time, but the ground remains a beautiful green color. This surprised me greatly because I’ve never been to a place where there is green grass year-round. Last year Ireland was a bit browner out there, but that was from mud, not dead/dried grass and plants like it is in Missouri.

Pictures taken along highway 70 on our way to Kansas City. This is pretty typical, it's brown and grey

Large, wide highways with outer roads and tons of space!

More of the brown and grey, but this time with cows in the picture too.

Heading into KC from Columbia. You can see the city buildings in the background!

This is probably why spring is such a big deal in Missouri. The whole landscape transforms from brown and barren to lush and green with big broad leaves on the trees and bright green grasses or crops on the ground…So long as there isn’t a drought. This summer we experienced a drought in Ireland. It went 16 whole days without rain! 16 days without rain in Missouri is normal and a blessing, but it also regularly gets into the upper 90’s (degrees Fahrenheit) and even hundreds during the summer. Ireland had a hot summer and temperatures topped out at 91°F which was very hard for them because they don’t have air conditioning and they are not used to the heat. I was thrilled because it was the closest to tropical island living I think I’ll ever get! Our co-workers kept telling us that it isn’t normally like this and to just wait, it gets worse; rain, cold, yucky weather. They were partially right. Yes, the weather got colder there, but not as cold as at home. Yes, there was rain and frost, but there wasn’t ice and a foot of snow, so I’d say Irish winters are not that bad.

The US is a much more convenient place to live. You can get everything at so many stores (Target, Walmart, Sams Club, Costco) and if you can’t find it there you can get it on Amazon and for $70/year you get free shipping from Amazon prime. Not the case in Ireland. There isn’t the same amount of selection of items, there are not as many ethnic groups in Ireland so you don’t get the variety of foods or spices in normal grocery stores. Pretty much so in the US if you can describe something you can find it somewhere and it will probably be pretty cheap depending on the size of it. In Ireland you don’t get as much variety, and if you find it on Amazon.co.uk you have to pay an arm and a leg just to get it shipped to you. Well, that is unless you use something called Parcel Motel where you can also be an Amazon prime member, have your item shipped to Northern Ireland and then they drive it down to the republic and put it in a little locker for €3ish per item. So what the Irish lack in convenience they tend to make up in craftiness.

One of the hardest parts about going back to Ireland, saying bye to my mom at the airport! But she'll be coming to visit sometime this summer, so it's only bye for now!

Eleven days and 2 suitcases definitely weren’t enough (yeah, ended up with 2 carry ons, 2 large suitcases, and 2 giant duffel bags from Bass Pro), but it was great to see everyone and spend some time. I did some major shopping to fill my cupboards with little bits of home, took a ton of pictures, and made some memories to tide me over until our next visit back home. Below are some images of the things I saw and did while home.

Welcome to St.Louis! This is the Arch and a Budweiser truck, they go together along with Cardinals Baseball and inquiries into where you went to High School (secondary school for ya Irish!).

Soulard Market. Been around a LONG time and hopefully will be around for an even longer time! Here is where you can buy fresh fruit, veggies, meats and those great spices I was talking about!

This is what it looked like down my mom's street after the snow started.

Me and my sweet nephew Ben! Love that little face and great smile!

Even our trucks have nuts over here, LOL!

It wouldn't be a visit to Missouri without a trip to Curtis and Sarah's farm. The animals were not amused that I was distracting them from their lunch.

Playing Rummy Cube with Curtis, Sarah and Matt. There are fewer things I enjoy more than a good board/card game with friends!

The evil turkeys! These guys were chasing me all around the farm while I was trying to get pictures of the Clifford Tree. Later Sarah explained that they were not being mean, they were flirting because they thought I was hot. Hmmmm.


The Clifford Tree. This is where my dear sweet Weimeraner Clifford is buried.

If it was a bit warmer in Ireland you might want to think of installing one of these bars! Maybe if we get another Summer like last years (2012)!

What you get in those little white cups... That's quite a bit of liquor for one chilly drink!

Great night out with friends! Soup, salad, and smiles all around

Gorgeous sunset

Oh Chipotle how I LOVE you!

Hey look! Irish cheese in the US!

Maple bacon, Blueberry pancake, and glazed doughnut flavored schnapps. American where you really can get everything and anything!

Selfie with the pony!

Matt got to drive the tractor while we were there.

I got to target shoot my rifle and help rid the farm of a angry and mean bull.

All the best photos have horse ears in them. These were all taken around the farm.

The pond

Matt and I together on our respective horses. They were SOOO woolly! Their hair was about 2 inches thick, but they need it for as cold as it gets at my in-law's farm.