maikeli

I took off from Dublin in a wee rental and promptly ran into the guard shack because I’d never driven on the left side of the road before. No worries though, I didn’t damage anything.
A couple of hours later, and thankfully, no scary wrong-side-of-the-road driving, I arrived in sleepy, little, rain-drenched Kilkenny, Ireland, home of my ancestors.
I immediately called my Ma, who had told me many stories about my great grandmother, Mary Eagan, who was born and raised in Kilkenny, and had emigrated from there in the late 19th century. When I told my Ma where I was, her first question was, “Does it look Poo-ah?” I swear to god, I nearly laughed myself silly!
Kilkenny is a beautiful little town, with great shops (one of which was where I bought a great pair of Dr. Martens), an idyllic landscape, and an amazing old castle – now a public historic site.
I highly recommend Kilkenny, and I fully intend to spend a lot more time there!

I’m from Lynn. I grew up there, went to school, explored the woods, fell in love, worked my butt off, had more than a few fights, helped quite a few people, received help from many more wonderful people, walked many a time along Lynn Shore Drive, and generally, cherished every moment of my life there – even the bad parts.

Lynn is known as a tough place, a crime-ridden cesspool of filth, prostitution, drugs, and insanely nasty drivers. Thus, coming from Lynn has always been a point of pride with me, as well as a source of annoyance when people would utter that familiar little rhyme whenever they found out what city I was from.
Truth be told, Lynn is one of my favorite places in the whole world. It has a great history, has one of the largest municipally own parks in the country (Lynn Woods), boasts a gorgeous beach walk that stretches for miles, and is replete with Victorian palaces, rich in their own, unique stories.
Lynn also has great restaurants such as the China Lion, on Market Street, The Capitol Diner, in Central Square (my favorite restaurant ever!!), and Mino’s Roast Beef, just outside of Wyoma Square.
Finally, Lynn has great people. Sure, they may seem gruff, and their sense of humor skews towards the blue, but you will never find a more open, honest and direct people – people who will tell you exactly what they think, whether you want to know or not.
Hell, if it weren’t for the cost of living, I might still be living there!
-Go Bulldogs!

It takes about 2 hours to get to the ship from Raleigh. I set out at about 9:30 in the morning on a Friday in June, set my bike’s cruise control to 70mph and just sat back to enjoy the ride. When I arrived, the parking lot was only about one quarter full, so there was no line, no waiting.
The ship is very well maintained, and the tour is very well laid out. It is phenomenal to walk through virtually every space within the ship, and see all the different components that made this place a floating city -with fire power!
I stopped in the old mess area to have a Pepsi and ponder what it must have been like to serve aboard this ship in the Pacific during WWII. Later, I got to sit in the captain’s chair up on the bridge, looking out over the massive guns and pretending for a moment that I was the skipper and we were out at sea, stalking the enemy.
The model-building kid in me was having the time of his life!
Afterwards, I crossed the bridge into Wilmington proper, and I found a nice gothically decored restaurant/pub named Fat Tony’s. I had some cheap and delicious pizza before heading for home.
In all, the trip took about six hours, cost me about $50 (including gas, the tour ticket, mementos, snack and lunch) and it was entirely worth it!