we return

And so another month elapses -- this time, the semester's end and preparations for a big trip are the culprits. We've just returned from 8 days in Ireland, there for our friends' wedding and to get away on our first non-family vacation in quite some time.

Suffice to say that, jetlag notwithstanding, spending a long wedding weekend in a city like Dublin with a bunch of other foodies (who we could also call drinkies, really) is like cramming a month or two's worth of college fun into three days. This in addition to four days of driving-on-the-left exploring in County Clare and around Cork, just ourselves. By the time the wedding was over Sunday night (12 hours of beautiful!), all I wanted was to hop into a fountain to cool my aching feet and drink smoothies for the next four days. And sleep. Which is kind of how I felt in college sometimes. It was very California-y green, too.

But my new standard for a good vacation is really, really feeling that I don't want to come home the night before leaving. Or perhaps just wanting to import fixtures from our hotel into our home? The last stop was wicked awesome, and our bathtub was everything I remember thinking was awesome about Ireland (why bathtubs, I don't know) when I first went when I was 15.

The stories are best remembered by what we ate and what we saw, and will follow.

Everyone's favorite summer activity, TOMATO WATCH, will also resume -- less anticipation this time because I didn't manage to get photos of the baby plants, but some kind of awesome nonetheless. I have witnesses for the amazing growth spurt our balcony plants underwent in the last week. Bonkers, folks - BONKERS.