Trip of a lifetime

Myself and 3 of my best friends just returned from a bachelor party in Ireland.  The trip created one of the best memories of my life.  It had everything I wanted and more; adventure, beer, golfing, and good ole fashion rousing.

St Patty's day in Dublin was quite the treat. We saw the official parade in downtown Dublin where ~100k tourists were present. Then we toured the wonderful Jameson distillery where I was selected to be an official whiskey taster. See if you can tell from my face which shot is scotch and which shot is Jameson!

Here is the whole gang at the Jameson distillery:

After a few days in Dublin and finding our way around the morning after St.Patty's day (they lit the light rail train on fire that night so we had to find alternate means of transportation back downtown the next day). We were off to Northern Ireland.

Here is my first attempt at being on the wrong side of the road :)

We arrived safely in Belfast after a 2hour drive and lots of help from the friendly GPS in our Audi A6!  There to great us when we drove into town was the warm welcome and spirit of the people from Northern Ireland.  Obviously their past is a troubled one and this was a marker from that past.  The town was great but we all could feel that it was just a little different here than it was back in Dublin.

We met some great people in the hotel bars at 2am. Amazing how many interesting folks you meet in another country after a night of partying when everyone just wants to stop in and have a pizza before bedtime.  That long night turned into a rough morning but we were all so excited to play golf that it didn't matter how hungover we were.  We went to Royal County Down in Newcastle and played one of the best rounds of golf I will ever remember.

The signature 9th hole and me making a birdie on the back nine are posted below:

The next day was a trip up to Portrush.  Home of Rory and Grahme.  Royal Portrush (Dunluce links) was equally amazing to County down.  The course was different in the sense that it didn't have as many gorse bushes and it had a lot more views of the waterfront.  Dan and I both loved the short par 4 5th shown first and what would a trip to Portrush be without a visit to Big Nellie on 17 fairway.

We finished the trip off with a walk through the Giant Causeway.  I would say that this is a must see if you ever travel to Ireland.  The scenery is absolutely amazing and it is a good way to burn off some of those calories from the few hundred Guinness that have been consumed.

A little video of the waves crashing in for you to recreate the moment yourself