Ireland

I received a phone call from my ex mother-in-law last year, saying that she wants to take me on a trip, just her and I, anywhere I want to go in the world. Say what?!? I didn't have to think very long to decide that I wanted to go to Ireland. She had already been a few years prior, and we started planning our trip for this summer.

While I have traveled with her with the family many times before, we never been on a solo trip, and she spoiled me beyond belief, from flying first class, shopping, to five star hotels and Michelin restaurants...I was in awe the entire time.

We had a red eye flight and arrived around 8am to our first hotel in Dublin before we started to explore the city.

We visited Trinity college, walked around, took a hop on/hop off bus tour, and enjoyed the beautiful weather that was such a stark contrast from the Phoenix heat.

I was obsessed with all the flowers on every building.

We toured a lot of castles and visited beautiful gardens almost every day!

Every afternoon, we got lattes and scones, they were amazing!

This was one of our hotels, it was so beautiful!

Driving on the other side of the road was definitely scary, and not my favorite. The streets were super narrow as well, but lucky me, Rene' did most of the driving.

Another old castle hotel, this one came with their own hotel dog that just roamed around.

When I picked Ireland, this is exactly what I imagined, just driving around to see beautiful landscapes and a whole lot of relaxing.

Obviously I had to go into every bookstore we found.

All of the towns were so charming and cute.

The Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking!

It was so windy there!

This was an old abbey that was converted into a hotel. I spent hours in this room reading by the fire.

While we drove around a lot (we usually only spent one or two nights in each town) to sightsee, we also spent a lot of time relaxing, taking naps, working out, and I was even able to read six books on this trip. It was incredible.

This was the castle where the movie Braveheart was filmed.

I am so incredibly grateful to have this woman in my life (and in my corner). While my marriage didn't last, I gained family for life and she always tells me that I'm her favorite daughter...haha. We've had such great talks on our trip, and I will forever cherish the special time we had together. I am truly blessed.