Day 2 in Ireland, aka our first full day awake in a country that is aggressively green and unsettlingly friendly

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I’ve been here before.

So has Braley. But Ireland is like that one friend you’re always happy to see again—cheerful, charming, and somehow never annoying.

We attempted to go to my beloved coffee art shop not once, but twice,

only to be rejected due to a tragic lack of seating. After the second failure, I very calmly (read: aggressively) announced that come hell or high water—regardless of whether another human could drag themselves out of bed—I would be going to the bloody coffee shop. This was not about caffeine. This was about art. Culture. Principle. Coffee art!

Grafton Street was still in full holiday chaos.

Loud. Crowded. Overstimulating. I bought nothing. Which is shocking. Braley and Maicy, however, kept the economy alive.

Outfit theme of the day for me and my beauties: skirts and tights.

Footwear choice: boots that I immediately knew were a mistake the moment they touched my feet. I said so out loud. Eddie said, “Babe, you just need to break them in.” False. They broke me. By dinner, my feet were screaming for legal representation. At the French restaurant I booked (because of course I did), I had to discreetly remove a boot and massage my foot like a wounded athlete. Fashion is a liar.

Remember the UGGs

I laughed about getting for Christmas? I have never loved footwear more. I nearly cried putting them on back at the house. Wearing them again tomorrow. And probably forever.

The girls shopped.

Like, Olympic-level shopping. Bags everywhere. Grammy bought a scarf and gifts for home. I drank champagne, admired the scenery, and demolished a scone from Bewley’s—one of the oldest cafés in Dublin—because history tastes better with butter.

Oh, and since the legal drinking age here is eighteen,

Braley ordered her first cocktail. A true milestone. She sipped. Swapped with Maicy. Sipped again. Then handed it to her dad like, I’ve proven my point.

Ireland: 10/10.

My feet: filing a formal complaint. Tomorrow is a car ride through the countryside.

Wish us luck.