Ireland, Dublin

One of the key historical sites in Dublin is Trinity College. Built in the 1500s and home to some impressive alumni: Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker to name a few that I recognized. It is also home to the Book of Kells. It is a beautifully hand illustrated manuscript of the four gospels dating back to AD 800s. It is considered one of Irelands national treasures. It open for viewing, but we really didn't get a good look at the real thing. Some lady was quite intent on hovering over it and reading the whole thing.
I doubt she read ancient Latin. Also of note is the old library. ( no pictures) It looked something out of a Harry Potter movie with over 200,000 books from 200 to 300 years ago.

We took a little side trip to the coastal town of Howth.

With our friends Tom and Cyndie Miller in Howth.

Of course we had to see the first showing of the new Harry Potter movie. Here we are with our friends the Barbaras outside Cineworld Dublin.

Just outside of Dublin is the Malahide Castle. This was the home of the Talbot Family for over 800 years.

This has got to be the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. Jared take note.

Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced Jail) is another of the Irish sites of great historical significance. It is here where the leaders of the 1916 uprising at the Post Office were imprisioned and most of them shot. It was the simpathy for these leaders that turned the hearts and minds of a greater number of Irishmen to support the move for separation and independence from England.
The inscription above the door reads: "Beware of the risen people that have harried and held, ye that have bullied and bribed".

This is the General Post Office. The Revolution that began the road to Ireland's independence in 1916 began here.

Marla and our friend Cyndie Miller on Grafton Street in Dublin.

City view Dublin.

While in Dublin we visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Patrick was an itinerant preacher who came to Ireland in AD 432. He was not the first Christian but is considered most influencial in the spread of Christianity on the Island. Out side the Cathedral is an interesting statue of Benjamin Lee Guinness. ( Of beer brewing fame) Apparently he paid for a new floor in the Catheldral after Oliver Cromwell kept his draft horses in the Cathedral after one of the many squirmishes between the British and the Irish. The Origins of the Cathedral go back to the 12th Century.

This is a view of Christ Church Cathedral. Also dating from the 12th century.

City view of Dublin.

On our way to Dublin we stopped in the coastal town of Dalkey for a "Pub Crawl" There is plenty of drinking going on in a "Pub Crawl" (We became especially fond of Orange and Lemon Club. Non -Alcoholic sodas.) There is also entertainment along the way. In one pub we watched Irish Dancing, in another we learned to play the Tin Whistle and Bodhron (Pronounced Bodron) (Irish drum), and in the final pub we listened to a great traditional music session while every else tasted whiskey.

Coastal view of Dalkey.

Ireland, County Wicklow

This year's trip for Waddell and Reed was to Ireland. We started our adventure in County Wicklow in a little town called Einneskerry. There is a beautiful English Estate from the 1840s there called Powerscourt. We stayed in the Ritz Carlton next to the Estate. Very nice accommodations. We were in a suite with our own balcony. We had a wonderful view of Sugar Loaf peak the dominant part of the surrounding landscape.

Our first activity was a visit and demonstration from a Falconer. Here is Marla holding a baby barn owl.

I'm holding a Red Tailed Hawk. We have a lot of these birds at home, but I've never been up this close. They are beautiful creatures. The Falconer gave us a demonstration of their hunting abilities.

We had a very nice suite for this leg of our stay. This is the marble bath room. Notice the "in mirror" TV set. Just in case we got too far away from the TV

Here is Marla just outside the Gardens at Powerscourt. There is not a lot to see in the old Estate. There was a fire in the 1970s that gutted the inside. The gardens were incredible.

This is the Japanese Tea garden section of the garden. It's amazing what 160 years can do for the tree population. The watch tower below was modeled after a pepper shaker on the dinner table.

On Sunday evening we had a private dinner at the Kilruddery House. It is still a private residence of the Earl and Lady Smyth. Their family has been in the house for a couple of hundred years. We met the Earl and Lady and had a tour and dinner in their home. There were beautiful gardens here as well.

While in Einneskerry we went to Church. There is branch of the LDS church in Bray. It was about 4 miles away. This was very fortunate for us since there are very few branches of the church outside of Dublin. As we have found in other places of the world, the church is the same everywhere and we easily made friends. They were even on the same Sunday School Lesson as we would have been in Nevada.

We now traveled to Dublin. On the way we stopped for some "Pub Crawling" in the town of Dalkey, a lovely town on the coast. One stop we had Irish Dancing, one stop we learned how to play the tin whistle, and the bodhran (pronounced bowron) (an Irish drum). The last stop was a whiskey tasting stop. ( we drank lemonade) They had a great traditional group playing Irish Music.

Hachet Men

The President of Waddell and Reed, Tom Butch, loves to fish. He also really likes to hang out with Waddell and Reed folks. He had the vision of getting a bunch of us together to go fishing in Canada. I was thrilled when he asked me if I'd be interested. I get to travel the world with W&R folks. I thought this would be a good chance for Bo to get to know some of the company's top brass. It was also a small reward for 2010 being our best year ever in the 15 years we have worked together. So we were off to become "Hachet Men"

We flew to Winnepeg and stayed the night in the Fairmont Hotel. The next morning (4:15 AM wake up call) we boarded a chartered flight with Nolinor Air to fly to a dirt landing strip at Hatchet Lake. Hachet Lake is located 600 miles South of the Arctic Circle and 680 miles North of Winnepeg




Dirt landing strip at Hatchet Lake.

We walked down a short road to the lake shore where there were 14 boats waiting for our group of 28. We boated over to an Island where the lodge is located. The lodge is the only dwelling on the Island or the 200 square mile lake. It is all made from locally cut spruce logs. There are cabins for the 28 guests of the lodge, the 14 Cree Indian guides and their families, the pilot and the other staff members of the lodge.


Our cabin had four bedrooms, two baths and a little living room. It was very comfortable for us. It is quite obvious that there are no building codes this far north but it was great. To make things more comfortable, the staff came into our cabin at 5:30 AM and started a fire in the wood stove and left a pot of Hot Chocolate for us. I tried to get Bo to serve me my Coco in bed but he wouldn't do it.
The staff in the lodge always dressed in matching uniforms. Breakfast at 7:00AM, dinner at 7:00 PM and always served with white linen table cloths.

These next few pictures were taken of our first fish we caught. We took pictures because we didn't know any better (we were catching minnows compared with what was to come) and we have both been on fishing outings were we catch one right off the bat and then nothing more.




We were catching Northern Pike and Lake Trout. The lake is strictly catch and release using barb-less hooks.

Now that's a fish. Bo caught this 42 inch Northern Pike. 42 inches is a big fish but up here they don't really get excited until the fish measures more than 50 inches.

They lake is catch and release, but we were able to keep enough fish for lunch. Our guides were Cree Indians. Being Indians they are allowed to keep some fish.

They would start looking for "lunchable" size fish around 11:00 am. They have many prearranged sites for a shore lunch. Some times we would get several of us together and sometimes we would have lunch alone with our guide Winston McCleod. Lunch consisted of french fried potatoes, fried onions, creamed corn, baked beans and fried fish.


Our Guide, Winston, was 3/4 Cree and 1/4 Scott. His Grandfather, Malachi McCleod, canoed into the area in 1938 and set up a trapping line and built a small cabin. He was one of the first settlers in the area. Several of his grandsons are fishing guides at the lake.


We also caught a couple of Walleye. We weren't trying to but they jumped on the line anyway.

As if Hatchet Lake was not remote enough, we had the option to fly out to 20 other lakes in the area. Here we are flying out to Hanna Lake.


Our plane was a 1976 Dehavelin (Canadian made) turbo prop plane. Our pilot was a little French speaking guy from Quebec. Most of the flights are only 15 - 30 minutes away.

38 inch Northern Pike.

Now that's a big trout. It measured 36 inches. One of the guys in our group caught a 42 incher. The fun thing was I caught three just like this in about 10 minutes.

After a while we decided to try our hand at catching Norther Pike with medium weight fly rods. At first we lost them. Pike have a mouth full very sharp teeth. We usually had to use steel leaders. It took a while but we got the hang of getting them into the boat.

Here is a 38 incher Bo caught on the fly. I know that some of the guys brought fly rods but to my knowledge we were the only ones going for Pike with them.


Our Second fly out was to Donahue Lake. It was a nice calm day. I think we caught the most fish here.


Here was our shore lunch crew on the shore of Lon du lac river that feeds into Donahue Lake.

Here we are with our Cree Indian guide, Winston McCleod.


Here is Mr. Butch and Mr. Hofmiester with their guide.

After four days on the Lake our plane comes in to take us back to Winnipeg. We never really kept track of how many fish we caught. But it had to have been 250 to 300 fish. Men are funny creatures. We are so competitive. There were daily scores of who caught the most fish. Some boats were getting over 100 fish in a day. Fish were measured to the fraction of an inch. Since all we could bring back to the lodge was pictures; strategies were laid out on how to take the picture so as to make the fish look the biggest. We tried to keep score, but we were having so much fun we usually lost track by 10:00 in the morning.