You may notice that all is sweetness and light with us, except for the visa thing. The idea of amassing a bale of documents and flying down to San Francisco to present them in person, at $300 per round trip (each), then doing the same a month later to pick up the visa stamp…well, life is too short. We love going to San Francisco, but document digging we hate. All this to stay ninety days or more in Spain?

Last night Tom sprang a revolutionary idea. “Why not go to Spain for eighty-nine days?” Aha! Genius!! And then we would move on to…. let’s see…a good place to go for the summer… Ireland! It’s been on Tom’s wish list forever, and I love it there.

(Note from Tom: As much as I’d love to take credit for the brilliance of the 89-day idea, it actually came from a comment at the bottom of my Spanish Visa post. Thanks, Rarecoinman!)

(Another note from Tom: Ireland will have to wait, at least until after July. As of October 1, we’ve reserved an apartment in Chania, Greece. See this post.)

We went online to find summer weather averages in Ireland. In Kinsale, an ancient town near the south coast where I’ve visited, we’re looking at 65 to 82 degrees, and two millimeters of rain – average – per day. I hunt for cottages. (I did that for hours. Sometimes I think real estate porn is my worst addiction, until I remember my shoe addiction.) I send e-mails. I get some replies.

So, Kinsale is an option. But I’d love to hear, from those of you who really know Ireland, about any Irish town where it would be fun to spend July through September. Requirements: Medium to large village or small city. Good beer. Old. Possible medieval castle. Shops. Pubs. Salt water nearby. Sandy beach. Colorful yachts bobbing in the harbor. Downtown location obviating car. Wi-fi.

Don’t go all the way. Don’t find a cottage and ruin my fun. But does anybody have an idea about a town? Comment below.