On our last day we decided to start with a walk to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The weather forecast called for an 80-percent chance of rain, and the morning was determined to make that a 100-percent certainty. It was a cold rain, and at times the drops were about the size of a Guinness pint, but after what we endured at the Giant's Causeway we were able to laugh it off.

Saint Patrick's is a beautiful church which was restored, starting in 1860, entirely by Benjamin Lee Guinness of the Guinness brewery family. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was dean here from 1713 until his death in 1745. There is a display case just past the admission desk which has two of Swift's death masks and a plaster cast of his skull.

Sidebar: phrenology was an accepted science from about 1796 to the mid-1800s. Scholars believed they could learn more about the shape of genius by reading the bumps of Swift's head. His body was exhumed in 1835, and the cast of his skull was made.

In 1742, Handel's Messiah was performed for the first time by the combined choirs from Saint Patrick's and Christ Church.

Jon and I were lucky enough to be there for a short service. Since the church is open to the public an announcement was made calling for visitors to please take a moment to hold still. The priest recited Saint Patrick's Prayer, and then led us all in the Lord's Prayer. Afterward, we walked the grounds.

Then it was time for our coffee.

After coffee we started to discuss what to do about lunch. That conversation fell into a decision to run by Trinity University. Apparently, there's a chance my niece might attend Trinity, so we thought a few pictures for her would be in order. Finally, it was time to have lunch.

We have our favorite restaurants in Dublin, but the one thing Jon really wanted to do was have a box lunch in the park. By this time the sun was out most of the time. And even when it ducked behind clouds we weren't hit with rain. We ordered sandwiches, chips and cookies at O'Briens Sandwich Cafe at the south end of Grafton Street. They don't accept credit cards at that shop so we weren't able to add drinks to the order. While Jon waited for the food, I ran around the corner to Insomnia Coffee Company. I rejoined Jon outside O'Briens. He had the food and I had two delicious sparkling mineral waters.

We all love sparkling mineral water. In 2008 we went to the Cliffs of Moher. While Jon and mom waited at the bus, Sean and I went for refreshments. I treated everyone to sparkling mineral water, and with the exception of mom, Sean and Jon, the water was greatly appreciated.

In the park we found a great bench in the sun. As we ate, a lone pigeon wandered our way. It circled our feet, every now and again cocking its head to the side to see if we wanted to share. I tossed it a bit of bread.

Just like that, we had about a million pigeons and one seagull trying to look inconspicuous before us. "Your mom would just love this," Jon commented.

We walked around town a bit more after lunch. There are enough bookstores in Dublin to make that the subject of an entire tour, and we looked through some of those today.

Our last dinner, a quiet, semi-sweet affair, was at Gallagher's Boxty House. I had my last Gaelic Boxty, and Jon had his last chicken boxty. We took our last walk up O'Connell Street to our hotel. Tomorrow, we'll catch a bus for the airport and start the flight journey home.