Thing You Would Never See In the US

So first of all, if you have seen any of these things in the US please let me know. For varying reasons I just don't think any of these things will happen here anytime soon.

1. Eggs on grocery store shelves instead of in refrigerators. I've known this was a possibility, but I don't think most people I know would be comfortable with that. 

2. Zip lines as playground equipment. We saw this twice in Ireland and I know I have a picture, but I can't find it. I'll have to check with Chris. The boys tried it the second time and LOVED it. Basically there is a raised platform and you hang on to a rope which slides down a rope about ten yards. So not major, but still. Our playgrounds tend to be set up so no one can fall. Which leads to...

3. Basically anything that spins as playground equipment. If you have been to a playground in the US recently you may have noticed that they don't have anything that spins. At some point they were apparently deemed too dangerous. But not for Irish children. They have many varieties of spinning things. 

4. Another playground related one: we saw several play structures that revolved around pouring sand or dirt down ramps and then pulling it back up again by a bucket on a chain. Okay so maybe you would see this in the US but it seems to me that the playgrounds I see around here don't have dirt and that a lot of parents don't want their kids to get dirty.

7. A washer/dryer in one unit. Chris's parents have one machine that both washes and dries clothes. Apparently the dryer is not very efficient so they air dry everything but still I don't know of any such thing here. In general the appliances we saw were smaller. As were the cars. The bathtubs, however, were all bigger.

The washer/dryer and the fridge/freezer on the left, which basically looked like two dorm fridges stacked. 

5. This one's my favorite: When we were at Andechs, there was an activity for kids that was part of the family festival there. Basically, a kid put on a climbing harness that was looped through the ladder of a firetruck. Then he or she stacked milk crates and climbed the milk crates until either the stack fell or until he or she could reach the firetruck ladder. I don't think this is inherently more dangerous than the climbing walls I've seen around considering they are harnessed and on belay but I just can't imagine seeing anything like this here.

6. Also at Andechs, there was a crane set up specifically to lift people in a box car sized cage so they could get a view of the area. No thank you. I'll climb the tower.

I think that about covers it, but there were a few things that we saw that I found really interesting so I figured I'd put them in here even though I imagine you could see them here some day.

1. The outlets all have switches. This is such a useful feature when you are talking about vampire energy (the energy used by something even when it's turned off). 

2. The hotels we stayed in in Ireland had a place by the door for your room key. You put the card there to turn on the lights in the room. Although it seems like it would be really easy to forget your room key there, I think it's a great idea. After you take the card out you have about a minute before all of the lights turn off, thus ensuring they are not paying for all the lights to be on while you are not even in the room.

3. One of the hotel elevators also had a "gauge" on it to show how close you were to the maximum weight capacity. Yes, I took a picture of it.

4. I also really liked the walk signals.