IRELAND - DAY 4

Wow, it's only been 4 days since we've been in Ireland, and we've gone 700 miles around the island so far. Definitely a lot of driving on this trip! But, we've gotten to see so many wonderful things.

Its Sunday now, and so we got up and left Donegal, and drove to the nearest LDS church, which was in LondonDerry (or, as the Irish told us-Derry).

We had a bit of a hard time finding the building. The GPS wasn't taking us there, so Hayden took over as navigator, and after a lovely view of the city....we finally found it!

We enjoyed a wonderful service, and had so much fun talking with the members there.

They gave us a few tips as well, and then sent us on our way.

We made our sandwiches in the car, and set of to explore in the UK!

It was kind of fun entering Northern Ireland...certain things brought back so many memories for me living in the UK in England 10 years ago.

Hayden was a little disappointed that there was no 'border' to pass through, no sign welcoming us to the UK, just a normal road where one minute you were in Ireland, and the next in the UK.

Just a change in road signs, like going from Kilometers to Miles.

We went straight to the Giants Causeway!

It was a beautiful walk down to the Causeway, and we had headsets where we could listen to all the history and information about the place on the way down.

We took a photo of this couple on this little rocky hill that jutted out over the ocean, and then they offered to take a photo of us.

I'm terrified of heights, and this quick photo was enough for me!

In an effort to get down quickly, I suggested we take this route...

It ended up being steeper than I had anticipated, and Hayden snapped this photo while he was teasing me for being afraid of heights, yet coming down the most precarious way.

Finally made it to the Causeway!

The Giant's Causeway has been on Brian's bucket list for some time now. He was very disappointed that we never made it there while living in England. So, he asked us to pause for a moment longer while there and think of him.

We did.

It is so incredible to me how these rocks were formed in such se-metrical shapes!

We enjoyed our time at the Giant's Causeway.

And I enjoyed listening to the legend of how they were formed and destroyed by the Giants of Ireland and Scotland.

After the Causeway, we decided to head over to a rope bridge we had heard about.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge!

With my fear of heights, this was just beyond my ability to agree to do!

But, that way I could be the photographer and document Hayden, right?!

Kind of crazy if you ask me!

This bridge is still used today by the fishermen to get over to the small island, and set sail in their boats.

Hayden waving to me once he made it onto the island!

This is were the fishermen's boats are launched from the island...

It's a beautiful little spot.

Every now and then I feel like I need to document that I too was actually on this vacation!

I enjoyed my view while waiting for Hayden to come back over the bridge.

And our walk back to the car along the coast was just beautiful!

In some spots it looked like we were in a tropical area.

Of course, the photos do not do it justice.

This is a small island way out, that I zoomed in with my camera lens, because we thought we saw some sort of structure on the island, and were curious as to what would be out there.

Never really found out.

It was Armed Forces Day in the UK, and Hayden enjoyed all the flags and such that were flying that day.

Here is where our trip takes a bit of a turn...

Dunluce Castle.

It was evening, and we knew the castle would be closed, but thought we'd just go and see if we could get a photo of it.

We found that while the main ruins of the castle were closed, there were some stairs that led down to the base of the castle that you could walk around, so we decided to check it out.

Beautiful views along the coast. 

Such a great spot for a castle!

Here's were things changed...

Hayden wanted to climb up this hill, and see the views of the ocean on the other side.

I said, "I don't think you should do that. I don't think your allowed up there, and it's steep-not a good idea."

"Mom! It will be fine, I'll be quick.", as he started up the hill.

I snapped this photo of him, the said, "You should get down, I'm going to the car to look at the map."

Well, he came down....running. Then decided to jump off as well.

And hurt his ankle in the process.

AND fell into a patch of Stinging Nettle (a cousin to poison ivy).

He then had to walk up all these stairs to get to the car...

I was in the car plotting out our route to our hotel, we he opens the door, sits down (breathing heavily), and says he hurt his ankle.

"Is is broken?"

"I don't know."

"Is it swollen? Can you move it?"

"It's not swollen, but hurts to move."

"Well, if its not swollen, then it's probably just sprained. You'll be fine. Guess you shouldn't of gone up that hill, huh?"

By the time we make it to Belfast, and get out at our hotel, he says he can't stand on the ankle.

Once in the room, I take a look at it, and realize that it is indeed swollen!

We soak it in a cold bath (due to the lack of ice at the hotel), and give him some ibuprofen.

Luckily the hotel offered pizza delivery, as he was not in a state to go out for dinner. 

So, we hung out in the room, eating pizza and watching TV before falling asleep.

Quite an exciting day.

IRELAND - DAY 3

After our 2nd full Irish breakfast, we headed west to Clifden in search of a castle we had heard about.

We circled around and around, unable to find it.

There was even a sign pointing towards the shore line for the castle, but still we were unable to find it!

I finally stopped at a small boat house and asked the men inside if we were in the right area.

"That's the only question people stumble in here to ask.", he told me.

"Just follow that walk path along the waters edge, then up through the fields, you can't miss it."

So, off we went.

It was a beautiful walk.

And he was right, as soon as we started up the fields, you couldn't miss it.

The thing he failed to mention though was that the field was occupied by cows....and a BULL!

I had gone on ahead of Hayden (as he was busy checking things out on the shore line and taking photos), and noticed the cows, but didn't notice that there was a bull among them. 

Hayden however noticed fairly soon, and was trying to get me to get on the other side of the barbed wire fence! The bull was actually the closest one to me.

After a few heart stopping moments, and some quick climbing, we were out of the field, and saw the nice 'Beware of Bull' sign on the other side. It would of been nice to of had that sign at the other end of the field too!

Now that we were safely on the other side of the fence, we explored the castle.

I could see why it was so hard for us to find in the beginning. There was no road leading to it, only reachably by foot. Such a beautiful view of the water though from where the castle stood.

I always like to imagine what it would of been like when it was built and lived in.

We found a way back avoiding the bull's field, and laughed about our adventure all the way back to the car!

Sheep on the road!

While driving on to our next destination, we got our only spout of rain while in Ireland...

We seriously had the BEST weather while there! It was just beautiful-couldn't of asked for more!

Many of the locals kept telling us "Lucky you, you came for our week of summer!"

By the time we arrived at Kylemore Abbey, the rain had passed.

Kylemore Abbey was a beautiful place with kind of a sad story.

Built by an Englishman who fell in love with the area on his honeymoon. They raised their family of 9 children here until while on holiday to Egypt his wife became ill and died.

He build this mini-cathedral in her memory, and had her brought home and buried her on the grounds.

He eventually couldn't live her anymore without her, and sold the property. It was eventually sold to some nuns, and became an abbey. They still occupy the abbey today.

We decided to take our time and drive up along the west coast.

The sun fully came out, and it was a gorgeous drive!

Got out to enjoy some of the views.

These photos were taken for Morgan.

Every time we saw a horse, we thought of her!

Here's our little rental car.

(And me mapping out our next drive)

That night we stayed in a wonderful country house that had been in their family for generations.

I kick myself for not taking a picture of the place!

We enjoyed our nightly walk around the property.

So very beautiful.

The evenings were so peaceful.

Three days in the country, and we've gone more than half way around the island!

This was a fast and furious trip!

There was just too much too see, in too little time!

IRELAND - DAY 2

We woke up eager to go explore Killarney National Park.

After our full Irish breakfast of course, served to us by our lovely B&B hostess.

(The Irish bread was a favorite of both of ours.)

We came to Torc Waterfall first.

As we were walking up, Hayden noticed that it looked familiar...from a home movie he had seen.

Brian & I had been to the this very spot together, 13 years before.

.

It was a beautiful area!

So green and lush.

Hayden and I carried on up past the waterfall. Something that Brian & I didn't do 13 years before, as I was pregnant with Ronan at the time.

Beautiful view of Middle Lake from up there.

After our hike, we took a Jaunty ride.

(This was not our driver, as I forgot to take a picture!)

We got a beautiful view through the park.

And throughly enjoyed our conversation with our guide!

He took us to Muckross House and gardens, which was ver beautiful.

He told us it is a 'Calendar House', with 365 windows, 52 chimneys, 

We had a fun time exploring the gardens around the house as well.

Hayden found theses stone paths through the trees that he thought his brothers and sisters would love to explore on!

Next stop on our Jaunty ride was Muckross Abbey...

A beautiful ruined abbey from the 1400's on the Muckross grounds.

We had fun exploring it.

We really could of spent much more time there (which was really the story of our whole trip), but had to move on.

In the morning, just after breakfast, we stopped at a grocery store and bought food for lunches for the week. We knew we would be pressed for time this week, and this way we didn't have to waste time (or money) trying to find a place to eat lunch. 

We stopped at Lady's View in Killarney to have our lunch, a beautiful place for it!

Then time to start driving up to Galway.

We stopped at Bunratty Castle on our way north.

It was a wonderfully intact castle from the 1400's that we got to explore through.

Bunratty also has the entire medieval village surrounding it as well. You get to walk around and visit the different merchants and such as they are going about their typical daily routine.  

I kept thinking that the other kids would of LOVED this place, and it is somewhere you could easily spend and entire day! They also serve a medieval dinner in the castle in the evening.

But, we had to be on our way...

Hayden thought this was so cool that you could get kerosene at the pump.

We made it up to our B&B in Oughterard (just Northwest of Galway).

It was an amazing little place right on the water.

So quiet and nice.

Hayden and I walked into the town center after getting settled in to have dinner at the local pub.

Irish Stew tonight-another yummy dinner!

We walked around the countryside near the B&B in the evening. It was nice to take a walk at 10:00pm, and have the sun still in the sky.

Here's our journey thus far.

(We've only be in the country for 35 hours now)