Ireland

Kilcooley Abbey

Staircase in Kilcooley Abbey.  Amazing light.

View from the outside.

Cool green door.  Not sure where it leads to!

Inside the Rock of Cashel was this stone.  I thought it was really funky.

The doors inside the Rock of Cashel.

View of Rock of Cashel from outside.

Rock of Cashel, or St. Patrick's Rock.

Daffodils blooming in the town.

The doors were painted very bright colors-I loved, loved, loved this.

Us outside of Cahir castle. 

Cahir castle.

Kenmare.  My favorite town we visited in Ireland. 

Oh, for the love!  Cutest lambs everywhere!

First view of Carantouhill Mountain.

I have no idea what this bright yellow plant is-I just loved it.  It grew along the roads.

I would love to live in this cottage, yes, yes I would.

Evan climbing over a branch so he could fly fish. 

Fly fishing in Ireland!

This is me getting annoyed fly fishing.  I was right under some trees that made me have to cast sideways.  It was a pain, but I guess I practiced my side cast? Didn't get a bite, but it was still really cool to fish there.

Beautiful little church on our way to Gap of Dunloe.  This was out in the middle of nowhere.  I am just amazed at how many churches are in Ireland. 

Molls Gap.

Gap of Dunloe.   Look how tiny the road is on the left.  It's basically wide enough for 1 1/2 cars.  It was very interesting to pass cars on these roads!

Molls Gap.  We drove through this to fly fish.  A beautiful valley with some great streams.

Hike up to Carantouhill.

Evan with Carantouhill in the background. At least I will never loose him with his bright green coat!

So windy hiking up to Carantouhill! 

Pretty much every picture of us in Ireland is like this: hats, coats, gloves, scarves; all you see are our tiny faces! 

A breathtaking view on the hike up Carantouhill. 

A tombstone in Rock of Cashel.

Oh, Ireland!  

We had the most fantastic visit. 

 

We made it to Ireland at 5am Ireland time.  We rented out little black car which was half the size of our little accord and were off.  It was pretty funny trying to adjust driving on the left side of the road. 

We got out of Dublin and headed west. To the mountains, rivers and countryside.

We stopped at a little gas station that had the best chocolate croissants, and sold tiny jugs of milk. 

We toured Kilcooley Abbey which was in the middle of a huge field!  It was abandoned and so beautiful.  

We found an old abandoned mansion that resembled a home you might on Pride and Prejudice.  We tried to get in the house-no way.  Bummer.

We stopped at the Rock of Cashel-St. Patrick's Rock.  It was huge. 

Next was Cahir castle.  To me, it was cooler than Rock of Cashel.  I loved the inner courtyard, and all of the crazy small towers on it.  

We had the best hot chocolate and baguette of our visit to Ireland near the Cahir castle.  Oh, it was the best I've tasted.  We were so cold, and it hit the spot! 

Kenmare was where we stayed our first night.  If you go to Ireland-stay here!  It is the funkiest town.  Lots of beautiful shops, good food, and all cities in Ireland have good music at their pubs.  At No. 35 we had monk fish which is the ugliest fish ever seen, but tasted great.  And for dessert a malteaser suprise!  Malteasers are what our whoppers are here in America-but a million times better.  So tasty.  We consumed about 20 small bags of those in Ireland while we were there. 

That night we went to bed at 8:30 which is crazy early, but we hadn't slept all night.  And we didn't get up til 10:30 the next day!  We haven't slept that long in I don't know how long.  Way before kids!  It was fantastic.  

In Ireland the traditional breakfast is very big, and very salty! It has scrambled eggs, sausage, black pudding (a blood pudding), white pudding, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, hash brown, and beans.  Along with this you would have brown bread (I loved this!) which is similar to wheat bread with a really great flavor, and fruit.  We tried the Irish breakfast, which was really great, and it filled us up all morning.  For lunch we would stop and grab a baguette and some fruit, some malteasers, and be good to go til dinner.  

We drove from Kenmare down into a beautiful valley.  It had some amazing streams in them and we stopped at fished.  We drove through Molls Gap, Gap of Dunloe and could see Carantouhill (pronounced car-un-to-ee).  I really didn't expect Ireland to have large moutains, but it has some really big ones.  Carantouhill is notorious for having storms on top, and we didn't make it to the top, but enjoyed hiking up part of it.  It was gorgeous.  

We then drove out near the west coast.  We found a beach and did donuts in our little black car.  It was amazing to see the ocean! 

Ireland has five peninsulas on the west side.  We stayed on the northern most peninsula called Dingle.  Kind of a funny name.  It is surrounded by the ocean and has a cool little downtown.  We heard some of the best music while we were in Ireland in Dingle.  Pubs there are very family friendly.  Everyone eats, then turns their chairs and listens to music.  We heard traditional Irish music which was filled with guitar, flute, fiddle and accordion. Our favorite pubs were: John Benny Moriarty's and the Courthouse pub.  John Benny's wife is somewhat famous and her music is on youtube.  She has a gorgeous voice.  

The next day we toured famine cottages, drove the coast, bought a cool piece of pottery, saw an old oratory and went to our favorite place called Sauce creek.  We hiked to the top of this hill/small mountain and came to a horse shoe point.  The cliffs went straight down to the ocean.  We were the only people there besides a sheep herder!  It was my favorite place we saw in all of Ireland.  

On our last day we took the ferry across the bay, collected shells on the beach, and saw the Cliffs of Moher.  They are very popular, but are amazing.  The jut out of the ocean and it is incredible. We found a cool little town to have dinner called Loughrea (Loch rae) and had this goat cheese appetizer that we had to order two of because it was so delicious.  

Then we drove to Dublin and flew out the next morning.  

I dropped our camera on the second day!  Arghh!  So these pictures are all from the first two days.  I do have some from Evan's phone that I will share soon. 

This trip marked our 10th anniversary.  Loved taking an adventure with Evan.  He is my favorite.  

My darling sister, Carly and her husband Parker watched all of our peeps!  They were amazing and when I got home Izzy didn't want anything to do with me!  Sad, but made me happy knowing that Carly loves her like I do. 

Oh, Ireland-can't wait to see you again!