Ireland: Blarney Castle and Kissing the Stone (Day 3)

Thursday morning we got up early and headed across the street from the Woolen Mills (where we were staying) to Blarney Castle! :) The tour of the castle and walk through the gardens/meadows ended up being one of my favorite parts of our entire trip! Once again, we were blessed with gorgeous weather… And the castle itself, was very cool to climb up and explore! Definitely some steep and windy tunnels! Thank goodness none of us are too terrified of heights, because the view from the top was definitely enough to inspire vertigo… :)

Climbing the VERY narrow stairwells! Yikes!

And once at the top… Wouldn’t you know we finally found the famous Blarney Stone! (It definitely took some work and guts to get there!) For all not familiar with the popular legend, it’s said that all who kiss the stone will be blessed with eloquence and persuasion… Otherwise known as the “Gift of Gab”! Lord knows Mom and Carolyn don’t need any help with that, thus they had insisted they’d be skipping giving it a little smooch… But once we got to the top and I’d puckered up for the sake of good ole’ Irish tradition, they found they weren’t persuasive enough to persuade us they shouldn’t give it a try! :) Even Dad took a turn! Haha  

Finally at the top! Now time to kiss the Stone! :) And boy is it tricky to get to!… Haha

 

And then Carolyn declared she would kiss a DIFFERENT Blarney Stone… :)

Almost Family Snapshot… But missing Draytie LOTS!!! :(

LONG way down…

I’m fairly certain Drayton, Carolyn, and I knew this would happen eventually… Mom and Dad in the dungeon… ;)

The only thing scarier than reaching the top of the tower and the stone, was going back down! Haha But once safely at the bottom we spent the next hour or so just wandering the gorgeous grounds… We even found some entertainment along the way… :)

 

With Love from Ireland!… ~Mary Elizabeth <3

Ireland: Kinsale, Cows, and the Southern Coast (Day 2)

It didn’t take long for us to realize that the concept of a “bed and breakfast” in southern Ireland is almost a joke… Just about everybody with a spare bedroom seemed to have signs advertising their “B&B”… We stayed on two adorable little farms during our first and second nights in Ireland which, despite the lack of hot water, internet, or (oddly/annoyingly enough) clocks, did boast some of the sweetest home-grown Irish farmers as hosts. Dad seemed to just love talking shop-talk and farming with the men, and some of those women put even mom to shame with their “gift of gab"… :)

On Wednesday morning, we wandered out to the barnyard after breakfast and got to… *Imagine my mother’s dream morning* Bottle feed baby calves! Haha :) All while we got a hands-on lesson about running a dairy farm! Needless to say we were covered in milk and slober by the end of the morning feeding routine… Which didn’t bode too well because we’d packed light, with only one pair of jeans to last the week (and I know now that the smell of fresh milk sticks to clothing! Haha)… But we had fun and the calves seemed to enjoy themselves… :)

 

We had originally intended to drive the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula, but made a last minute decision to opt for less time in the car and head for the southern, seaside city of Cork… We settled into our hotel at the Blarney Woolen Mills (in Blarney just outside of Cork, and right across the street from Blarney Castle!), and then the girls all headed down to the seaside port-town of Kinsale, just down the coast.

Irish Traffic Jam ;)

Kinsale was quanit and gorgeous. Definitely a fun, but quiet, touristy stop… We hung out at the docks, walked the town, stopped for some great seafood for dinner, and eventually stopped by Charles Fort (the former strategic stronghold of the British in Ireland). 

   

Kinsale, Ireland!

 

Charles Fort!

AND… Then, of course, there was Carolyn… Again…

*Imagine the “LOOK! IM AN AIRPLANE!” screams to accompany*

And apparently I felt the need to also frolic a wee-bit… :)

With Love from Ireland!… ~Mary Elizabeth <3

Ireland: The Cliffs of Moher (Day 1)

Our whirlwind week-long tour of south-western Ireland and Dublin began Monday evening… We found our way from the Dublin Airport towards Galway on the west coast, and settled into a little B&B in the country for our first night. We awoke to the sound of geese and an amazing Irish breakfast (very similar to the classic English breakfast, just replace black pudding with white pudding… Haha). We headed down the coast from Galway early, winding through “The Burrens” towards the Cliffs of Moher.

By 10am that morning I could without a doubt state that Ireland has more rocks than any other place on earth that I’ve ever seen. And trust me, I thought I knew rocks. When we were little, Papa used to gather the family out on the cabin-property in the mountains, and we would… Pick. Up. Rocks. Needless to say, we kids thought this was a fairly particular kind of torture. But we had no idea. Apparently our Irish ancestors had clearly fields of rocks down to a near science. For as far as the eye could see it was rock walls, containing fields, gardens, cattle, and houses… It was fairly impressive. Just about everything that could be made of rock was.

We got to the Cliffs of Moher by mid-morning, and within 10 minutes of our arriving the cloudy skies opened up into beautiful blue and sunshine (the first of our amazing weather luck for the trip!)… The cliffs were breath-taking to say the least. And mom and dad seemed to particularly enjoy the bird-watching. :)

 

The Cliffs of Moher!  

AND… Then there is Carolyn… ;)

 

 

 

  IRELAND! (As I topple over in excitement… Haha) 

We took off from the cliffs and headed further south down the coast. We took the ferry at Killimer, and ended the day in a B&B just outside Tralee. We wondered down to the coast for seafood, pints, and an amazing sunset view of the Dingle Peninsula across the bay. :) I even achieved one of my personal goals for the trip: To stick my foot in this side of the Atlantic! :)

At the Bed and Breakfast (working farm) in Tralee! 

Have I mentioned that my mother is just a little excited by cows… :P

Dingle Peninsula at sunset…

With Love from Ireland… –Mary Elizabeth <3