Ireland

We have been back for two weeks. Two weeks. That is how long it has taken me to recuperate from this trip. Don't get me wrong; we had a blast. However, I am tired. I am tired of laundry, tired of trying to get Claire back on schedule, tired of trying to get our house back in order and suitcases put away. Any way, I got most of that stuff done the first week we were back, but I just didn't have the energy to do anything extra.

So today I decided that I am taking the time to sit down and write something about our trip. We had a really great time. I probably over prepared and over packed, but we didn't run out of anything or not have something we needed.

Claire got a lot of green shirts to wear over the next year or two.

For the first week we were in a town called Ballycumber, in county Offaly. It is located about an hour and a half outside of Dublin and is a pretty central location to the rest of southern Ireland. We took several day trips to see:

The Manse we stayed in. It was HUGE!

1. Athlone, a town with Europe's oldest pub:

 

 

 

  2. The Cliffs of Moher:

3. Clonmacnoise:

4. Shannon Bridge:

5. The Glendeer Farms Petting Zoo:

6. Blarney Castle:

Then we traveled back to Dublin and stayed there a couple of nights.

Half of our group flew home from Dublin on Sunday and the rest of us (Jared, Claire, and I included) made our way to Northern Ireland. On the way we saw:

7. Newgrange (a passage tomb thought to have been built sometime between 4000 and 3000 BC; so it is pretty old):

 

8. Some of the northeast coast of Northern Ireland - which I did not get pictures of because I was super car-sick; but I did glance up and out of the window a couple of times and it was really beautiful.

Once we arrived in Ballintoy - which is just outside of Ballycastle - we found our next accomodations. The McShane Glen Leisure Homes.

 

 They were these really cute, little cottages with a view of sheep pastures and the Northern Atlantic ocean. It was picturesque and beautiful. While in Northern Ireland we went to see:

9. The Giant's Causeway:

10. Portrush, Co Antrim; home of the 2012 Irish Open

I don't think I have any pictures of this stop, but we ate lunch and shopped here for a while. I also bought a "Personalized Cd" for Claire that was supposed to have her name in all of the songs, but instead the songs use the name Jade.

They lied...Claire is pronounced Jade in this cd.

1. The Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge:

 

12. Bushmills; home of the oldest whiskey distillery:

We saw some really amazing sights, some really old sights, and some really beautiful and scenic countryside. Plus there were a bunch of sheep and cows. Claire is really good at saying "moo" and "baa" now. I am so glad that we got to go on this adventure with the Allen family - even if it did take me two weeks to recover.