Final Week in Ireland

This week Brett had a training class in Dublin every day. So I dropped Brett off at the train station and he would ride into Dublin. Then after the class he still had work to do for Intel…so it made for a very busy week.
This week we also celebrated my birthday. Brett surprised me with some flowers and a night out in Dublin. He found a babysitter ( a girl from our church) so it was a nice date night.
The kids and I hung out with our friend Joanna and her kids. One day we went to an indoor play place called the Playzone, they had slides and balls to jump in and the girls had a blast! Another day we went to a really neat playground and had lunch.
On Friday we headed out for one of our see half the country weekends. The great part is that it stays light here until after 10pm so we can see a lot. We headed out to Northern Ireland, the only way you knew you were in another country was that the signs changed from kilometers per hour to miles per hour. The currency also changed to pounds. We drove up past the Carlingford Lough “lock” it was beautiful with green mountains surrounding a lake. We stayed the night in Belfast the capital of Northern Ireland.
On Saturday we had a huge breakfast at the hotel (quite expensive but delicious) everything seems about double the price here since 1 pound equals just over $2. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery this day as we drove through N. Ireland over to Derry. We saw the Glens of Atrim and did a 2 mile waterfall hike with the girls. They did good and the scenery was amazing. Then we went further up the coast and came to a really cool rope bridge. We had to hike another mile back to this 60 ft Carrik-a-Rede rope bridge. It was hanging several hundred feet in the air and sways over a rocky outcrop over the ocean connecting the main land to the island. I was quite nervous as I walked across it holding Adalynn. Alana was really brave and walked across on her own and didn’t want any help. She gets practice crossing bridges at the playground and has no fear. That night we stayed in Derry at a little bed and breakfast called the Sunbeam House. Derry is a walled city.
Sunday we had a full Irish breakfast which consists of ham, toast, egg, tomato, and sausage. Then we went to church and I think there were just as many American visitors that day as there were Irish. Then we went on another driving adventure and headed up to Malin Head the northern most point of Ireland. We enjoyed the scenery along the coastline. We did a lot of driving this day down the western coast of Ireland all the way to Westport. We stayed at a cool B&B called Boffin Lodge. Westport was a neat little town.
Monday was Alana’s 4th Birthday she got to have a pancake breakfast. We let her pick out a toy at a toy store (she got a new game for her leapster and a Dora DVD) she also got to go to McDonald’s and get her happy meal. (Mcdonald’s prices here are very high it’s like $30 to feed our family there!) She also picked out a Barbie cake and ice cream. She got a b-day card from Grandma Hunsaker in the mail and she was very excited. We drove a lot today too. We drove out to an island which was pretty. Then we saw the Kylemore Abby which was a castle with a green mountain in the background and a lake in front. The house cost over 1.6 million pounds to build in the 1800’s! Our planned driving route for the day was foiled when the bridge went out because of all the rain so we had to go a long ways out of our way to get around it on another route. We love all the green mountains and lakes with little islands in the middle. We also love the coast line. We got back home very late Monday night.
Tuesday we had dinner with our friends Joanna and John and their 2 kids. We have enjoyed their friendship while we were here. They are good people and so selfless and caring. We are a little sad to be leaving Ireland we were just starting to become comfortable here. We love the scenery and the climate and the people. This could be a place we could consider spending more time.