County Wexford Coastal Day Trip

Sunday morning we headed out the door towards Wexford, which is south of Dublin, about 1 1/2-2 hours.  The only items on our agenda for the day, was to see an old lighthouse, which I had read usually had seals swimming in the ocean nearby, and anything we came across that floated our boat.  

Just north of Wexford and east of the coastal village of Curracloe, we stopped at a beach.  Here we spent about an hour walking down the shore collecting shells.  We had such a good time! 

 

Ballinesker Beach

 

mesmerized

 

 

Jack was scared of the ocean when he was little.  Now he loves to "play with it".  I'm guessing he's imagining it's a rush of football players coming at him!

 

         Finding the "perfect" seashell with Dad...or in Kate's case, the "800th perfect seashell"...

 

 

I have a frame with pictures of me and the kids walking along different beaches.  I think I need to add this one to that frame!

 

walking along the top of the sand dunes

 

 

After the beach, we headed down to Wexford for lunch

After we left Wexford, we came across these ruins from the road.  I'm not sure you can tell, but there is a house on the other side of these ruins.  It baffles us somewhat that there aren't roadside markers telling you what these ruins are.  Whoever lives in that house, probably owns these ruins. 

 

Literally on the side of the road where we saw the above ruins, was a ruin of a church with a graveyard.  Jimmy took this picture and really liked it.

 

We saw quite a few thatched roof houses.  We came around a bend upon this one.  It looked so cozy, it made you want to go inside and sit in front of the fire.  :)

 

After we left Wexford we headed south/southwest to "the hook".  This is Hook Lighthouse.  It is 800 years old and is the oldest operating lighthouse in the world.  We got here around 3-3:30p.m. and after trips to the bathroom and a look around the gift shop, we decided to skip the tour of the lighthouse and go climb on the rocks that surround it.  Now keep in mind, the sun sets here at 4:30p.m. and it's dark by 5pm, so we didn't have a whole lot of time to play!

 

Kate still looking for things to collect.....

 

Jimmy takes pretty good pictures, doesn't he?!

 

 

2 of my favorite things!

There were about half a dozen seals in the water.  They would pop their heads out of the water and look at us for a bit.  A couple of times we heard them bark.  The kids really got a kick out of them!

 

the sunset looked like a fire out on the horizon

 

 

Afternoon in Dublin

OK, I think that after this post, my Ireland blogging is now up-to-date  :)

This past Saturday found us wanting to go exploring but not sure where to go since the weather wasn't cooperative for outdoor scenery.  And then our landlord came by Saturday morning to look at a few things, so we ended up not leaving the house until early afternoon.  We decided to head into Dublin and see the Natural History Museum and then head over to the popular Grafton Street, where they had turned on the Christmas lights earlier in the week.  Remember, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here.  So for us, our holiday season is a bit off :)   

 

the skeleton of an extinct Giant Irish Deer

 

hello Grammy!  (Jimmy & his brother affectionately call their mom, "Badger")

 

Jimmy amazed at the width of these Giant Irish deer antlers

 

 

 

"Mom, I didn't know you were already here in Ireland!!"

 

the 2nd floor of the museum - the museum was open in 1857, yet The Royal Dublin Society had started their collection back in 1792.  The museum has changed very little since then.  It wasn't a very big place, but it was pretty cool.  We couldn't go upstairs, which was just above this room, but we could see up into it as it was open in the middle as well. 

 

 

 

 

We could tell some of these animals have been here for a very long time!

 

 

 

The only bighorn sheep (his favorite animal) and mountain goat Luke is going to get to see while in Ireland.

 

 

The taxidermy work was at times comical to see.  This is a puma!

 

 

A cape buffalo shot in 1839.

 

 

 

Grafton Street in Dublin - lots of shopping and some restaurants 

 

 

We found this Italian place for supper down an alley off Grafton Street.  It was really good (well, that might have been because we had just snacked for lunch and so therefore all 5 of us ate every bit of our meal!)
 

                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random Fun Pictures from the past couple of weeks

 

Ok, so this isn't a "fun" picture....these are the small, medium & large drinks at McDonald's.  There are no refills.  The large is 2.25 Euro.  Add 1/3 to that and that's the USD amount.  Yeah.....I really miss Sonic :) 

 

Jimmy subscribed to the last two games of the World Series on MLB.com.  He woke himself up to watch the last half of Game 6 (which the Sox won & that was the winning game of the World Series).  When the 7th inning rolled around, I went and woke up Jack (it was 2:30a.m. here).  Needless to say, we immediately became Parents of the Year! 

 

Happy Halloween from Ariel, a red ninja and Batman!

 

I told them to go get dressed so we could run into town....they get their fashion sense from their dad.....

 

One Saturday night we went to a nearby town to check out a different (cheaper) grocery store (things in Ireland are expensive!)  While we were shopping, a fire alarm went off, yet no one did anything.  So we kept shopping and about 30 minutes later while we were in the middle of checking out, they started escorting everyone out of the building.  The hotel adjacent to the grocery store had a fire down in their parking garage (car park).  Jimmy threw the food onto the belt, the cashier scanned it and I threw it back into the shopping cart (trolley).  It was crazy.  Then we had to sit in the parking lot for about 20-30 minutes before we could get out (because there was only one exit for the parking lot).  All of the people piled out of the hotel and stood around with their pints.  When they finished, they put their glasses down along the wall.  There may be a few of those pint glasses in our cupboard now......

 

Matt, the bartender, is one of Jimmy's co-workers from NM out here for the same assignment.  One Friday night we met the Altmans for dinner at The Mucky Duck pub.  We had the whole upstairs to ourselves, so the guys decided to entertain themselves!  Sitting next to Kate is Matt's daughter, Olivia who is the same age as Kate. 

 

Luke's favorite poster in the Maynooth mall.

 

L-R Mike (also from NM), Jimmy & Matt on their group's quarterly.  The agenda for the day: pubs, a Rugby match, & more pubs.  They had a blast!

 

 

 

Jack was invited to play Gaelic Football with his 1st Class.  I think they have 1 more practice before they break for the winter.  When the weather gets nice again, they'll have practice again (and outside too I think), along with some matches.  He loves it!  And the coach told me that Jack was really good!  And no, we have no idea what they're doing or why!   The ball looks just like a volleyball but is a bit heavier.  (He's the one in the green stocking cap)

 

He's the one in the green on the top left

 

He's got his hands up trying to block the ball.

 

throwing the ball in

Glendalough & the Irish Sea

The day before school started we took a drive through the Wicklow Mountains (south/southwest of Dublin) and ended up with lunch in the seaside town of Bray (just south of Dublin).

The mountains we drove through were pretty, but more like large hills compared to the mountains back home.  We were hoping to see some deer, but never did.  It was a pretty cold and chilly day. 

Our first stop that day was at Glendalough (Glen-da-lock) Monastic Site.  St Kevin, a hermit monk, founded the monastic site near the Lower Lake in the 6th Century.  We stayed for about 30 minutes before deciding it was too cold to walk another mile up the site to the two lakes.  We decided to save it for another time.  The highlight of the trip (especially for Kate) was the round tower. 

 

Tangled!!! - I do think she was a bit disappointed we couldn't go inside :)

 

 The Gateway has the distinction of being Ireland’s only surviving example of a medieval gateway to an early monastic city. (By the way Aunt Rachel & Uncle Brent, Luke's hat was quite a hit with the other tourists here!)

 

Outside the restaurant we ate at in Bray, we found this LEMON!  (if you've seen CARS 2, you'll know what I'm talking about)  :)

 

Our first trip to the Irish Sea