About a month before we left Ireland, we had our last visitors come see us. My best friends from high school, Jennifer & Kerrie, and Jennifer's family's exchange student (from when we were in high school) from Germany, Conny, came to see us for about a week. It was so much fun all of us being together again. It had been a really long time.
Saturday morning - They were jet-lagged, but Kerrie & Jennifer made it!
I brought them back to the house so they could rest up a bit and take a nap :)
Kate insisted that we took them to out for tea later that afternoon.
Saturday night - Conny flew in from Frankfurt. This was the first time in 20 years we were all together again.
Sunday morning was First Holy Communion for Jack's class. So while we went to church in Rathcoffey to support his classmates, the girls headed into Dublin.
Once the girls made it to Dublin they headed to the Guinness Storehouse.
enjoying a Guinness at the top of the storehouse!
It looks like it was a popular place!
After the church service, I headed into Dublin and met up with the girls for a late lunch at the Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub.
After lunch we headed towards St. Patrick's Cathedral.
We did a little street shopping along the way :)
St. Patrick's Cathedral
After wandering around Dublin after St. Patrick's Cathedral, we decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Monday morning after we dropped the kids off at school, Luke and I took the girls down to Bennettsbridge to the Nicholas Mosse pottery studio.
The studio is in an old flour mill.
"We apply our patterns using an age old tradition dating back to the 18th century. Using cut sponges, we individually sponge dab the patterns onto each piece of pottery."
Conny found herself some fun pieces!
Before leaving the studio, we enjoyed a delicious scone and a cup of tea.
We then headed over to Kilkenny. Luke and I took the girls to our favorite pub for lunch!
After lunch we headed over to St. Canice's Cathedral and Round Tower.
This is only one of two round towers in all of Ireland that you can actually go inside and climb all the way to the top.
There they go!
They made it!
It was a gorgeous day.
After the cathedral and round tower, we made our way back down to Kilkenny Castle. Kerrie & Conny are standing outside its gate.
Jennifer inside the castle grounds
The girls did pretty well riding in a car with the everything being on the opposite side of the road. :)
"Trust me Conny, Bushmills Whiskey is the way to go!"
Tuesday morning - Conny woke up not feeling well. So we left her at home and Kerrie, Jennifer, and I headed up to the Boyne Valley. Our first stop was to Newgrange.
This Stone Age Passage Tomb is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. It was built during the Neolithic period around 3000 BC to 2500 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is also popular because you can actually go inside it.
The Boyne Valley is just so pretty!
After Newgrange, we headed a short distance over to Monasterboice. Monasterboice is an early Christian settlement founded in the late 5th century. This 10th century high cross, Cross of Muiredach, stands 17' 8" high. Almost every inch of its surface is ornamented with sculptured panels depicting scenes from the Gospels.
Tuesday evening Jimmy and I hired a baby-sitter and we took the girls into Dublin for dinner and a pub crawl. Our first stop was The Church. The former St. Mary’s Church of Ireland was built at the beginning of the 18th century. John Wesley – Founder of the Methodist Church delivered his first Irish sermon here in 1747, and Arthur Guinness – Founder of Guinness Brewery was married here in 1761.
The River Liffey in the heart of Dublin.
Dinner at The Larder was delicious!
Jimmy headed home after dinner and we started our pub crawl!
The Bank
Introducing the girls to Baby Guinnesses at the Stag's Head!
Temple Bar
Wednesday morning - After we dropped the kids off at school, we headed down to the Avoca village to tour Ireland's oldest working hand weaving mill.
So many beautiful colors everywhere.
We were able to watch them run some of the machines.
And of course we hit the store (& cafe!) afterwards. :)
I think everyone left with a fun treasure! :)
After Avoca, we headed east to the coast.
looking for seashells for their kiddos
After our time at the coast, Conny had a flight back home to Germany to catch. Her little girl was having a birthday in a few days and she needed to get home. We had so much fun and were sad to see her go!
When we got home that evening, we found Kate and Luke had discovered they had an audience to perform for! Ha!
Thursday morning after we dropped the kids off at school, we headed up into Northern Ireland to Co. Fermanagh to Enniskillen Castle. The castle was originally built in the 16th century and was ruled by the Maguire Chieftains for 300 years. Kerrie (whose maiden name is Maguire) can trace her family roots to this castle. She was very excited to see this area of Ireland!
After grabbing some lunch in Enniskillen, we headed out of town to Tully Castle whose history also includes the Maguire Clan.
Tully Castle is a fortified house with a rectangular bawn and was built for Sir John Hume, a Scottish planter, in 1619. The bawn had four rectangular corner towers.
During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Rory Maguire set out to recapture his family’s lands. He arrived at Tully Castle with a large following on Christmas Eve, and found the castle full of women and children. Most of the men were away. Lady Mary Hume surrendered the Castle, believing that she had assured a safe conduct for all in her care, but on Christmas Day the Maguires killed 60 women and children and 15 men, sparing only the Humes. The castle was burnt and the Humes never went back.
Tully Castle sits near the southern shore of Lower Lough Erne.
We then made our way over to Monea Castle not too far down the road. Monea Castle is situated where a Maguire castle would have been based prior to the Plantation and a crannog is still visible. Building started in 1616. In the Irish Rebellion of 1641 it was attacked by Rory Maguire, who "slew and murdered eight Protestants" here.
We finished up our trip in Co. Fermanagh in Maguiresbridge. Maguiresbridge is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The village is named after the bridge over the Colebrooke River, first built by the local Maguire family about 1760.
Friday morning the kids and I took Jennifer and Kerrie to a Boswell favorite (& a must see for all our visitors) - Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland. Our first stop, The Dark Hedges.
This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century.
It was intended as a compelling landscape feature to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House.
Two centuries later, the trees remain a magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland.
It was intended as a compelling landscape feature to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House.
Two centuries later, the trees remain a magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland.
Our next stop took us to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. This was fun for Jennifer to see this name because her mom's maiden name is Carrick!
It is thought salmon fishermen have been building bridges to the tiny island of Carrickarede for over 350 years. It is now no longer used by salmon fisherman, it is only a tourist attraction.
There they go!
The bridge spans 66' and 98' feet above the rocks.
Kate & Jack found a bighorn sheep on the island!
a view of Rathlin Island (Ireland) and Scotland (in the background)
It was chilly and windy that day due to rain showers passing through the area.
This was probably the windiest day we had ever experienced on the bridge. I didn't tell the girls that until later in the day :)
After Carrick-a-Rede Bridge, we headed over to the Bushmills Distillery. Jennifer & Kerrie went on the tour while I fed the kids lunch.
After Bushmills, I drove the girls over to see Dunluce Castle.
And the last stop of the day, our favorite, Giant's Causeway!
My cute little explorers!
And of course no trip to Giant's Causeway is complete with a picture on the Giant's Boot!
Jennifer and Kerrie had sent me a few things that they wanted to see while they were in Ireland. Otherwise they were happy to go anywhere we wanted to go. So because our time in Ireland was coming to an end we made plans to visit our top 3 favorite places one more time. The Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry was definitely one of them.
Saturday morning we left for the west coast of Ireland. The girls wanted to see the Cliffs of Moher. So we headed to Co. Limerick first. We stopped for lunch in the cute village of Adare.
Uh-oh! That's 31 counties out of 32! He's almost bagged them all!
We chose to eat lunch at this pub because the kids were excited that it had their cousin's name on it!
While we were eating lunch, this delivery man walked through the pub. Jennifer, Kerrie, and I grew up in Piedmont, Oklahoma and our school's mascot was the Wildcats! This guy told us it was from a cousin or a friend's cousin in Oklahoma, but I'm not so sure he really knew.... :)
After lunch and a little shopping in Adare, we headed out to the Cliffs of Moher.
We kept teasing Kerrie to be careful because she evidently had loose footing one time during a trip at the Golden Gate Bridge area!
Jimmy is trying to get us to lay down on the edge and look over it.........don't worry, we sat the kids safely far away from the edge
I'm so glad I caved and did this! It is now one of my favorite pictures! The kids were a safe distance away but Jimmy taking this picture of us gave me the heebie-jeebies! (and it still does!)
That's where we were laying on the edge!
After the Cliffs we headed to Matt the Threshers (an excellent suggestion from our neighbor Donal!) for dinner. And here Jimmy knocks off his final county! He made a goal of having a Guinness in all 32 counties of Ireland and he did it!!!!
Sunday morning we headed out on the Dingle Peninsula to our favorite beach in Castlegregory.
We spent most of the morning looking for shells.
This was the only beach we found these huge scallop shells.
She's a happy girl!
I discovered that I had collected too many shells over the many times we came to Castlegregory, so I returned the ones I didn't want. Jimmy thought I was nuts.
After Castlegregory, we drove through Conor's Pass.
Conor's Pass is one of the highest mountain passes in Ireland.
We hiked up to a lake that had been carved out by glacier.
Jimmy found a bighorn sheep on the hike down!
We stopped for lunch and a little bit of shopping in the town of Dingle. On the kids' list of things they wanted to do one more time was to eat here at the Boatyard in Dingle. They still love the fact that back in the spring we were the first customers of the season!
Best seafood we had in Ireland!
huge crab claws!
We then headed out to Slea Head.
Slea Head
When we were at Avoca earlier in the week, Jennifer, Kerrie, & Conny bought me a blanket as a thank you for being their tour guide :) I chose a blanket that has these colors in them (minus the blue). It reminded me of Slea Head and places in Co. Antrim that I absolutely loved.
Kerrie & Jennifer were really nice and patient with us taking our time to enjoy an area of Ireland we grew to love. We really appreciated that!
Our last stop on the Dingle Peninsula was to the sheep ferry.
The Dingle Peninsula is a very beautiful place and we really do miss it!
Monday morning - While at breakfast Jennifer finally tried the blood pudding. Verdict?...not a fan :)
We drove through the town of Killarney and down to Kenmare to find the ruins of Killowen where Kerrie's 3x great-grandparents were married!
Uh-oh! We brought home a visitor!
Tuesday we spent the day hanging out and the girls got ready to head home. That evening we went down to the GAA to watch Jack play Gaelic football.
Wednesday morning - And once again another fun-filled week ended all too quickly! We made a promise to not let another 20 years go by before all 4 of us are together again :)
