Loving the car wash!

Pout with a capital P

Someone is not happy about not receiving another ice cream sandwich...

Jack at work

Ramps & marbles

Self-portrait (in clay) of jack on a hill

Ireland Days 8-9 (based in Limerick), Day 10, fly home!

Day 8 - Dingle to Limerick & Bunratty Castle We left Dingle in the morning and headed to Limerick and to a place called Bunratty Castle. It is a "tower" castle - you can probably tell why by looking at it - it is just one big tower! The rooms were furnished with period pieces which was interesting.

Along with the actually, truly, old castle, there is sort of a disney-fied historical park - reproductions of many different style older homes and towns. The boys loved the playground though. It was good to let them run around. (See below) The real castle was an adventure: These are the crazy narrow/steep stairs we all climbed up and down.

Hotel Playground - the boys had a lot of fun here. We were staying at a really random Raddison Blu which wasn't particulary nice but had a crazy spa with everything (botox anyone?) and a helipdad (the latter not advertised). This was strange as we picked this hotel as it was quite near (15 minutes on an easy road) to the airport. Also funny, while at the playground I kept hearing an unusual noise - we then realized there were cows just next door!

Day 9 - Rock of Cashel/St. Patrick's Rock On our last full day, we took an hour drive to this amazing old cathedral - it has a 12th century tower and the church is from the 13th. It is said St. Patrick himself baptized the rulers that lived there. It was home to kings from the 4th century before later becoming a full-time religions site.

We had lunch at a local cafe and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon of packing and relaxing. Day 10 - We had a noon(ish?) flight home so ate breakfasted and headed to the airport. After a slight detour looking for gas, we managed to return the rental car and check in. We cleared US customs/immigration in Shannon which was nice, but meant we had the ludicrous experience of going through European security and then going through the exact same thing again (only sans shoes) with US customs officials. It is oh-so-fun pulling out liquids, laptops and folding strollers 2 times in 5 minutes:) Coming home from Canada last year we cleared customs in Halifax but US-bound flights had their own wing so we only had to do the security once. At least when we landed we got to go straight to get our bags and head home. Our flight was not too full, which was nice and the boys were as good as they possibly could be on a 6+ hour day flight. They pretty much watched shows and snacked which was a-OK with me! Overall it was an amazing trip and Steve and I never dreamed it would go half as well as it did.

Dancing with the dump truck

Ireland Days 6-7 (still based in Dingle)

Day 6 - Killarney This day we took a day trip to Killarney and its National Park area. There were lovely gardens and scenery. We didn't do a lot of the touristy things as a) some were closed as it was a weekday and shoulder season and some needed guides - the kids don't take to that very well! Classic Ireland photo: sheep-blocking-traffic

At Killarney National Park/ Muckross Estate

The Rhododendron that ate Ireland..

Castle at the national park

The "Ladies View" of the area (technically we are on the Ring of Kerry at this point..) Named for Queen Victoria's ladies in waiting who loved it on a trip there..Even in grey, dreary weather is was amazing.

Gorgeous Inch Beach on Dingle - it is SO huge and wide...

After a long day in the car, the boys got a huge kick out me taking their pictures while we were driving..

Just a lovely view of a valley in Dingle..this was fairly regular scenery around the peninsula..

Day 7 - Dingle town - "Fungie" Cruise and relaxing On our last day in Dingle we took a cruise to see the famous Fungie. Fungie is a Dolphin that lives in the bay and is know for being incredibly friendly, and a bit of a show-off. Some think he may have escaped from a dolphin show (not sure how that could happen?) Anyway, he has been a staple of the area for many years...The "deal" is the boat takes you out and it is free if you don't see Fungie. It was a bit of a cold/rainy/stormy day but we made the trip out. We did spot the dolphin, but he wasn't much for tricks our day. He is on the very old side for a dolphin, so I suppose this is to be expected:) It was worth the ride for the view anyway! In the afternoon the boys relaxed at the house while I did some shopping.

Ireland Days 4-5 (based in Dingle)

Day 4 - Galway to Dingle Via Foynes and Listowel We got up and headed to Foynes, which is on the Shannon River and home to the Flying Boat Museum about the Boeing 314 Clippers which landed on the river at this location in the late 1930s-early 40s. They had a full-size replica there! The original airport was also home to the first "irish coffee".

We played at a nearby playground for about 30 minutes after that. It was quite a place - a view of a river, a castle, cows and a car dealer.

From there we planned on heading straight to Dingle, but saw a road sign that said Lartigue Monorail and decided we HAD to check it out. Turns out it was a real monorail from 1888 to 1924 and the only one of its kind in the world. They have created a replica, but unfortunately no rides while we were there as it was a bit off-season. We lucked out and they had opened the museum for a special tour and they kept it open a few more minutes for us. Steve spent some time speaking with the volunteer guide. Latrigue Monorail

Pretty sure this is the only place in the world where you can go to a museum about "flying boats" and steam-powered monorails within an hour:) From there we headed to Dingle and checked into our "little house" as Nate called it. In reality it wasn't all that little but cute nonetheless. Day 5 - Dingle town and Slea Head Drive We started the day almost next door at the Dingle Ocean World aquarium (not sure how we managed to stay virtually next door to 2 different aquariums on our trip!). It was OK, it had real sharks and penguins which was pretty strange for such a small place. We then walked through town a bit and got lunch at a real pub. (This is totally normal thing to do - they are pretty much regular restaurants during the day - kids menus and all). I think Jack might like this picture when he is a bit older:)

The street our house was off of:

After lunch, since it was actually sunny, we decided to do the Slea Head Drive - a famous route/loop at the end of the Dingle Peninsula (where Dingle town is). It is known for its ancient sites and amazing scenery. We were not disappointed.. This is a view from and of the Dunberg Fort...the fort dates to 500bce!

Jack at the entrance to a "beehive" hut - dates to the iron age!

A random old building..

If you enlarge this picture, you can see a surfer down there!! There are a surprising number of surf towns around western Ireland - cold, but great waves apparently.

You may notice Jack is the only one in most pictures - Nate slept through pretty much the entire multi-hour trip:)