Ireland

In April, Erin Arnold and myself packed as lightly as we could and headed off over the big blue seas to visit the beautiful countryside of Ireland. I missed James and Josh horribly, but was grateful for the incredible opportunity to see such an amazing place.

 The famous St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 My first Irish Breakfast. Without the black and white pudding (dried cows blood

rolled into a sausage situation).

 Peat bogs above and rental car below. This bad boy was the source

of much grief for me since the stupid steering was also on the wrong side. I really didn't mean to destroy the tire my first day of driving!

 Ancient cemetary.

 We stayed at a cottage for a week, where the innkeepers had fresh homemade

bread and scones, jam and jelly waiting for us. Plus, a fridge stocked for breakfast. So delicious!

 The property where we stayed. our building is to the right. The innkeepers said this was an actual restored ruin they had been working on for 12 years to fix up.

 Unknown castle above. It appeared on the road and we stopped for more pictures. The same for below - out of nowhere this impressive castle (Dunguire) was en route for our day's travels.

 The Cliffs of Moher. Truely breaktaking. Very windy. Not a good hair day. But, worth the photo shoot!

 Bum...we never did find any cute pubs with local Irish music. But, we did find dinner at this local place where we had lamb and roasted veges. And all for pretty cheap!

 This cemetary is the oldest in the world, dating back 7,000 years.

 Rock displays mark graveyards of unknown peoples and long deceased civilizations.

 Random castle 3#; Parke's Castle - near the home of famous author John Yeats.

 The annoying gas station. In these tiny rural towns, we were lucky to find a pump. Here, we had passed empty and were nearing panic when we found this 1 pump town. At only $8 plus change per gallon, we were back in business!

 Castle Cahir. A castle that has been around since the crusades and has seen many ugly wars. The film crew of Braveheart came here to see the castle to make sure the movie represented authentic castle scenes.

 The tiny town nearby where we spent a day shopping.

 Stairwell remains that go to nowhere.

 Dunlace Castle, part of which fell off into the sea on a stormy night and lost the kitchen and kitchen crew. So much for dinner that night.

 World renown wonder, the Giant's Causeway, had strange rock formations that would have appeared to have been hand carved with perfect symmetry, but in fact it is all a natural occurance.

 Easter day. NO church to go to, but a local mass where Erin and I attempted to sit inconspicuously, but stood out like American Tourists anyway. Dinner that day consisted of fresh loca lamb. Pretty delicious, even if it did take us hours to cook it right!