Ireland

28 March, Wednesday
In the morning we left for the airport. We arrived, met Uncle Bill and Lynnea and got our bags ready to check. We happened to see Aunt Judy who was flying back to Miami the same day, that was quite cool. We got through everything fine, although they did have to get out my Dublin cheese and bacteria wipe it. We got on the plane, waited a nearly 45 minutes and the pilot said the weather was too dangerous in JFK airport. So we got off and waited to collect our bags (they carry-on luggage was put with the check because of space) about 5 minutes had passed when the pilot came back on the plane and said everybody on, were going to do this. So, we got on the plane and took off for JFK.We got off the plane in JFK We found a place that sold sandwiches and we shared those with each other. Around 8:15pm we boarded the plane to fly to Dublin. 29 March, Thursday
The entertainment wasn’t working so we couldn’t watch any films. The food was pretty bad, but, I didn’t expect better I guess. I mostly read a book Uncle Bill had brought and slept. I slept for only about 3 hours, but because of the time change those three hours were from about 11pm-6am. I woke up, ate the food they served for breakfast (a little better, they had a banana) and waited to arrive. We got off, got our checked luggage and drove one in a half hours south of Dublin to explore a little as we had time before Josiah arrived. We saw Kevin’s Church (which was fun to sing in!), a round tower and enjoyed driving on the left side of the road in VERY narrow streets! We went to a grave yard and there was a creek there and people through money into it. So I first went down and started collect coins, and then Lydia, and so did Uncle Bill. We had to hide under the bridge when people came, we called it the Gollum game. :) We didn’t get quite enough for any lunch, and Uncle Bill didn’t have cash, so we headed back to Dublin. We stopped at a small cafe for lunch. It was really good, and the waitress had an awesome accent as well as reminding me of an actor (brilliant blue eyes, jet black hair, dark tan complexion) I’ve seen. We left around 4:15pm to go back to Dublin. We picked up Josiah from the ferry and I squeezed in the back with the three girls. We drove across Ireland and stopped at Dunnes Store to pick up some cider and beer (as well as stretch our legs, 4 people in 3 seats?! TIGHTNESS!). From there we drove on to a hostel and arrive around 10pm, quite exhausted as most of us had had around 3-4 hours of sleep! The hostel owner looked JUST LIKE Cadfael, it was very cool! We popped a few cans, wrote in journals and went to bed. All of us were tired, but ready for tomorrow!
30 March, Friday
We woke up around 9am (Lydia and Lynnea slept in closer to 10am), I took a shower, packed my bags, and made some coffee in the hostel open kitchen. They didn’t serve breakfast, but they had a kitchen you could cook in, store your food in. We had no food so we asked the owner where to eat, he suggested a place and after we had had coffee we headed to town ( a couple miles away). We found Jae’s Cafe, it was a bakery/cafe and smelled amazing! Hot brewed coffee mixing with freshly baked goods! We were seated upstairs (they had room for maybe a dozen people, another reason why I love Ireland!) and chose from the menu and ordered. The kitchen was the next room over where they cooked everything to order. Londa and I got scones, Uncle Bill got an omelet, Josiah got a savoury pancake, Lydia and Lynnea got pancakes. We finished around 11:15am and headed towards the Island. We stopped by a grocery store, the equivalent of Aldi, and picked up some stuff. Right before then we were trying to talk to someone crossing the stree and instead it looked more like we were trying to run him over (at 2mph), the dude gave us an angry look and walked across. We later saw him in the store and as he passed us said “bleepin’ Americans”. We felt bad because we weren’t trying to make him angry, oh well. We drove to the dock where we waited for Patrick. He arrived around 3:30pm, we met him, loaded up and boated (is that the right word?) over to the Island. It was a good 20min ride to the Island. We got to the Island, unloaded, found out what was in every nook and cranny and made ourselves at home. We went out on a walk and explored the Island a good bit. We brought some plastic bags with us, so we collected muscles for supper. When we got back around 8pm and made supper. We boiled the muscles in water, and while those were cooking ate bread, cheese and apples with some red wine. The muscles were very tasty, we dipped them in a garlic butter that Uncle Bill made. Afterwards we cleaned up, washed the sihes, and played Rook. We decided to do teams of two, Lydia and Uncle Bill, Josiah and Lynnea, and Londa and I. It was a fun game, despite Lynnea getting the Rook five out of nine times. Uncle Bill and Lydia ended up with the most points and won. After the game we divided up the bed rooms, Uncle Bill got the master, Josiah got a single bed room, as did I upstairs, the three girls got the double bunk beds. I set an alarm for 7am.
31 March, Saturday
I woke up at 7am to my alarm. Actually I woke up around 6:30 and went back to sleep. Unlike some people. I love mornings and will sacrifice sleep for them. I don’t take sleep where ever I can get it because that’s not who I am, or what I do. It’s hard to say if we’ve/I have adjusted to the time change. I think it helped the first day that we were so tired that when night came we slept very soundly. It’s ahrd to say what my body says the time is, because I pay more attention to the light rather than what it feels like. The last tw days we’re only had two meals a day! :) We got up late enough and ate breakfast late enough that it basically counted for lunch. I wanted to go running today because I like doing it and because it is Fun. That is the main reason why I got up when I did. I went out behind the house and retraced where we had gone yesterday, hoping to find a good beach, I went about a mile and couldn’t find what I was looking for so I went back. I took a slightly different route and came out by the front of the house. I went on down to the dock, still in search of a place to run. I found a flat place, 300ft long maybe. I took off my socks and shoes and tried it. Besides the water being freezing cold, the rocks hurt more than I thought, (maybe I’ve gone too long with shoes on) I put them back on and came back. I started running along the beach, and despite the largish rocks the running was quite good. I got in maybe a quarter mile of pretty good running, enough to get my heart rate up and my breathing hard. I came to the house and made myself a cup of joe. Josiah woke up around 8am and went outside exploring/walking with his camera. The others got up around 9am and we ate breakfast. After breakfast I read some from The Golden Thread of Time, the three girls went exploring, and Josiah and Uncle Bill went to the boat to try and figure out the GPS. I went out and skipped stones near the boat. At a little after 10am we all got in the boat and took it out so Uncle Bill could get a little more used to it. We went back to the house, picked up some stuff and went to the main land. We picked up Patrick and went to the main land. We got groceries and got nachos and fish and chips. We were picked up by Patric around 6pm. We got to the house and I ended up jumping into the water to help pull the boat up! We made spaghetti for supper. After suppwe we went outside to see the sunset, we went out behind the house. WE came back to the house, played Rook for a while. Around 10pm we went to bed.
1 April, Sunday
I woke up at 6am thinking the clock said 7am. I went back to sleep (wasn’t hard) till 7:45am. I went outside after a shower. Bright blue sky and a warm sun! It was glorious! Londa was outside (as well as Uncle Bill) and I showed her some spots to take pictures from. I found a boat underneath some brambles, I’m hoping to find out more about it today. For breakfast we had pancakes, I soaked some of the flour with milk to make it easier to digest (healthier). I also made some yogurt that I used for milk in the pancakes. So this morning I made pancakes and they were very good. Last night we found the two kayaks in the shed, I’m hoping to try them out today with Lynnea! I’m also planning to do some swimming as well. The water is very clear, and yesterday when I got in the water I soon adjusted to it. We’re going to church today, a stone church we saw yesterday in town. We got to the church a little before it started, so we sat in the sun outside. The church was very cold, but we met one particular gentlemen who was very nice, he talked to us before and after church. The service was very much like I would think high church tends to be like. The prayers and most everything was written out and read, etc. I was glad we were able to go to church though. After church they had tea and biscuits for refreshment, and we met a few more people, including the pastor/priest? Then we went across the street to the service station to use the toilets. From there we drove around trying to find a place that had wi-fi. We would have been invited over to the gentlemen’s house that we met, except that his son and family were over for Palm Sunday and we wouldn’t’ve fit. We finally found some wi-fi and decided to eat lunch. So we went back to a park and ate lunch and then drove to the hotel to send a few emails. The bread here is quite tasty, as well the cheese. Around 4pm we headed back to the Island. We got back, planned when supper owuld be and went out separate ways. Londa took a nap, Lydia and Josiah went off, Uncle Bill went exploring, and Lynnea and I took the kayaks out. I have to say the two kayaks were quite fun! I came back and Josiah took the kayak out and around the Island. I found the boat again and looked it over. I plan to take it out tomorrow. For supper we had Parsnip and Carrot soup. It came in envelopes and I sautèd carrots to add to the soup. We had soup, bread, and a salad, and to accompany it we had cider. After supper we started a fre in the fireplace and played Clue, Londa won. After Clue we played Catch Phrase. We had a very enjoyable evening. We went to be around 11pm.

English Vintner