Cliffs of Moher

A few days ago Charlotte, Nana, and I went on a little bus tour of Galway City. Charlotte was a peach until she tossed the container of crackers everywhere. Thus leading to a breakdown and subsequent vacating of the bus.

Then yesterday, Ben got off of work around noon and we headed down to the Cliffs of Moher.
It was in the upper sixties and not a cloud in the sky.
Perfect day to see the cliffs.

She hung out in Ben's backpack the whole time and loved it.
Side note... the ride to the cliffs is gorgeous but really twisty/turny and the poor girl got car sick and puked all over herself. She was a delight after that, but we had to buy her a new outfit.
And the car smelled oh so nice the rest of the day.

Below, Nana with O'Brien's Tower in the background.
See this video. It's hilarious.

You weren't supposed to go past this fence (which of course everyone, including us, did).
It had the best views, but there wasn't a fence.

Below, me dangling over the edge. I'll never do it again.

Then we stopped by this pub for some seafood.

Kylemore Abbey

Imagine you're driving out to a national park to do some hiking and turn the corner to see this:

.....

Yeah... we had to stop. We ended up staying here for the entire day.

It was first a castle built by a doctor/politician (who inherited tons of money when his father died) for his wife. It was built in the 1860's, has over 70 rooms (33 are bedrooms), heating, its own fire department, a lake, and 21 glasshouses for exotic plants.

Charlotte climbed up and slid down the same three steps forever.

Above a closeup and below the castle's front yard.

About ten years after being built, his wife died while traveling in Egypt. He built this church (below) in honor of her and buried her in a mausoleum on the property. He stayed at the castle until around 1901, sold it to a playboy of an Englishman and his aristocratic American wife (the Duke and Duchess of Manchester), who then sold it to nuns years later because he went bankrupt. The nun's abbey in Belgium had been bombed by the Germans in WW1 so they needed a new home. They turned it into a boarding school for girls just up until last year when they ran out of money. They asked us if we knew any rich Americans to let them know about the abbey and ask for donations =)

The next day Charlotte was not in the mood for going out and about so we stayed in, took naps, went to the park, and headed to the grocery store.

and we're here!

Last Friday we left for Ireland on an overnight flight. It was only a 7 hour direct flight from Chicago to Dublin. Charlotte hated trying to sleep the last few hours so I held her the entire time while she squirmed this way and that. I maybe slept for 45 minutes. Total.

We arrived in Dublin on Saturday morning and picked up our car. I'm the only driver since Ben will be working at the hospital for the first month and won't need to use the car.

Great.

I have driven a stick shift a handful of times in my life.

Never with my left hand, on the left hand side of the road.

Let's just say that the first 200 yards of driving were interesting. And I may have cried, uttered a swear word, and yelled at Ben for talking too much while I needed to concentrate.. =)

Oh, and the one time I drove into oncoming traffic. Woops...

After the first few hours I definitely now have the hang of it and only have to remind myself once in awhile "left, left, left".

We went to the "grocery store" to pick up food for our apartment and loved buying 'biscuits' instead of cookies and 'nappies' instead of diapers.

Some accents are sooo thick I honestly can't understand what they're saying. Usually the older guys smoking and having a pint of Guinness are the nicest and most helpful ones.

I still can't believe we'll be living here for a month and a half.

Sweet.

Our plane behind us before we left from Chicago. Charlotte was a wee bit excited.

Charlotte playing at a local playground in Galway City where we'll be living the first month.

For Easter Sunday we went to the Galway Cathedral for a Catholic service. It was beautiful and absolutely packed full of worshippers. Afterwards we walked around to familiarize ourselves with the city and got a traditional Irish-Easter meal. Think potatoes. Lots of potatoes.

Nana below (who will be with us the first two weeks) and the cathedral we went to mass at.

Overlooking the Corrib River in Galway.

Today, Ben (who doesn't have to go to work until tomorrow) and I went to Clonmacnoise while Nana hung out with Charlotte. Clonmacnoise is a monastic site founded in 548 by St. Ciaran along the river Shannon. The original buildings from that time were made of wood so they are long gone, but the majority of the ruins there today are from the 12th century.

The most and best preserved high crosses of Ireland are at this site.

Below is a castle ruin that was built in the 13th century.

This was called Nun's Church. Close by there was a stone path called the Pilgrim's path where people would make long pilgrimages to Clonmacnoise.

Tomorrow Nana, Charlotte, and I are headed to Connemara National Park.

Hopefully I'll be good about blogging every night, or at least every few nights.

I'm off to bed.

'Oiche mhaith'

{goodnight}

easter, laura, goodwill... in that order

Last weekend our church had an early Easter activity of breakfast and an egg hunt. The weather was horrible so we had it inside. Charlotte was so darling to watch walk around and collect eggs. Often she'd hand hers off to someone else or put hers in their baskets.

{gotta love that crooked smile}

{her tiny friend Henry who she kept handing eggs off to}

The week before last my sister came into town. YAY! {thank you for coming, Laura!}

She has come at least twice every year we've been here. So I believe this last visit was her 8th or 9th time. Isn't that so nice?! It always makes life a little easier when family comes to visit.

We went to the zoo and downtown of course.

We also went and had an "adventure day". These "adventure days" started with my mom when we were little. We would pack up the car and just drive until we found a cute town to explore. Usually this town had to have amazing antique stores and cute restaurants for lunch. Now when I go home to visit we have a good handful of tiny towns we visit that we 'discovered' years ago.

Laura and I decided to explore some tiny midwest towns northwest of here and found some amazing shops, old Victorian homes, and lots of cornfields. =) It was so much fun.

Then we parked really far north along Lake Michigan and biked along the lakeshore a good 20 miles. I've always been meaning to do it, and it was awesome.

Her flight got in at 1:30 in the morning so Charlotte's 6:30 wake up call was great... She walked right over to sleeping Laura, climbed up with her blankie, and watched Curious George. Then she took Laura's bra and requested to put it on.

Below is a steal I got from Goodwill.

$25!

I'm going to paint/distress it and put some bead board in the back and maybe another shelf, but how sweet was that deal?! I'll take pictures when I'm done with it... which will have to wait until this summer since we're leaving this Friday.

The first video is from the zoo when my sister was in town. The other one was from this past Monday when I babysat Theron. I love these two together.