hiking and climbing and more ruins

Last week Charlotte and I had a play date with some new friends from our church on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday we went to see Water for Elephants at a 10:30 showing where you could bring babies and young kids. Charlotte ate snacks on my lap and walked around chatting with other babies the entire time while I got to enjoy the movie. It was lovely.

Ben is really good about taking Charlotte to the playground and going on the huge swing.
See below video as well.

Smooching.

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Thursday we visited Knock where in 1879 14 people said they saw the Virgin Mary, Joseph, John, and a lamb surrounded by angels. The Vatican looked into it at the time and said it was a real apparition and it is now a holy site. I didn't take many pictures because there wasn't much to see.
In 1979 the Pope visited. People from all over the world come. Many have been healed of illness. They even have 12 or so fountains of holy water you can fill up jugs and take home.

We also visited Cong to see their abbey and church. It was built in the 12th century.

This was the monk's fish house. They built this over a river and had a hole in the floor to fish from. A string connected to a bell in the abbey's kitchen told the cook when there was fresh fish available.

We've seen quite a lot of fly fishing.

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On Friday we finally made it out to Connemara National Park to hike and climb.
Charlotte was in a huge 'mommy mommy' mood so I had the privilege of carrying her.
The entire way.
Yay.

At the top!

Beautiful views.

Then we went out to Killary Fjord for some seafood and a gorgeous drive.

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Last Saturday we climbed this:

Croagh Patrick

This is believed to be where St. Patrick climbed, fasted for 40 days, built a church, and threw a silver bell down the side to banish the she-demon Corra which expelled all snakes from Ireland.
It's a huge pilgrimage site. Very devout Catholics walk barefoot (on the summer solstice) and some even climb up on their hands and knees.

We met an older couple right before we started the climb who gave us some tips. She had climbed up 21 times barefoot and 5 times with shoes.
She told us to be careful if it gets crowded (which it didn't) because she's seen people pushed off of the side by accident!
Nope... that comment didn't make me nervous at all.

Right before the climb. We were so excited and full of energy.
Good thing, because it was a much harder climb than I anticipated.

The view of the mountain as we started.
We passed a handful of people who were training for a fundraiser where they were to go up and down 12 times in 24 hrs! Today their goal was 8. They were practically running on the way down.
On average it takes someone 3 - 3 1/2 hrs to do it once.

What you stared at as you climbed and climbed.
The older couple we met (who are below to the right) told us when you were finished, you'd never want to see a rock again.
I agree.

More views as we started to get higher.

The church below is at its summit and only has mass two or three times a year.

Views from the summit.

Right as we got to the final climb (where you had to use your hands to get up) Charlotte wanted me to carry her in the backpack.
Oh.my.gosh.
If you look at the picture below and see the mountain. Look at the point at the bottom of the mountain right before it climbs up steeply.
Yep, that's where I got to carry her all the way to the top.
We had to bribe her with hopes of playing with Ben's iphone at the summit, crackers, and singing 'Old McDonald'. Luckily she fell asleep quite a bit because it was so windy and cold. People would look at us with huge respect for carrying her up there, or like we were the worst parents for bringing her up there =)

It was amazing. Beautiful. And was a fantastic workout.
But we (and our legs) were happy to be down again.
The statue of St. Patrick (above) looked like Jesus to Charlotte. She was thrilled to say and point out "Jeezuh Jeezuh."

Close to Croagh Patrick is this famine ship memorial to honor all of those that died during the great famine. Those are skeletons making up the ship.

Charlotte picking out a cheese sandwich for dinner.

Since then we had our friends Eli and Krista visit Saturday night until this morning. We've been able to travel with them quite a bit in the past so it was fun meeting up with them out here.

Charlotte's caught a nasty cough so her and I stayed home from church yesterday and napped.
We have a few more things planned for this week to places that are within an hour and a half away before we leave this Saturday. Then we either head south or north (haven't finalized our itinerary yet) to travel the coast for two weeks before we head back to the states.