Ireland

The Roartys got in touch with their roots in Ireland!  The trip had a bit of a rough start.  I was pretty sick and we had to delay our trip by two days.  The original plan included two nights in Dublin,  two nights in Killarney, and one night at the Cork hotel where my meeting was being held the rest of the week.  Needless to say, Dublin became more of a two hour tour.

After the two hour tour, we headed to Killarney where we stayed in a thatch roof cottage.  Liam played in the open yard area with the Irish child next door.  I overheard him telling Liam the story of Saint Patrick and the snakes. You do not get that kind of cultural moment in a Marriott!

It was evening by the time we arrived at our cottage.  We ventured to town to look for something to eat. We found ourselves in a Irish restaurant/pub with live music.   Since it was kind of late, Liam and Brenna were the only two children in the whole place.  And once the music came on, Brenna was determined to keep the party going all night.  She LOVED the music and made me stand with her right by the stage.  I looked like the mother of the year with my 2 year old out at the pub at close to 10 pm.  We finally did get her to head to the door, but not before she decided to do her own little Irish jig by the exit. The crowd ate it up :).   This is kind of dark but still so cute.

The next morning we set out to explore the Ring of Kerry.  It is a 179 km trail that  starting from Killarney, heading around the Iveragh Peninsula and passing through Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin.  The views of the beaches, water, rolling hills and mountains were just beautiful.  There were also many different towns or cultural attractions that you could stop at along the way.  

The roads were very windy and narrow.
Picture a tour bus coming at you on this road.

It was very windy.  Liam is literally holding on so he does not
fall down.

Our first stop was at Rossbeigh beach.  The kids played for some time on the sand dunes.

We stopped in Waterville for lunch and then went to Staigue Fort.  We were the only people there, besides the sheep, and the kids felt like we had our own private playground.

Some more Ring of Kerry Views

Another Fort

We headed to Cork the next day and met up with my J&J pal Melissa.  She was brave enough to spend the day with us and to go up to the top of the Blarney Castle with Hugh.  

Blarney Castle

This is how you kiss the blarney stone!  

Here is to a rough start, but a great trip.