Filed under: Clare
The big news is that Grandma and Grandpa are here. Everyone is so excited. Our plan for the week is to stay in Lehinch on the West Coast of Clare – about 5 miles from the Cliff of Moher.
On Saturday we started the drive. Seven of us and our luggage just about fit into the car. Well, we fit if some of us sit on the golf clubs – but we made it. Grandpa is doing all of the driving. Aine told him he was doing a very good job – we all agreed. Driving here takes some getting used to – adding in the driving on the left, the mini-van status, the shift, and the Irish road signs.
We took a detour to see the Rock of Cashel – my favorite castle of all times. The weather was perfect. Most of the pictures are from there. I wrote about my trip to Cashel with Anita and Darla last month so I won’t write too much again.
At about 5:00 we arrived at our house in Lehinch. It is amazing!! It’s big, it’s new, it’s the best of American and Irish features. There are 2 couches near the TV with full able/Sky so that was a big plus. The girls may be sick of Disney before we leave. There is even WiFI for me, which is great! We are about a 20-minute walk from the beach. And we’re living amongst the cows – there’s an electric fence to keep them out of our yard.
Filed under: Dublin
We met up with friends from Minnesota – Brenna, Quinlan, Rowan, Kevin and KC. They are temporarily living in Galway but also hail from St Paul.
It was fun to meet up with them at our neighborhood park. We met for a picnic because it was another gorgeous day! Then we played around the playground equipment. Brenna and Aine are the same age and quickly became best friends again. Quinlan is about the same age at the big girls – I think he falls right between them and they seemed to get along very well too.
Aine and I met up with the crew again on Friday too. The big girls were in school and the crew was leaving Friday afternoon but we enjoyed a great afternoon in Dun Laoghaire.
It is always fun to talk to folks who are in a similar boat and to hear what experiences and opinions we shared (too expensive but fun) and which we didn’t. Because they lived in Galway, a smaller town that Dublin I think they had more of a routine whereas we saw a lot of different things. It would be fun to be able to do both as I think they had met more people in their routine – but I think we got to see a wider variety of things.
Filed under: Dublin
After the MOMA we went to visit the Science Gallery to see the TechnoThreads exhibit. I wrote about the exhibit a week ago (or so) when Patrick and I went – and forgot the camera. So I’m just going to let the pictures and video speak for themselves…
Filed under: Dublin
No, no more accidents for Aine – we went to the Kilmainham Hospital (home of the Museum of Modern Art) for a picnic. We took the bus into town and then walked past Euston station (and 10 miles in kid steps) to the museum. We were getting hungry, tired and crabby and then we finally came up on the amazing gardens of the hospital.
They are beautiful!
It’s kind of a hidden pocket of tranquility in the middle of a ton of buildings and construction. We had a great picnic because it was a beautiful day. And then we ran around the gardens. It’s not super maze-like but mazy enough for Aine.
Then we visited the art gallery. The art is very modern so I liked it. The big girls and I had a good game of “what would you name it?” We had fun helping Aine not touch anything. We really enjoyed the make-some-art room, which was really just a room full of art supplies. What a great idea! We spent about 30 minutes in there making our own masterpieces.
