We had the incredible opportunity to go to Ireland this past month! I know, crazy right?
Actually the day after Alyssa graduated from High School if you can believe it...I figured I deserved a graduation trip...JK:) Actually Karl's brother Lee and his wife Lisa invited us to go with them and we said, "absolutely!" So we began planning and saving over a year ago.
It was an amazing trip, we loved every minute of those 10 days!
Everyone asked us why we were going to Ireland, and this is why...Karl's grandma is from Ireland, and so there was some interest because of her, then following his mission, Karl and Lee backpacked through Europe for a month, and absolutely LOVED Ireland, vowing to return!
This time they brought their two cute wives!
It was about 3 hours to Chicago, with a 3 hour layover, then another 7 hours in the air to Dublin...not too bad.
Our first ruin. This was A VERY COMMON SIGHT!
Rock of Cashel, built in the early 12th and 13th centuries. Basically a kind of cathedral.
The landscape was picturesque everywhere we looked.
Muckross House gardens. Now there's a story, look that one up!
The coast on the Ring of Kerry.
We went horse back riding for part of a day, through some mountains, then down along the beach. Heavenly!!
This is a typical looking town, the buildings are all so colorful. I now understand why Karl has always wanted to paint our front door a bright blue...:)
We attended a tiny LDS branch in Tralee. There were only about 15 members including children. Coincidentally, there was a missionary couple serving there from our stake!
Lots and lots of cows and sheep.
Eating our "99"s.
These ice cream cones were all over the place, but not once did we find them for .99 cents!
We took a scenic 25 mile bike ride around the Dingle Peninsula. Probably my favorite day.
Along our route, I saw these darling children playing with the parachute canopy. They all spoke Gaelic. I just watched and listened to them for a bit. I love children!
My yoga friends made me promise to take a picture of me doing a yoga pose in Ireland...Karl made me do about 10 of them!
This guy was totally hand painting this sign. We had the most incredible weather, it didn't rain on us at all other than a few drops the first day! So all the locals were painting up a storm...and sun bathing..:)
Kissing the Blarney Stone...when in Rome...or Ireland as the case may be...
This was a quaint little village called Kinsale.
We rented a home for the week, so we were able to cook a bit, do our laundry and have the place to ourselves.
Dublin
Oh, we missed the kiddos, but they did awesome without us!
Next year...ITALY!
So happy you got to do this!
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