The Irish Taruns

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Ashley's Visit

This summer, we've again been blessed with many visitors. June brought our good friend, Ashley. She's an avid fly fisherwoman and spent a couple of days fishing in the South of Ireland. Unfortunately for her, we've been blessed with a rather dry Irish summer. And without the rain, the lakes were a little low for good fishing. But we used the sunshine for a tour of the Southwest coast. We took in Kinsale and Kerry for some great seafood. We even got to stay in another castle, Ballyseede Castle. And the castle had the best host ever, Arthur, the Irish Wolfhound.

This was our first time through the Ring of Kerry. And with the exception of my ridiculous pregnancy-related car sickness, it was a great trip. We had sunshine for most the trip, but got some moody mist as we cut through the mountain pass. Ashley and I continued on to Connemara for a day with more rubbish weather. And next it was on to London!

Even with the great sunny weather we've been having in Dublin, it really hasn't been what you can call warm. London was sunny, 80 degrees and actually HOT!!!! It was great. Ashley's sister met us in London and we spent the week being tourists and doing plenty of shopping. Harrod's was a hit, of course.

Okay, let's talk about my favorite place in London, Borough Market. It's my favorite market in Europe/UK, held Thursday - Sunday with dozens of booths full of fresh food, sweets, drinks and just about every culinary treat you can imagine. We've been before, but every time we went the famous "grilled cheese" guy wasn't there. Finally, this time he was there. And it was worth the wait. The grilled cheese filled with two different cheeses, green and red onion is beyond divine. There are a lot of diversions in London, but this will always be a "must do."

We headed home from London, wishing we could take the warm sun home with us. But next up was very hot and sunny Portugal!

Monday, July 12, 2010

New Irish Tarun

In case you haven't heard yet, we're expecting a new Irish Tarun January 24, 2011! We are very excited about this new adventure and can't wait to share what's sure to be interesting experiences with having a baby in Ireland. Stay tuned...

Kelly & Richard

11 weeks sonogram

A giant, a panda and a cliff

We in Irish Tarun land were lucky enough to have some friends from Austin visit us sort of last minute in early June. They had originally planned a big trip to Bangkok & other destinations nearby, but with the massive unrest including the loss of control of the airport, they altered their vacation plans. This of course gave us an opportunity to for more travel and an excuse to get out and enjoy Dublin more. We really lucked out with some nice weather. And I got really lucky as they were zoo people. So I got to again see the very nice Dublin Zoo. And spoiler alert!: we saw the red panda this time! What an amazingly cute creature. Pictures below.

Since Richard had a bank holiday the first Monday in June, we got to do a bit of travel with a nice long weekend. Richard had his first trip to Northern Ireland where we drove the beautiful Antrim Coast and saw Giants Causeway. Do you know the story of Giants Causeway? Legend has it that famed Irish warrior giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), built the Causeway as a bridge to Scotland where a rival giant lived and had issued a challenge. He arrived in Scotland only to see the Scottish giant was much larger than he and he fled back home. Finn told his wife what had happened and she decided to dress him like a baby and told him to pretend to be asleep. The Scottish giant chased him back to Ireland and arrived at his home demanding to see Finn. His wife told him Finn wasn't home, that it was just her and the baby. Well, the Scottish giant took one look at the giant sleeping baby and decided that if that was the baby he didn't want to fight the father. He ran all the way back to Scotland tearing up the bridge as he went. The only part left of the bridge is what's now known as Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland and a small part on an island in Scotland.

Bog Jumping in County Donegal

After the Causeway, we drove to County Donegal. We stayed the night in Markree Castle, which was a big hit with the Griffiths and Richard got to stay at a castle finally. TJ & Mackenzie traveled with us and it was TJ's favorite part of the trip. I think he misses being king of the castle at home in Austin.

On the last day of our mini-holiday we went to Slieve League to see what I think are Ireland's most stunning cliffs. And you are able to hike all around them. TJ & Mackenzie loved climbing the cliffside and Mackenzie especially loved chasing the sheep away.