the finale... Cliffs of Moher

Ireland- Ring of Kerry

Lunch with Finnegan - We drove off the main roads and found this lake and park and stopped for a travelers lunch (we ate a lot of bread and cheese). This random dog shows up, joins us for lunch- although even he refused to eat our 4 day old brown soda bread... hmmm... anyway, it was pretty funny. And after missing my own pooches for so long, some friendly dog company was very welcome.


"Wait, you're eating fresh bread and only offered me that nasty old bread? Can't i just have a little bite??"




Finnegan kept running over to the lake, and then looking at us as if to say "Come on guys, i thought we were friends, its time to play!"

More Pictures

Killarney National Park- Tuloc falls - beautiful day




The Burren- really intersting rocky landscape. We drove around the Burren in the morning on 5/22 (my last day in Ireland), it was rainy for part of the morning, but cleared up later so we could get out and explore. We hiked down to the ocean across the rocks, saw more locals, enjoyed the day...











more locals (somehow it isn't awkward taking pictures of the animals i met, whereas with the people, it felt too touristy :)


Irish Ass (a baby one ;)

The quick, pictoral view of the rest of Ireland

Since I'm way behind on blogging about my trip and the best part is the pictures anyway, i'm going to add a bunch of pictures of the final few days in Ireland for your browsing pleasure...

Final stats: Ireland for 10 days, 1300 miles driven, 1 new tire, 12 rolls of film, endless memories.




Falls near the upper lake, Glendalough

Upper lake, Glendalough- breathtakingly beautiful


St Kevin's "kitchen" / church in Glendalough

beautiful stream - note to self, small off the beaten road paths next to a stream may be deer paths that land you on the wrong side of a barb wire fence - still its very scenic :)


St Kevin's hermatige

Wicklow Mountains

5/18/07 - After the Guinness tour in Dublin and finally escaping the city traffic, we headed south toward the Wicklow mountains. Amazing scenery, especially along the mountain passes we were on. Wow. Okay, maybe you could talk me into living here too, even without the ocean... clearly there are sheep, mountains, lakes, beautiful scenery, yeah, i think i could be convinced... It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, a strong wind blowing across the mountains, and occasional sheep in the road.



Thank goodness the irish have signs reminding you to stay on the road, otherwise you might be distracted by the beautiful surroundings and fall off.







We reached Glendalough and St Kevin's monastery late in the afternoon, and since it was rainy, we decided to find a B&B for the night and see if the evening weather improved enough for hiking. There was a small village and several B&B's right up the road, and as we pulled up to one of the houses, there was a small boy, probably age 5, in a tie, jumping on a dirt pile with a friend (also in a tie) and a dog running around adding to the mayhem. it was such a simple and fun scene to arrive on, i knew instantly that these were our kind of people... seriously, kid in tie jumps in the dirt, i'm sure mom has no clue what you are doing. heh heh heh. Mom answers the door, obviously pregnant, with a 2 year old boy on her hip. He was sporting a big toothy grin and a runny nose... yup, these are my kind of people. The room was nice and comfortable, and as soon as Teresa and I had our bags in from the car, we crashed for a late afternoon nap, which was heavenly!! After naps, we headed for a small store to find some travelers dinner- bread, cheese, yogurt... nice and cheap and hit the spot.