Honeymoon

We're back!! We arrived back in Colorado on the 25th after traveling for about 20 hours. Tired, but content is a good description of how you feel after a trip like this. Ireland was beautiful! It did not rain once while we were there. Locals kept saying it was the nicest they had seen it since May. My Mom says the weather was courtesy of my Grandpa Sprague!

Anyway. I could write pages about our trip, but I will just write a summary for now. FYI - a summary written by me may be as long as some peoples entire view.

Wednesday, September 17th - My birthday and the first official day of our honeymoon. We flew from Denver to Newark and stayed the night at my new in-laws. Joan made brownies for my birthday and they were delicious!

Thursday, September 18th - Our flight didn't leave Newark until 7 pm so we ran some errands in NJ and hung out with Bob & Joan until it was time to leave for the airport. Once at the airport, we realized that our seats weren't next to each other and the guy working the desk did not care. Fortunately, the gentleman sitting next to me switched with Dave. Unfortunately, they were exit row seats that didn't recline. It was a long flight and we didn't sleep very much. At least the destination was worth it!

Friday, September 19th - We arrived in Dublin around 7:3o am, got our luggage, went through customs and picked up our rental car. We decided to get a GPS for the car, which was the best idea ever. We had brought along a road atlas and that would not have cut it with those roads. We went to our hotel and then caught a bus into downtown Dublin. We were tired but wanted to try and make it through the day. In Dublin we saw Trinity College, walked around some shopping areas and went to the Guinness Store House at St. James Gate. This is the original Guinness factory and it is stil brewed there today. After the tour you get a free Guinness in a round glass bar on the top of the building. It looks out over Dublin city and is amazing! Then we went to the hotel and slept for a long time. Did I mention that the hotel had two single beds? Awesome first night of the honeymoon!

(Dave at Trinity College)

(Me at the Guinness Store House)

Saturday, September 20th - We left the hotel and Dublin behind us to drive across the country to Ennis, Co. Clare. Along the way we stopped at our first of many OPW (Office of Public Works) sites. We bought a pass for 21 euro that allowed us entry to all OPW sites. This first place was called Emo Court and was beautiful!! There are over 1,000 different types of trees on the property, which has plenty of paths. We also took a tour of the inside of the house. It was very informative. Then we continued our drive and went to the Cliffs of Moher on the west side of the country. It is a popular tourist attraction and had gorgeous views of the cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean. We walked around for a bit and then headed to our first B&B, ate dinner in Ennis and went to bed.

(Me at Emo Court)

(Me and Dave at the Cliffs of Moher)

Sunday, September 21st - We left our B&B and started towards the Dingle Peninsula in Co. Kerry where our 2nd B&B was located. This was probably my favorite day in Ireland. We stopped first in Adare, Co. Limerick where we saw the Adare castle and some of the beautiful town! Adare Castle is another OPW site. It was built in the 13the century and is just ruins now, but it was a very nice tour and offered great photo-ops. Then it was off to the Ardfert Cathedral in Ardfert, Co. Kerry. The Gaelic Games All-Ireland Final between Co. Kerry and Co. Tyrone was going on so all the roads and sites in Kerry were virtually empty.

The Cathedral was pretty neat, but the lady behind the desk recommended we go to the old Friary about 1/2 mile away and we figured what the hey. So glad we did!! The Ardefert Friary was my favorite part of the whole trip! It is completely unattended, there is no admission and you can walk through and explore without boundaries. We were the only people there and had a blast! We walked up stairs, through corridors, into dark rooms and rooftops. So cool! From Ardfert we drove to Dingle, Co. Kerry, found our B&B and then had dinner in town.

(The Rusek's at Adare Castle)

(Dave exploring the Ardfert Friary)

Monday, September 22nd - From Dingle we drove towards Killarney, Co. Kerry to see Muckross House and Gardens in Killarney National Park. The house is really more of a mansion with most of the original furniture. There are some really nice pieces that were built specifically for Queen Victoria's visit in the mid-19th century. The gardens around the house are also very nice and well manicured. From there we headed to Blarney Castle in Blarney, Co. Cork. It was definitely a tourist trap, but I would still recommend it because they castle is very beautiful and you can walk through it and imagine what it would have been like hundreds of years ago. I almost didn't the Blarney stone because you are perched over an opening like 5 stories high, but I closed my eyes and just did it. After the castle we headed to Kinsale, Co. Cork to our B&B. Kinsale is the culinary epicenter of the country and we had dinner at a very yummy restaurant called Man Friday.

(Me & Dave b/w Dingle and Killarney)

(Kissing the Blarney Stone)

Tuesday, September 23rd - We decided that after driving so much we were just going to stay around Kinsale on Tuesday. We went on a historical walking tour of the town with Don. It was so informative and Don was just the cutest old Irish man! After the tour we went to Charles Fort, a star shaped fort used until WWII. There were a lot of ruins and great views of the Atlantic Ocean. I think Dave liked this place the best. I got tons of great pictures! The sun was working in my favor this day. After Charles Fort we headed up the Blarney Woolen Mills to get our obligatory Irish wool sweaters! Then we went back to Kinsale for dinner and to our B&B for sleep!

(Me in Kinsale)

(Dave at Charles Fort)

Wednesday, September 24th - This was a day of a lot of driving. We drove about 140 kilometers to Waterford, Co. Waterford and then another 12o kilometers to Ashford, Co. Wicklow to our B&B. We toured the Waterford Crystal Factory which was pretty neat. We got to see glassblowers in action and then people carving the crystal. Our B&B was only 12 km away from Glendalough which has some great monastic ruins along with some great mountain views. We walked for about 3 hours along the many paths around the two lake in the valley, went to dinner and then back to the B&B.

(Me at the Waterford Crystal Factory)

(Dave at Glendalough)

Thursday, September 25th - We woke up at 6 am so we could head to the airport for our 10:55 am flight to Newark. We got our VAT taxes back and then waited for a plane in which we got not only seats with extra leg room, but they reclined!!! We had about a 3.5 hour layover in Newark so we ate and read then hopped on our plane to Denver, drove home and slept for about 10 hours. We picked up our dogs the next day and now life is back to normal.

I hope you enjoyed my super long summary!!