I’m not even going to try to recap the last 10 days of “blog silence.” I will say that it was quite nice to not have a computer for the whole of my vacation. Even though I could have easily taken it I chose not too and it was a pleasant break for that reason.
Let’s see… how do I recap 10 days of vacation with Kristen in a gorgeous country? Well… take a look at our pictures in the “Northern Ireland 2007” photos to the right and below is my daily log as I recall it.
Monday– Travel day. We dropped the kids off and headed to the airport. Not very exciting but really surreal for me as nearly every part of the trip there was identical to my 2005 trip.
Tuesday– Dave and his dad (James) picked us up at the Dublin airport and took us to their house. (A surprise for Kristen who thought we were taking the train/bus to our hostel.) When we got to Dave’s house we were greeted by his mom with one of the many blessings they offered us. (Not going to embarrass them with all the details, but we were quite humbled by their hospitality. It’s amazing how God blesses you in circles… [The title of the book Kristen’s dad wrote is called “Circles of Blessing.” Random side note.]) She made us a very nice Ulster Fry and
we chatted for a bit before stealing Dave’s car and heading north. That’s right… I drove on the wrong side of the road. Tuesday was gorgeous and even though we were tired we made it to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and drove through all the major towns on our way to our little hostel in Downhill. Ballycastle, Portrush, Port Stewart, Coleraine, etc. We were proud of ourselves that we stayed awake until 6 pm! (And that I didn’t cause an accident learning how to drive on the wrong side.
The funniest thing ever happened when we went to bed at about 6 pm, we both woke up at 8:30 pm (still broad daylight) and thought it was the next morning. Thankfully, we made it back to sleep.
Wednesday– Mostly we tooled around in Portrush. (A town lots of people from Northern Ireland go on holiday to) Kristen went on a massive walk in the morning on the east strand of Portrush and then we walked through the city center and headed to Coleraine… a town I really loved. We had dinner at a place called “50” in Limavady. This was our big splurge meal, we enjoyed that a lot.
Thursday– We went back east on the North Coast and visited Giants Causeway and kind of just made sure we had seen everything on the north coast we thought was worth seeing. We went to Ballymoney… cool town, then finished the day at the park that was literally directly above our hostel. The Mussenden Temple was very cool. It’s an estate property perched on a cliff top just between Castlerock and Downhill. Apparently the bishop of Londonderry had far too much money.
Friday– We left our beach town and headed south. Really… we just drove and walked around towns most of the day. We skirted Londonderry and drove through Omagh and had lunch in Enniskillen. (I love that little town, very near Fivemiletown, where I stayed 2 weeks in 2005) We then headed south into the Republic of Ireland. We had a very frustrating trip to the town of Sligo. I’m sure it’s a great town… but they have an utter lack of signage. This is the hometown of the Irish author William Butler Yeats. After tooling around town a bit, we headed still more south into County Sligo to find a bed and breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised to find a place called “Maggie’s Beach Bar and Bed and Breakfast.” The thing that really sticks out here is the extreme hospitality of the B&B’s owners… we had no reservation… and the awesome location. A nasty storm blew in while we were there and the waves crashed wildly on the shore just about 100 feet from the house. It was gorgeous!
Saturday– We got up early and basically drove where no man should ever drive. OK, not really. But it was a super long day as we took rural roads all the way from west to east to get back towards Dave’s house for church on Sunday. We originally planned to find a bed and breakfast near Killyleagh. But they had a viking festival going on which left us to scurry. After another hour or so of driving (nearly 8 in all… all on tiny curvy roads) we found a gorgeous B&B south of Millisle that had room called Thistlebrae. Vivian, the owner, was an incredible encouragement to us with her warm hospitality. (We really wanted to stay there longer!)
Sunday– We got up early and headed to Dave’s house for church. (Well, not at his house… but you know.) We went to church with his family… which was great! We had no idea what to expect but were pleasantly surprised by this very lively church. Most of Sunday was spent hanging out with Dave’s family, (super fun!) enjoying a great tea/dinner and then heading to CFC in Belfast for their evening service.
Monday– Dave treated us as he played tour guide. We went to the Ulster Folk & Transport museum
in the morning and then the Belfast City Center in the afternoon. We capped it off with an awesome chinese at “Foo Kin Noodle Bar” (no kidding, that’s the name!) and a trip to Dave’s stomping grounds in Carrickfergus.
Tuesday– A massive big day as we headed to Londonderry. This was Kristen’s favorite place on the trip. We walked the walls, had a bit of lunch at “The Boston Tea Party” and shopped our little feet off. James was a super sport about driving us all over. We had a great time all day!
Just a funny observation: Tourists want to avoid the malls and hit the little family run shops while locals want to hit the malls for good shopping. At the end of the day, both are great… but we just have different eyes for what we are shopping for. We finished off the day by heading to the grocery store to stock up on “stuff you can’t buy at home” and then getting my long awaited kebob. I can’t forget one of the silliest times of our trip as we all sat around at Dave’s house and played a PS2 quiz show game called Buzz. We just roared with laughter and chatted and talked into the early hours. This was the perfect ending to a great trip.
Wednesday– With sorrow and appreciation… we headed back to the Dublin airport and began our long trip home. I was so happy to see our kids! We took them home and had a great time catching up with them and sharing presents.
Of course… in typical Light Force tradition… our house was well-decorated. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Just wait.
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