THE FAMILY!!!

we went to kilkenny and inquired of this fellow about the dwyer or lacey family. he was no help.

then......

i finally got to meet some of my mom's family in Ireland! And my girls got to meet their Irish cousins! And Kevin got to hang out with some of the most amazing and wonderful people in ireland. and they are so much fun. they made us feel so welcome and it felt like i was coming home in a way.

First, we met Anne at Kilkenny castle. Kevin and I had spent time with Anne when she was in the bay area (during our courting days a bazillion katrillion years ago). Anne had us follow her to the family home about 20 minutes from kilkenny so we wouldn't get lost. she says "there is a lot of guess work involved in driving in ireland!"

Then,

we met Kitty, Anne's mom and Anne's brother Seanie. now mind, these are people of legend in my family. my mom and dad visited Kitty and John and their children once and the smile that would come to their faces (especially mom) when they spoke of their time here still warms my heart.

they had the most delightful supper for us. we all felt so welcome, relaxed and happy!

and we met: Lena and Morris, whose daughter

Kathy was just then honeymooning in the US

and was at that very instant (or close enough) meeting my family in the bay area!

and we met: Jimmy and Breda and Tom and Maggie and John and ......i know i'm going to miss people because it's like 2 in the morning and i also know i am masacreing people's names and i so completely apologize and if you just blog me i'll fix it because the computer is an amazing thing...

and we met: Niamh and Ciara and Aoife and Sean and we missed Willie and Nora but we had the most exquisite time!

And the girls got to go home with maggie and all her crowd and so did Jillian and Emily (two of Jimmy and Breda's daughters). so, of course, next day there were many smiles and we got to see our first hurling match! and Jerpoint Abbey (which is incredible and very medievally). And that evening they had mass in the town cemetary and blessed all the graves and we got to pay our respects to John and all the kids decorated his beautiful grave with the little white and black pebbles that cover his plot and it was all very good. and now i must head for bed and it's off to germany tomorrow (or rather today).

Love to you all and thank you for being in our lives.

weeks 3 thru 4ish Ireland

we waved goodbye to scotland in pitlochry and hopped a plane to ireland.........

IRELAND! WE ARE HERE!!!! spent our first day recuperating and our second day at castletown house, a lovely manor home just a half hour away from ourlovely, and conveniently located home away from home in maynooth. there is an 18th century seminary AND an amazing castle ruin right in our town. THE STUFF'S EVERYWHERE, IT'S LIKE IT'S JUST LYING AROUND

DAY 3 DUBLIN: Trinity college, St. Stevens Green, Grafton St. Temple Bar, Molly Mallone. Subway home.....erin liked the grafiti best.

don't know who this rogue lad is.... he was lying in wait to get into peoples pictures! i like that!.......wonder how many tourist's photos he is in and in how many countries

the following day it was back in time again to the neolithic sites of knowth and newgrange. absolutely amazing carved rocks and passage tombs

our 5th day out, we ventured into to Dublin. where we met RICHIE POWERS and had a very fun lunch, he pointed us in the right direction to the kilmainam goal and we got all the family news.........BUT, I DIDN'T GET A PICTURE! what is up with that??!!

kilmainam goal is an amazing place and i have better picures but the computer is acting up (not me this time) so i'm just going to post these (hopefully) now and edit later!

then it was off to visit the land of saint kevin! GLENDALOUGH!
it was windy there

but beautiful

still to come: KILKENNY!

Days 12-17 Scotland contd.

it is our last night in edinburgh:( we have so enjoyed our time here. it's like a castle rolled in a city rolled in a medeival ghost story... with lots of chewy nougat! SWEET! hand me a digestive biscuit!

Days 12 to 17!!!!! More of Scotland

On our way from edinburgh to our hostel on the wild island of Mull we stopped for a brief dose of history at stirling castle. Absolutely beautiful!and this is it! the final resting place of the last unicorn. they are all about unicorns here! and gargoyles....lots of gargoyles! and i love both! so i was in gargoyle and unicorn heaven of course!

me and haley in gargoyle purgatory, and all of us in gargoyle and unicorn heaven pictured above

Then we were wisked off by ferry and a rather a long car ride to the town of Tobermory....

we left the girls at the hostel after dinner and visited the quaint pub next door! Mishnish! what a magical name......

we met some lovely young people from ireland who had just arrived in their sailboat. they insisted we roust the girls! so in the girls came for their first pub experience which ended in a sing-along and circle dance! when i got back to the pub after returning the girls to their bunks i found out we'd been asked to stop dancing..... what's wrong with my moves??!!

next day found us on a ferry to Iona, the mystical island where st. columba was monk-ing around. had picnic on the beach with seagulls who have a diferent language from those at home ( i swear it, they sound different!) and truly enjoyed this peaceful monastery island.

ok this is getting way too wordy. the next day we visited standing stones and got some more album cover shots,

left the island, drove past some magical train line, and arrived in fort william!

the following day was back to school day. but apparently some people don't want to cut their summer holidays short even if it is to go to hogwarts!

So, we took a nice hike!

we also went in search of nessie at the loch! all we found was this lousy castle,

fun dress ups tho!

our last stop in scotland was Pitlochry! we visited the tiniest scotch distillery in the world and had the tiniest taste! brinna found a lovely place for a haircut, nobody wanted to risk it. after all, next day was on to ireland to visit the rellys for the first time! but that is for another blog!