The First Post

Well, we made it!  We landed at Shannon airport in County Clare at 6am Tuesday morning (that's midnight in "our" time).  Jeff and Ben were able to sleep on the plane, at least for a little while, but Chris and I were not and were VERY grateful for caffeine on Tuesday!!

I thought this window art in the airport was cute ~ our first sighting of St. Patrick. 

Our first stop was The Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's western coast.  This sign had Ben a bit jumpy ~ he was SURE one of us was going to fall off the edge.

I don't often post pictures of myself, but I thought this one showed how windy it was up on the top.  I think I have on all three of the coats I brought in this picture ~ it was COLD!!

This picture was taken at the airport in Boston.  I am obviously not posting it because it is a great example of how cooperative the boys are with all my picture-taking.  I am posting it because, believe it or not, it is the last picture I got before Chris lost his hat.  His last hat made it through most of Italy before he left it in a cathedral.  He forgot this one on the plane when when we landed in Shannon.  :(

He was really sad about it, so he tried on a couple of hats in the gift shop at the Cliffs of Moher.  Guess this is not the one.

This one had a chance, but he decided to wait and look around a bit.  BEN got a hat ~ first one he tried on....why wait?   The story of my boys.  

We drove to Galway City and walked around a bit.  Had lunch in our first Irish restaurant.

We left Galway City and headed toward our cottage in Letterfrack.  It was a beautiful drive through an area of mountains, lakes, and little villages.  Jeff spotted this sign for the "Quiet Man Bridge" which is in the John Wayne movie "The Quiet Man", which we watched a couple of weeks ago and loved.  It was cool that we just happened upon it.  I am not sure how Jeff could even notice the sign ~ I think it would take every ounce of my attention to drive on the left side of the road.  He is doing well....though we will definitely have a few scratches to explain to Hertz when we turn the car in.  I am pretty sure they are used to that.  The roads are SO narrow.

There was a photograph of John Wayne next to the bridge.

Don't worry, I won't post EVERY day.  Just wanted to get this first one under my belt to get back into the swing of things.  It is now Thursday ~ we had a wonderful day yesterday at a farm for a sheepdog demonstration and are planning to do some hiking in Connemara National Park this afternoon.  The boys have spent the morning playing with their new friend Killian, the 7 year old son of the people who are renting us the cottage.  They walked to the village to buy some candy at the country shop and just came to the door carrying a puppy and a chicken.....they are in heaven....pictures to follow.

Cheers!