Unplanned Adventures are the Greatest - Ireland, Day 8

[Looking back at Castle Rock from our adventure!]

"Thursday - July 17
John's turn to sleep in--Gretchen played with the little ones this morning until everyone was up and ready to go around 9:30.  Sarah and Logan headed out to Donegal for the day and we decided to do breakfast on the beach again, this time dressing the girls in their bathing suits to avoid the inevitable wet clothes.  

"But we went left on Main street instead of right toward the bakery and beach access, and just kept walking . . . until the road ended and we continued into a mobile home park up a hill, then continued following a herd path through the thick field grasses.  We were following the beach, and were delighted to discover cliffs which we could actually see on this clear and beautiful day! 

[John was bold enough to venture to the cliffs, while I nervously kept the children behind the warning sign!]

"Curiosity drew us further, so we continued hiking up the hill until we were stunned by a magnificent view of a stone 'castle' on the horizon surrounded generously by a stone wall with another stone temple on a cliff!

"We went a bit further to discover that we were separated from it by a ravine/gulf, but we could see specks of people near the ruins, so we followed the path down into the ravine and across a dam, where a dozen or so ducks swam happily in the sunshine. 

"Signs indicated that we were on national trust land and were approaching Downhill Demesne House and Mussenden Temple.  

"We explored on, revelling in the excitement and beauty of the day, and eventually wandered about the ruined estate and fantastic old library building built in the style of a Grecian temple.  

"It was all built in the 18th century and apparently was inhabited until the 1920s, but the roof of the house is now completely gone and the rooms are filled with soil and grass.

[We couldn't get over how closely this idyllic scene resembled the Windows XP wallpaper!]

"Ruthie fell asleep in the carrier as we hiked back across the meadows (around 4 miles round-trip), so we parted as John took Gemma down to the beach and I brought the baby home for a nap.  

"The rest of the day was spent pretty quietly, doing laundry and housework, eating pasta for lunch, playing in the back garden and skyping with Mom Reid while John worked.  We'd had an invitation to hang out with April and Tim that day, so we contacted them to meet up in the evening and they invited us over for dinner.  It was about an hour's drive to their darling home in Ballyclare, and a beautiful drive through the countryside at that.  April fed us spaghetti bolognese and then we all walked into town for icecream and the park, which had a playground with equipment even I was excited to try! 

"We had "loads of craic" as Jenni would say, and finally started back as it was approaching 10, said our goodbyes and got back to our sweet coastal house around 11:30.  Marvelous day--one more day to tour around before the wedding!

Hen and Stag Day ~ Ireland, Day 7

The Wednesday before the wedding was a fun and busy one.  It was a stag day planned in honor of Sam and hen activities for Jenni and her friends who had traveled and thus hadn't been able to attend her earlier hen party hosted by her local friends.

The guys started with breakfast and dressing up the unfortunate groom-to-be.  

In order to take full advantage of the horrid outfit, apparently they invented some excuses to have him run errands and otherwise be seen publicly, thus attired.  

They went on to some go-cart racing!  The gentlemen were kind to include John and Logan, despite the fact that we'd all just met Sam.  So, we divided forces that day, John bringing Gemma along with the men and Ruthie tagging along with me.  It certainly wasn't an ideal arrangement, and we greatly appreciated everyone's graciousness to us in that regard. 

This was also the only day in which it truly was an inconvenience that Sarah and I weren't insured to drive our rental cars.  It made transportation a bit complicated, and long (poor Ruthie!).  

The men went on to play "football" at an indoor gym.

Meanwhile, the ladies had a much more refined girly day together!  We all met at Ballydougan Pottery, one of those delightfully old buildings which we just don't have everywhere in the US!  After coffee and scones in the restaurant, we were escorted into the workshop for pottery painting.  Thankfully other people took photos, because somehow I didn't take a single one!  (This may be because of the difficulty monitoring an 18-month-old in a room with rack after unstable rack of gorgeous unfired pottery!  The others were so kind as to take turns holding her, so that I actually was able to paint a mug!)

We then carpooled into Belfast city for high tea at the Merchant Hotel.   

There was a tiered stand for every two or three of us full of dainty finger sandwiches, scones, and mini desserts I'd never heard of before.  All this, of course, was to accompany as many refills of Earl Grey as anyone could wish for.  There were actually maybe half a dozen beverage options, with Earl Grey seeming to be everyone's favorite.  I don't know if I'd even had Earl Grey before!  It has a very genteel taste . . . ahh, lack of sparkling adjectives by a non-tea connoisseur here!  My favorite is still a hearty "Assam," typical of what we know as Irish Breakfast Tea.

The wedding party!  

I've hardly ever met more precious, loving young ladies than Jenni's nieces.  They were eager to help  with Ruthie, who readily poured affection back on them.  Meek but not shy.  Ladylike and yet unsullied by the grown-up world.  

The big camera got passed around quite a bit, which is so much fun!  I love this photo of Jenni, though I have no idea who took it.  Sam's sister, Yolanda, maybe?

Our happy senior suite reuinted, sans Sarah Snell.  What was our room number, West 396, maybe?  296?

Ruthie may not have been the only one feeling a bit tired after all the fun.  I might also note--as little as she belonged at a high tea, she certainly had a good dress for it!  I'd heard that the dress code for such an event was, well, "a dress."  We'd packed light and I was saving the only actual one-piece dress I'd brought for the wedding day, so I paired my fanciest top with my brown knee-length jersey knit skirt and decided it was ok (the only other option being a maxi skirt, which did not feel right at all).  

 My journal from that day was bare-bones, but I think by the time we all crashed at our house back in Castlerock, we Burchetts had a frozen pizza for dinner and quickly put the girls to bed.

Ah.  So, quite a day of memories all around!  Some tell me that this may have been more properly a "formal tea" vs. a "high tea."  Do you know the difference?

Castle Rock and Coastal Towns ~ Ireland Day 6

Let's make it our goal to finish this little series by St. Patrick's Day, shall we?  ;)

Tuesday, July 15 was a nice, low-key day for us.  It was also an iPhone-photo kind of day, when we left the big camera home and just took it all in.  As we recorded in our journal, we spent time in our own little coastal town of Castlerock before driving over to the more "busy and happening" Portrush in order to spend some more time with Jenni and Sam.  I admired the foresight they put into planning their wedding week, blocking out Thursday and Friday for wedding preparations, but making a point of seeing their out-of-town friends earlier on.

"We had a nice gentle start to the day, eventually walking down to Ruth's Bakery for potato bread and soda bread, which we carried to the beach for our breakfast.  

"The girls loved the sand and Gemma esepecially loved the water!

"She got all wet, but thankfully her dress dried quickly in the wind.  

"Stopped at Costcutter on the way back for some more food supplies and Gemma picked out some sand toys to get with "her" money.  We spent the rest of the morning doing laundry, playing in the back garden, John did some work I think, and Ruthie got a good nap.  Ate pasta in for lunch, then drove over to Portrush to meet Jenni et al. on the East Strand.  

[April entertained our little ones while we played around a bit!]

"We didn't know what was planned or what to prepare for. Turned out to be beach "football" and cricket while Gemma played with April then ran off and got all wet (again) and survived in a pullup, Gretchen's cardigan and her raincoat for several hours until her dress dried enough to wear.  

"When we were all cold and tired, we headed over for coffee/hot chocolate at Bert & Bob's as a large group, then let the kids play at the beach playground while we waited for our 8 pm dinner reservation at Jackman & Pye with Jenni+Sam, April+Tim, Sarah+Logan.  

"We got a kick out of hearing the Norn Irish children chatter as they played--"Is it all clear?" "Apart from Jimmy!"--and a mum rebuking her daughter Charis for being "boisterous and cheeky" for following Gemma too closely down the slide. 

[Playing around outside while the rest of us waited for our food!]

"Had some outstanding surf and turf and scallops at dinner.  The girls did well but were very tired by the end of the night, as were we. We had to find our own way back to Castlerock sans GPS as we had no cellular signal in N. Ireland--used the partially loaded googlemap to bushwhack west, only to find ourselves at a dead end on a coastal road, several miles of beach from home.  But made it back ok with road signs and John's good sense of direction."  [If I recall correctly, after approaching the dead-end, John performed a three-point-turn.  And as we debated what to try next, he instinctively started out in the right-hand lane on that dark summer night, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a car coming toward us!  That may have been our only close call, actually.]

[Ruthie and the groom]