Ireland, Day Four: Ring of Kerry (with the MacCarthy castle)

This was definitely one of my top two favorite days of the trip.  We found an Irish church to go to Sunday morning (it was exciting to be in a foreign country that speaks English!) and then headed off to the Ring of Kerry.  The ring is a touristy loop of the County of Kerry and because we were staying in Killarney we were able to see some of the sites on different days.  It's just over 100 miles total and with stops to get out and walk around, it was just too much with 3 kids.  What we saw though, was breathtaking and the pictures just don't do it justice!  For those of you planning a trip to Ireland (Jenny and Dawna!!!!!!!!) add this to your agenda...How to Drive the Ring of Kerry, Ballycarbery Castle and the Leacanabuaile Stone Fort.  We fizzled in our planning/research during March, but I had a general idea of the "must sees" and our rental had wifi, so we would research at night for the next days activities, but once we were out of the house we were out of luck looking up something quickly on our iPhones since we were out of country.  The Ring of Kerry has countless bus tours, but again, it wasn't something that seemed feasible with three little ones.  We loved being on our own time schedule, even though we probably missed a lot! 

Our first stop was on Valentia Island (there is a ferry to take across or it's just as easy to drive around and over the bridge!) The weather at the beginning was pretty bad, so we just stayed in the car for the Bray Head Loop Walk to see the Skellig Islands.

The wind was INSANE!!!!  When you take a panoramic photo with the iPhone, you have to hold the phone steady as you move it from left to right, but the wind was blowing sooooo hard that this is how the picture turned out!!!

We didn't take Luke out in this wind, but it was pretty fun to stand there and get blown!

The day cleared up as we continued our drive....so beautiful!

 

We LOVED exploring here!!!!!!  The ruins behind Hailey are known as the Ballinskelligs Castle/Tower or sometimes the McCarthy Tower...it was built in the 16th century to protect the bay from pirates and to potentially charge a tariff for incoming vessels.  I don't know how erosion hasn't just wiped it out completely...it basically looks like it's on a sand bar!  The tide was in so we had to cross an ankle deep ocean stream and I was the only one without waterproof shoes so the girls got a big kick out of Leevi giving me a piggyback across!  ;)   

We were able to climb up on the top of the tower...grass had grown all over it!

View from the top!

Exploring the inside...

The wind was KICKIN!

We saw this bright green seaweed everywhere and called it Leprechaun hair! 

There was a little cafe near the beach parking lot where we got some coffee and ice cream and then decided to call it a day and head back vs. continuing the rest of the ring.  

 

It's a little hard to see but there is a double rainbow!

 

Ireland, Day Three: Dingle Peninsula, Blasket Islands, Inch Beach

It would have been nice if it were a sunny day when we ventured to the Dingle Peninsula because I'm sure that the coastline would have been gorgeous, but we still had a good time exploring! 

 

More tiny two-way roads!!!!!

We stopped in the Oceanworld Aquarium and even though it was pretty wimpy, it got us out of the cold and the kids still had a great time! 

The touch tank...

The penguins were a big hit...we were there for feeding time also!!!  The girls had a penguin checklist that gave the names of the penguins and they had to find them according to the color-coded wing-band (the girls were on the left arm and the boys on the right)...pretty fun! 

We left the peninsula in time for Luke's car nap and headed to the Blasket islands and Inch beach...the girls were desperate to play in the sand!  It was really pretty, but rainy, windy and cold, so we took a quick look and were on our way! 

 

Farmlands on the coastline EVERYWHERE!

Inch beach is a popular beach in the summertime although I can't imagine the water ever getting a chance to warm up too much!  Again, I was soooo glad that I thought to bring their rainboots, because they would have been miserable playing barefoot in the cold sand!  They each gathered countless shells!!!!  And the yellow rainboots that Luke has on were at the rental...too funny that they were his size, although he had a really hard time walking in them!!  :) 

There was a really cute (ridiculously over-priced) cafe right on the beach where we warmed up and had an afternoon snack. 

Ireland, Day Two: Bunratty Castle, The Cliffs of Moher, Lahinch



On Day Two, we headed up the East coast for our main stop at the Cliffs of Moher!  We broke up the 3hr drive by stopping at the Bunratty Castle.  We probably wouldn't recommend this stop unless you stayed for the medieval dinner show (which we didn't do).  It was an old town castle town preserved with the blacksmith, baker, chapel and such in a folk park (I was kind of picturing Colonial Williamsburg, but it was just the buildings and no actors).  But the castle was well preserved and the girls got in lots of walking after sitting in the car!   

Speaking of the car, I was a big chicken and did not drive on the "wrong" side of the road!  Not to mention that the car was a stick-shift!!!  The shifting alone (using your left hand!!!) would have thrown me off!!!!!!  My brain cannot re-wire itself like that!!!!  It was stressful at times considering we didn't know where we were going and had three noisy kids in the back (talk about a lesson in patience, but Leevi did GREAT and I tried my best at being his co-pilot!!!!  The picture on the left below is a two way road!!!!!!!!!!! 

 The grounds at the Bunratty Castle

 Inside the Bunratty Castle

 Gorgeous rolling hills and farmlands!  I'm a sucker for old ruins!!!

 The Cliffs of Moher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Breathtaking to say the least!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We were soooooo glad that it was a nice day!!!!!!!!!!

 It was bright and sunny but VERY brisk!!!!

After leaving the Cliffs of Moher, we were looking for a beach where the girls could dig in the sand...we stumbled upon the coastline town of Lahinch and it was perfect!!!!  We had dinner, ran from waves, and played at a park until sunset!  The coast only had a rocky shore, but we found a boat ramp that was perfect to chase the waves on!

A guiness and ice cream...what more do you need?  Notice the "perfect pour" on the Guiness that left a shamrock shape!

Who would have thought that Luke's first time to the beach would be in Ireland??!!!

Running from the freezing water!  They both misjudged a wave once!!!

The absolute perfect end to our day...Kai and Luke had napped on the drive from Bunratty to the cliffs, so we were able to hang around until sunset at 8:15.

Panoramic iPhone pic!

Even after seeing a hundred sunsets in Hawaii, they still never get old!

Ireland, Day One: Muckross Pet Farm, Ross castle, Torc Waterfall

We started out our first day in Ireland with some activities close to home.  The town of Killarney in the County of Kerry is the absolute perfect place for homebase!  Before I started researching, I assumed that we'd fly into Dublin (simply because that was the main city that I'd heard of, but all of the gorgeous scenery is on the West side).  We also could have stayed in a beach front rental, but all of them were pretty far to have to drive home to each day.  We knew we'd be in the car a lot and with three kids in tow, we wanted to cut every corner we could!!!  Also, we found a nice balance between kid things and boring adult things to make everyone happy.  Poor Luke was the best trooper and took all of his naps that week in the car!!!!!!

 

Our first stop was to the Muckross Pet Farm...the rain came and went that day, but we were told that you just have to go with it or you'd never see anything!  You'll notice in the pictures over the week that we go back and forth from heavy coats, hats, gloves, to short sleeves!  And I'm soooooooo glad that I thought to grab the girls' rainboots at the last minute!  Even though we had some awesome sunny days, it was still pretty wet everywhere! 

 

The girls played at the park at Muckross Farms while we were waiting on Luke to wake up from his car-nap!

 We were given a bag of animal feed as we started wandering the farms...

 A pony ride was including in the admission!

It was recommended by the owner to start at the chicken coop and make our way around and finish at the puppies!!!  We only told the girls that there was a surprise waiting at the end!!!!  We literally had to drag them away!!!  They would have stayed all afternoon and of course, this was their favorite part about Ireland...too funny!!!  They were extra adorable though!!!  :) 

Right around the corner was the Ross Castle.  It was very fun to explore the grounds, but we didn't pay the admission to look around inside for the tour...it was 45 minutes long and we didn't want to torture ourselves!  ;) 

And then also right around the corner were the Torc Waterfalls!  An awesome, kid-friendly hike...it reminded us a lot of the Triberg Waterfalls in Bavaria, Germany. 

 

 

 

Ireland: Brewsterfield Lodge

It's only taken me two months, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about Ireland!  We were on the island for a week, so I'll definitely have to break this up into many posts!  We had an amazing time (despite the rain!) and part of that fun was due to the place we stayed!  I found Brewsterfield Lodge on www.homeaway.com and it was perfect for us: a 4 bedroom house on a farm with acres of land, forest, and rivers to explore!!!!!  They even offered donkey cart rides with their pet donkeys and, seriously, that's what sold me on the house!  LOL!  As I was researching, I kept telling Leevi that I'm stuck on the donkey house!!!  And they definitely were a hit!!!!  It was such a relaxing week when we could go "home" each day to a large house...one of us would take the kids outside while the other cooked dinner, and at night we didn't have to tiptoe around as the kids went to bed!  Traveling with kids isn't necessarily a vacation if you are all cooped up in a hotel room together!  And of course, it was so nice to be able to cook our meals all week! 

 

All of the pictures below are on the property!

 Two of the three donkeys!  The girls fed them apples and carrots each day!

 Donkey cart rides with Mr. Charles!

 Gorgeous views!

A panoramic view with my iPhone...

Dusty and Tequila, Mr. Charles' dogs, who lived next door!  They thought they owned the place and the mom, Tequila, knew how to open the front door and let herself in!  We found it quite funny, but I'd imagine that someone who didn't loves dogs would be terrified!  :)  We learned quickly to lock the front door! 

 Dinner outside (when it wasn't raining!) and a fire on our last night in Ireland.