Early August, 2009

August was a very fun and busy month for us. We started off with a gathering of the 3 US Speech-Language Therapists - Tracy (Co. Kildare), Diane (Co. Cork), and me (pictured above in that order, in our front garden). We gathered at our house on a Friday evening - along with Diane's son Matt and Tracy's husband Scott and son Chandler. (T and C above, didn't get a picture of Scott!). Dana cooked us a feast and we had a great time talking and laughing - a very compatible group. The next day Diane and Matt went back to Cork and the rest of us toured the Dingle peninsula. We had a pretty nice day and enjoyed the familiar places and a new beach/cliff stop.

The following week, I took a 1 day trip to Dublin for the organizational meeting of the new IASLT Special Interest Group for Down Syndrome. While I was gone, Hal and Nancy's friends, Carol and Grimsley Graham arrived - they had dinner with Dana that night and I met them at breakfast on Saturday. We quickly discovered that Carol's sister Gillis is a friend of mine from my Early Childhood years - truly a small world. We enjoyed getting to know them, and had fun touring Dingle again, even more thoroughly - we even stayed in Dingle for dinner! Some of these pictures are from their camera or mine; Dana took the 3 Sisters Peaks, the Grahams and I, and the falls. Dana and I are by the Ryan's Daughter memorial rock above. The other pictures are at the falls and lake just before Conor Pass.


On Sunday we did the west side of the Ring of Kerry and Valentia Island - unfortunately a very rainy day, but still pretty. These pictures are by Dana with my little camera-if you click on them to enlarge, you will see the Grahams in the castle and at the top of the ring fort.



On Monday they toured Killarney on their own and on Tuesday Dana went with them to Killarney and went to Ladies View and Torc Falls. They then took the tour of the living history farm at Muckross House (no pictures). I met them for lunch after speech therapy, and then they left for Dublin, Wales and Scotland.

The next Sunday, we went to the Fenit Regatta. It was cold and blustery, but we enjoyed it and Dana got some nice shots of the boats, swimmers, and the wind surfers. Note the people in coats on the sidelines - it was chilly!