And, the last big event of the Spring/early Summer - Ann Owens Brunger and husband Scott came to visit. (As some of you know, Ann is my close childhood friend who moved away to Beirut, Lebanon, when we were 12, but managed to keep in touch all these years! I was in their wedding in 1968 and Ann performed our wedding in 1987. They live in Maryville TN, so we saw them some in the TN years, and have visited, emailed, and phoned over the years.) We were very pleased to have them. They arrived on Friday , then went to England for 4 days on Monday, then returned to us for about a week.
On Friday, their first day we drove back from Shannon through Foynes and they toured the AirBoat Museum (while I drank Irish coffee in the place of its invention). We then changed our plans and headed straight for Tralee because of muffler trouble - we sounded like hot rodders! We did visit Fenit that evening.
On Saturday we went to Dingle. The weather was gorgeous, so I'm posting a few pictures of things you have seen before - just so beautiful.
The picture at the top of this post is Ann and Scott putting their stones on the pile at the top of the Conor Pass. Just above is one of Scott at the lake above the falls just before Conor Pass. The other 2 are by MFE - of Ann across the road from the falls, and of Scott and Dana climbing down from the lake.
We did the Fungi (dolphin) boat, mostly for the great scenery, and then had our regular lunch at Murphy's before taking off on the Slea Head Drive. Left, right and below: views of Dingle and Fungi on this beautiful day.
A funny thing - we had a traffic diversion (what Americans call detour) because of an overturned tourist bus. Because we had no idea where we were going, we had some nice touring on tiny roads - very scenic. We came out and headed back to pick up part of the drive that we missed. We stopped at the Bee Hive huts, which we have done several times before. I was so confused - everything was different - layout, payment, no written info. I spent 15 minutes exclaiming over this, then got back to the car where Dana informed me that these were different bee hive huts. Well, now I've seen 2 sets...... and was pleased to find my memory hadn't completely gone.We completed the tour then went to Gerard and Dominique's for a wonderful summer meal outside on the patio. Yann was gone, so Lucca enjoyed having all these adults to himself! Later, Yann returned with Paul, Claudette, and Dale and also Gerard's friend Brian came, so we had a wonderful time.
On Sunday, Ann, Scott and I went to church, and they enjoyed a historical tour of the church after the service - by a parishioner who loves to do that! That afternoon we toured the Tralee Rose Garden, went to the Kerry Co. Museum, and then enjoyed the Pipe Band Championships - again beautiful weather.
The picture above is us enjoying tea and coffee in the bright sunshine on the square in Tralee while watching the pipes - very nice. A fellow at the next table took the picture, against Dana's wishes. We have to have some with him in them!!
They went to England on Monday. On Thursday we picked them up in Cork and drove to Kinsale where we spent the night at Jim Edwards Pub/ B&B.. We walked around the town (above, the harbour, rightSt. Montrose Church) and had dinner there with Diane and Matt, who were moving back to the US on Saturday, so this was our goodbye dinner.
On Friday we toured Charles Fort (I went last year with Mary, but was pretty tired and slept on a bench, so this was good!). This is a star-shaped fort on the harbour. It was used for centuries, then burned by the IRA during the civil war. We had a great tour guide and learned a lot.
his was constructed in the late 17th century on the site of an earlier coastal fortification. Charles Fort is a classic example of a star-shaped fort and has five bastions. The two seaward bastions, the Devil's and the Charles' were for defending the harbour and both are casemated - that is, they have gun embrasures inside as well as on top of the walls. The North, Flagstaff and the Cockpit, are the three landward bastions and all three had a brick sentry box at their outermost point, two of these still survive.
William Robinson, architect of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin, is credited with designing the Fort. Across the estuary is James Fort, an earlier structure, which was designed by Paul Ivy in 1602. In 1690 after the 'Battle of the Boyne' the Williamite forces arrived at Kinsale and attacked both forts.
We then drove through West Cork to Kenmare, then home. We made a couple of scenic stops, and then made one wonderful and impromptu historical stop at the Michael Collins Centre. (I especially like this since I had just been to the ambush site the week before!). The guide was a wonderful guy (pictured above, holding a replica of the car in which "the Mick" was riding) who obviously has this as his passion - my impression is that he has single handedly arranged and prepared many of the exhibits. He gave a great and knowledgeable speech about Collins - and especially about the ambush. Very interesting - more people need to go to this! (left - the armored car in the entourage and right a car of the same model as the one in which he was riding). We went back home through West Cork to Kenmare, making one stop at a chocolate factory! We bought lots of wonderful cheeses at the Truffle Pig, our favorite shop in Kenmare.
Saturday we went to Cahersiveen and Valentia - good weather, but not as spectacular as other days. We made all the usual stops, but I'll just add a couple of pictures.Above, the Fogher Cliffs from Geokaun Mtn. Below Ann and Scott on Ballycarbery Castle - click to enlarge the pictures - you'll see they are there, even in the distance shot! And note the pretty day - though it was very windy, especially on top of the mountain!
Sunday they went to church (I had laryngitis, so stayed home) then we went to North Kerry - Ratoo Round Tower; Ballybunion with trad. Virgin Rock picture; Carrigafoyle Castle; and Ardfert. Dana was especially pleased with the picture of the round tower - first time he's been able to get a good vantage point with no electric lines!
On the way back we stopped in Causeway where they were holding the Kerry finals for trad music competitions. There wasn't a lot going on, but we got in on some good set dancing - Ann took this picture. And we had a unique experience bought and ate some perriwinkles - small shell fish - a new find!
Here is a special picture. When Ann and I were young, my mother made us several matching outfits (the most memorable being leopard pants!). So, Ann brought us matching shirts and we posed for this picture, replicating our youth - with a few extra gray hairs!
Monday I decided to rest and get well, so they took the bus to Killarney and had a good day - shopping, Ross Castle, Deenagh Lodge.
Tuesday we went back to Killarney and went to Muckross House, Torc Falls, Ladies View (above), and lunch at Avoca at Moll's Gap. We ended up searching for (and finally finding) a new site for us - Muckross Abbey. This involved a beautiful walk through the woods by the lake. Also there were this apparently Scottish couple having their wedding picturesmade.
Then, home to pack and put them on the bus to Shannon Wednesday morning. Of course, within all of this were numerous gourmet meals by chef Dana - they were a very appreciative audience!
The big interest events were bungee jumping on the pier and the hamster run (that's this ball with a kid inside being pulled around the shallow part of the bay). There was also a cheese stall with our friend Maia from last year's cheese making in Castlegregory, so that was fun. A later event was the "All-Ireland Stone Skipping Contest" - 1st annual I think! We missed it, but did see some enterprising local youngsters selling bags of "perfect skipping stones"!
The next day I (MFE) went on my annual outing with LINKS, my church women's group. This year we went to a small church near Cork, (where the 13 of us doubled the congregation and all of the other 13 came to the after church tea to talk to us - fun. Then we went to Béal na mBláth ,the site of Michael Collins' death in an ambush in 1921 (Linda, on right,is reading us historical material as Esther listens!. Then lunch in Inchigeelogh with a fun, singing host.
