Ireland

On Monday, July 3oth, we flew to Ireland. We landed in Dublin and took a bus to Gorey, where Ray and Lynne Crowe picked us up. They are friends of mine from Arizona that live in Ireland part of the year. They have a lovely cottage in Carnew. Their cottage is about 100 years old. They have remodeled it themselves. The area they live in is rolling hills and farmland. It is beautiful!



On Tuesday morning we went to the Craanford Mills. The man who owns it had worked there as a young boy. He went into other work and the mill later shut down. About 15 years ago he bought it and restored it. He gave us a tour, explaining the process of milling grain.


This is the room where they would light the fire to dry the grain. The main who owns the mill is on the left. The second picture is how the room looked without the flash.


After the mill, we went to Altamont Gardens. We had a picnic lunch. Next we walked through the gardens and then the trails through the woods that lead to a river.



This is a tree called the 12 Apostle's. It has one trunk and then twelve parts that grow off of it. I just had to climb up in the middle!


There had been 4 brown ducks on top of this rock. One by one, the white ducks climbed up and forced the brown ones off. A game of King of the Mountain!


This is an arch in the Altamont Gardens that is made of willow trees. As the trees grow they wrap (twist) them around each other to make the sides and top of the arch. It was amazing!


On the way home from the gardens, we stopped at a little village. I was looking at this shop and saw a gas pump in front of it. Then I realized it was also the post office and the grocery store!


On Tuesday night we went to the House of Story. This a a place where people come to share Irish culture and history. Everyone gathers in a small room around the fire. They pass a stick and each person has a choice to participate or pass it on. One can share a story, poem, or song. It was a very neat experience.

On Thursday morning, we took the bus back to Dublin. We went to St. Michan's Church. The church was founded in 1095. We went into the burial vaults underneath the church. The first vault had an area with coffins and then an open room with four "mummies." That is what they called them. They were very old skeletons. We got to touch an 800 year old skeleton!! I'm not sure we should admit that...some of you may think we are disgusting. But it was cool! The conditions of the vaults preserve the skeletons. The other room had different stalls with doors in which families would place the coffins.


We also saw Christ Church Cathedral. The inside of the church was huge and very decorative. However, there were many tourists there and it was pretty loud.

Vacation Part 2

On Monday July 9, we took a rode trip to the west coast of Scotland. The trip was 180 miles, but would take us about 5 hours due to the curvy roads. We were on several small country roads to get there. It actually took us more than 5 hours because we found many neat places to stop along the way. Here is a picture of one of the roads we were on.


One of our stops was Loch Laggan. The scenery was incredible.



We also stopped at Glenfinnan. The bridge here is the one used in the Harry Potter movies. Again, the scenery here was amazing. There is something about a loch surrounded by lush, green mountains.




We arrived in Arisaig in the afternoon, which is a small town right on the ocean. We walked along the beach enjoying the views of the islands in the distance. The names of the isles are Rum, Eigg, and Skye. The last picture is of Arisaig Harbour at sunset.




On Tuesday we took a boat to the isle of Eigg. It was an hour boat ride, on which we hoped to see dolphins, seals, and maybe whales. No such luck. All we saw were birds. It was a very cloudy day so the views were not very good. But we were thankful it was dry. We had five hours on Eigg to explore. We decided to climb An Sgurr, which is the highest point on the isle. It didn't look like it was that far from where the boat landed, but was farther than we thought. It took us about 2 hours to get close to the top. We didn't make it to the very top because we ran out of time. About half way up, we ran into some boggy areas. As we stepped the ground sunk and filled our shoes with cold water. There was no way around, so we got wet. When we got back to the bottom, we had a nice cup of tea and relaxed. Round trip we had walked 4.7 miles.

The first picture is of An Sgurr. The second is a view from about half way up on our walk/climb.



On our boat trip back to Arisaig, we got to see seals in the Harbour.


On Wednesday, we drove up towards Inverness and stopped at several places along the way. One place was the Falls of Moriston.


Urquhart Castle sits on the shores of Loch Ness and is probably the most famous site associated with the Loch besides Nessie. We saw the Castle, but Nessie did not stop by :-)


Debbie and I decided to put our feet in the cold water of Loch Ness.

Summer Vacation pt.1

We have been very busy the last two weeks visiting sights around Scotland. Jason's parents arrived on July 4th. We stayed around Aberdeen for a few days seeing the local sights. On Thursday Jason and his parents went up to the River Don to walk around (I was still working). They saw seals laying on the beach near the area of the river that goes into the North Sea. We went there again on Saturday so that I could see them.


On Friday we went to Dunnottar Castle, which is my favourite spot around Aberdeen. The scenery is just incredible. It was raining pretty hard when we got to the town of Stonehaven. We sat in the car and ate our lunch and then drove to the castle. It rained lightly for a few minutes at the castle but then stopped and we were able to enjoy the scenery.


On the way home from Dunnottar, we stopped at Torry Battery. This is an old fort on a hill at the Harbour entrance in Aberdeen. This is the spot where we had seen dolphins before. As we drove up and looked out into the water, we would see the dolphins. We spent a few minutes watching them, but didn't get to see them do any good jumps. It was still very exciting.


On Saturday we went to Fyvie Castle. It is about 30 minutes north of Aberdeen. We walked on a trail through the forest which led us around the pond. Then we explored the inside of the castle. It still has the furniture and decorations of the last owner, who bought the castle in 1885. The castle dates back to the 13th century but had many addition to it over the years.


On the way home from Fyvie Castle, we stopped at Tolquhon Castle. It is a ruin, that dates back to the 1400's. Most of it was built in the late 1500's and it was abandoned by 1800. It was fun to explore and see what they think the different rooms might have been.

update

Life has moved quickly the last two months. My term has ended, which doesn't really mean much. I will continue to work throughout the summer. I have completed the basic argument of my first chapter, and I am working on preliminarily matters for the second. Erin finished her school year this week. The last day was Wednesday, but has in-service until next Thursday. She will be off until the middle of August.

We have some friends from college coming today. They will be here for the weekend, and we are going to Edinburgh on Sunday. My parents arrive on Wednesday and will be here for 10 days. We will spend the first couple of days visiting some places close to Aberdeen. On Monday week, we will drive to the west coast of Scotland. After a couple of days there, we will come back passed Loch Ness, where we hope to see Nessie. I think the reward is 1 million pounds right now. We are trying to arrange a trip to Ireland for early August.

That is about everything from this side of the pond.