Movin' on up to the East Side

We finally ventured east on the green Isle. We had a four day journey planned with a multitude of stops along the way. The most exciting part was that we DIDN’T TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION! Although he hadn’t driven stick shift in over 4 years, Mike got us from Galway to the East, Southeast and home, safely and without a scratch on the car. It takes a special Irish gene to be able to drive stick on windy narrow roads, of which you may have to dodge sheep, other cars and be able to not freak out when you can’t see around the myriad of curves because the bushes have grown about 10 feet high. Well, Mike’s Irish genes were shining brightly this weekend for sure! Although he was a great driver, managing the automatic windows was another thing. I was in stitches as he tried to crack his window a bit, but didn’t quite have the light touch to avoid the window going either completely up or down. It must have opened and closed at least a hundred times on the trip when all he wanted was a couple inches of air! I guess he’s been riding a bike too long now.


We had free tickets to the European Open at the K Club in Kildare about 20 min. west of Dublin. We stayed in a posh B&B, as it was the only one left, besides the Jacuzzi tub was certainly a draw. It looked over the country club and from the 2nd floor window we could watch the golfers on the 17th hole. We walked over to the club on Thursday morning as the first and only bit of sun was desperately peeking through the cloud laden sky. As soon as we got to the first hole the rain began and didn’t stop until evening. Despite the horrendous weather, chill, and the muddiest shoes you could imagine, we had a great time. Out motto became the deep thought by Jack Handy, “as the cool soft mud squished between my toes I thought, man, these aren’t very good shoes”. However, being within spitting distance of multiple golfers was so fun. Padraig Harrington, the Irish favourite, was one we tried to follow… as did EVERYONE else. We also kept tight on the trail of Nic Fasth, as a matter of fact, Mike had a lovely conversation with the bloke, and it went a little something like this: Mike-“Hey, nice putt” Nic- “Thanks”. Then about 7 holes later we saw him sneak into the woods for some relief… if you know what I mean. We even got a smile from David Frost! The tourney was fun, but we were disappointed that we never got a chance to see the eventual winner- ‘Monty’, the Scot, but Mike’s new friend Nic came in 2nd so we were proud of him for that.


That evening we drove to the Wicklow Mountains, known as “The Garden of Ireland”. The stunning landscape, cute little towns and breathtaking mountain scenery explains that name quite clearly. We made it to B&B #2 and collapsed on our bed after showering the mud off our shoes. Friday, after Michael’s 9 mile run for his marathon training, we explored Glendalough, which means Glen of two lakes. It is nestled between the greenest of mountains covered in grassiness and evergreen trees. Hiking around the place gives you a peace and a real “I love the outdoors” feeling. The history of the monastery located between the 2 lakes was fascinating, it was founded in the 9th century; those monks couldn’t have picked a more beautiful spot. We then hiked up to Poulanass Waterfall which rushes through many levels of the forest and shoots out like a waterslide at its first fall. We could have gazed at the view of the lake and mountains all day, but there was more exploration to do. We found a gorgeous exotic garden and walked about enjoying the variety of plants and colors. Mikes poor legs had enough by then after a 9 mile start and we just about fell asleep on a bench at one of the most scenic spots as we rested and took in the view.



We rambled south to Waterford next. The drive was so entertaining and my navigational skills were really challenged. Ireland rarely uses road names or road numbers except for on major roads, and as we looked at the map there are absolutely NO major roads from Wicklow to Waterford unless we were to go way out of our way. Following signs from town to town was our only means of knowing where to go. The drive never lacked amusement as we passed through towns with names like “Oola”, “Kilmacow” or “Mooncoin” I thought we were magically transported back to rural Georgia with the sounds of these places! Waterford was a nice city, fairly industrial though. The Crystal factory was more impressive than we expected. The process of making one piece is so laborious and calls for such skill that master crystal etchers go through more training than I did as an OT! We saw the whole process of glass blowing, cutting, carving and etching the glass. My appreciation of the pieces grew 10 fold after all that, and we wound up leaving with a bit less money than we started with.

Our final destination was Rock of Cashel- now here is a place with history! It began as a castle for kings starting around 360 AD and is said to be the place where St. Patrick plucked a shamrock to explain the Trinity and relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is also to have baptized and converted King Aenghus here. Oliver Cromwell did serious damage to this place, but there are still very well preserved ruins here, and even bits of the fresco in the chapel. The 800 year old stone roof of the chapel was very impressive to see; especially when we learned that is has yet to leak!

Our adventures were exciting and it was hard to leave them as we drove home. But we did manage a grocery run before bringing the car back to save Mike one less trek to the store on his bike and home again with his backpack full of produce!

Marathon Update

The Training Continues…

Well I am a little late in giving an update on my marathon training but never fear as I have been hot on the trail the past few weeks.

My routine of Monday 3 miles, Tuesday 4 miles and rising 1 mile per week, Wednesday 3 miles and Friday 9 miles and rising 1 mile each week is working out well. That being said, I come to love my short runs and dread the long ones. Mostly I have to fight off boredom and fatigue when I run for so long. I want to run faster so I can get done faster but then that makes it all that more difficult. You see the difference between a 9 minute mile and a 10 minute miles when running 9 miles is a whole 9 minutes and that is a long time, Don't you think??

In related news, I am happy to report that I have a two new running buddies, Justin and Emmanuel. Both of which are experienced runners who push me to run harder. Justin is on staff with the charity that I volunteer with and Emmanuel is a friend of a friend. They are both great guys so it’s nice to have some company as I train.

I also have been doing a little bit of cross training. In addition to all the biking I do all over town, I am now a regular on a tag rugby team and at a football (soccer) pick up game every Monday night. I wouldn’t consider either sport one of my best but its fun to get the exercise and meet some people in the process.

Well that’s about it. I run 10 miles this Friday so hopefully that goes well. I hope to give another update in a few weeks.

Tara and Arthur - visitors extraordinare

Ok this is slightly embarrassing- we’re so overdue a blog entry, what I’ll be writing about now actually happened last month! Geez..

Tara and Arthur, my friends from Elizabethtown College, came to visit early in June. Although we only got a few days with them, they were quality and filled with adventure. When they arrived to the western side of the island they followed my directions, which I proudly wrote out realizing I’ve been in this country long enough to actually tell OTHER people how to get around… wow. We were anxiously expecting them at 6ish! Well, 6:20 past, 6:37, 6:40, 6:55… now I know Tara isn’t the most timely (we’re similar in main ways) but an HOUR late? I finally get a call, and lo and behold, my directions we craptastic, again. This is the 3rd time someone has gotten lost on our directions… I’m hopeless! (Read: if you’re planning on visiting no matter how confident I sound in my directions stop and ask multiple time and print out your own). They finally reach us in time for us to take them for the token fish and chips at McDonagh’s and wander around town. We showed them around, walked down to the water and saw a real seal swimming around!!

Mike and I were excited to start our part of the vacation early as Tara and Arthur got the last room in the hotel they were staying at and it happened to be a jammy (Irish lingo for “sweet” as in really cool) suite. We stayed on the pullout couch in front of the enormous tv in the kitchen/living room/ dining room area, although we all could have fit on the gianormous California king in the master bedroom. I thought they didn’t even have KING sized beds here… they don’t. It turned out to be 2 full sized beds literally ZIPPED together?! We stayed up in the suite playing cards until we were dozing off mid-hand, while catching up and making fun off me as I knocked yet another glass of beverage (1st was water, 2nd was tea, despite how it sounds) off the table- it was turning into full contact Nutsy (our card game of choice).

We left the next morning for Co. Donegal where part of Tara’s family is from. Our plans were to sight see the Glen Gesh Pass (titled as one of the most beautiful sights in all of Europe) some sea side towns and do some heritage hunting. We made our way to Glen Gesh fully aware that the maps were fairly unclear as to where it is, which we’ve gotten used to, so as we got closer we asked directions and followed signs the best we could. We stopped on our way there in this pretty cool valley-ish place scattered with bleating sheep and greenery. It was lovely, a classic Irish view. The sheep were pretty skittish around here. We found this out because I’ve made it a goal to pet one of those fluffy things before we leave… and even if you don’t think they see you… they have eyes on the backs of their wooly bums because they just always scamper away whenever you’re within arms reach. So we were on our way, to find Glen Gesh again, but once we left it got flatter and browner and less and less pretty… we must have missed a turn off or something. We turned around and saw no other road besides the rocky dirt ones. Well, it turns out we were IN the Glen Gesh pass. We decided that, yes, its pretty… but whoever wrote that part about one of the most gorgeous in all of Europe must not have traveled far… maybe even not outside of Donegal. Oh well. We made, it to Letterkenny for the night and had a little party in our room that attempted to rival the raging dance club thumping right outside our window (hotels fail to mention those parts when you’re making reservations).

On Sunday we went on the search for Tara’s family. Getting lost was the fun of the game for the first hour on the road, until we were on the right track to St. Colmkille’s Abbey where we found Tara’s ancestors’ gravesites. There is something exciting about that, it seems to give a sense of completion. We explored lakes and woods around the area and were off back to Galway. We decided on one more look out point since we were a bit disappointed on our pass through the pass. We picked a random spot to stop- St. Johns point. Although the road to the point was VERY narrow, meaning we actually had to pull off into people’s driveways (if you can call them that) if we saw another car coming, since ONE car barely fit on that road. We were wondering where the heck we were being led… Well, it turned out to be a hidden gem of a beach and look out spot that we would NEVER had expected to be so beautiful. The water at this little beach was clear and blue as the Caribbean. We looked out on the southern part of Donegal to our right and the northern part of Sligo to our left. It was fabulous to walk around the grassy hill, the sandy beach and wade in the warm bay water. We stayed there about 2 hours as we were so excited about the treasure we found in this place and were just loving soaking it all in.

The next day in Galway was a much needed lazy day of card playing and exploring the city. The highlight was while playing Nutsy I got the ultimate Nutsy hand- 4 aces face up, which our nerdy, I mean, amazingly smart husbands, figured out to be a 1:270,725 chance! Quite amazing! We reminisced about the old days, T.G.I.F. TV, big wheels and Saved by the Bell. I made a bet with them that if I lost my 1:270725 chance hand that I would have to do the Steve Urkle dance on the main street of Galway, and vice versa if I won. See the picture below to find out who won!!! Also, thanks to our amazing visitors we now have some much missed “good” peanut butter- Jif, Oreo cookies, and really missed Pad Thai mixes to have Thai food when we like.

Ireland is a great place to have visitors since there is so much to see and do within a small island. Another set of visitors and new things for us to experience as well.