SO MUCH TO TELL

I guess I go through phases of being really into blogging and then phases of forgetting. I feel like I should be documenting at least a bit of my Europe experience and having just had the most amazing time in Ireland I figured I would go into that rather than doing my work. Riley's uncle's mother (I believe) has a small little funky place on the coast of Ireland. It is in a building that used to be for the coastguard that now houses several different little duplex like places. It was old and funky but had an amazing book collection and lots of blankets and such. We made a lot of food, including a pie and had Bailey's in our coffee. The main draw of the place was the location. We got in late on Thursday night and after having a brief interaction with a sketchy crazy guy who tried to sell me a airplane safety vest from the inner pocket of his jacket. The place was outside Arklo and we made a pit stop there to run in and buy groceries. We got very lost on the way there due to it being dark and in a out of the way place but eventually, suddenly we were there. It was too dark to really see around but looking out I could see water and knew we were very close to the ocean. I got very exited. We made our way into the right house after a scavenger hunt for the key through the rain. Having made some ruckus getting into the house and activating the alarm by trying to disengage it, we soon met our neighbor Patrick. He proved to be an extremely nice Irish man and we later discovered that he is a pro golfer. The next morning we woke up and ran around throwing open curtains and getting more and more excited at our surroundings. We could see the waves crashing on the cliffs, rolling green hills, a ruin and beach. We were right at the end of a little peninsula, a jetty out into the ocean, we were surrounded on three sides by the water. After making pancakes from scratch we journeyed out to explore, first walking along the cliffs before climbing onto them to watch the water crash and make things out of the flat black stone that came off the rock face in chunks. Eventually we scampered up to the green vegetation and ran along hills that we covered in thick patches of springy grass. The hills looked like a giant fuzzy animal and the ground was soft due to the tufts. We explored the crumbling buildings we called "the fort" and after climbing on the rocks and sitting in the rooms we continued on a path that led to a long stretch of sandy beach. There were sand dunes along the sides that we ran up and jumped down until we settled on a spot of sand and listened to the waves crash and the quiet that comes without other people. We had the entire beach to ourselves and starting digging in the sand and making figures of dinosaurs, rocket ships, Saturn and a sea turtle out of damp sand and the flat smooth rocks that lay everywhere. I "traced" Riley's body by putting flat stones around his outline and when we counted to see how many stones he was, he was 100. We went back for dinner and pie and tied pillow cases around our heads and lit a fire in the fireplace while listening to music and playing cards. The next day we explored the other beach and watched dolphins on the rocks. We took blankets outside in the afternoon to sit in the cool dusk and draw while the boys played with Patrick's dog Gromit. The dog was amazing and could fetch multiple sticks (he would always end up with four in his mouth) and weed and jump. Patrick came out to show us some of his tricks. Kristin and I made invitations to the time traveling party, it was daylight savings. Once we ventured inside Sam made spaghetti sauce while we boiled pasta and mingled about. It was earth hour so at 8:30 we lit a bunch of white candles and placed them about the house and used candle light for the rest of the night. Later that night Patrick came by three times in a row to bring us trash bags, wood and coal, and a half bottle of Bacardi that they were not going to drink "I'm sorry to bother you but you kids look thirsty..." It started an endless stream of "I'm sorry to bother you but... (my dog just had puppies, do you all want one?)" jokes in our Irish accent impersonations. We ended the night by going to the beach and drinking a bottle of wine while taking long exposure photos on Sam's camera. It was truly amazing and beautiful. Also, I have been into this song lately. Along with the Broken Bells album that was recently released.