Irish Road Trip: Baltimore, Blarney, and Back Home (Sunday Feb 28)

My bed was so warm and toasty when I woke up, it was hard to get out of bed. The bathroom floor was ice cold and I hopped in the shower as quickly as possible. The shower poured hot water on me and I warmed up a bit. Until I had to get out, so I did the logical thing and got back into my warm bed. Downstairs the photographers were enjoying breakfast and laughing some more. I got dressed and dried my hair and we went down for breakfast. Marguerite made me some hot chocolate so Lindsay and I enjoyed that while we waited for our eggs. The hot cocoa could have used just a bit more chocolate but otherwise it was yummy and warm. Lindsay got the full Irish breakfast including the baked black and white pudding, which she decided tasted like stuffing. Not what I want to end my breakfast.

We packed up the car, cleaned out the 294 fruit snack packages and aired out the car since it was smelling a little funky. Perhaps because someone decided it'd be a good idea to transport an egg halfway across the country since she felt bad not eating after Theresa had made it special for her. I'm not naming names.... It was another sunny day in Baltimore and the lyrics "Good Morning Baltimore" were in my head. We loaded up, said goodbye to Marguerite and headed into town, towards the famous Baltimore Beacon. Now I had seen a picture of this famous beacon almost 3 years ago, when Dean Hedeman showed us a picture of it and asked us to see if we could figure out where it was. Who would have thought I would actually stand next to it?!

Lindsay and I climbed up to the base of it. I love the ocean. I laid down and just watched the waves, basking in the sea sun, and listening to the seagulls. It was perfect.

We decided to explore the rock areas, and check out the tide pools. Lindsay's favorite. The rocks reminded me of tree bark and I love exploring. We climbed down to the lower rocks and got a little sprinkle from another random rain shower. After a little bit of exploring, we made our way back down the hill. Which was a little rocky, a little muddy, but that never stopped us before.

We got back in the car, and on the road. Headed towards Cork. Lindsay was mastering the roundabout and I was navigating like a pro. Too many hours in a car though. There were some things to make us laugh...like Irish road signs. They use very descriptive pictures instead of words. We kept the music on repeat, I'm pretty sure we got our new favorite song--this Irish like rap song. It's fantastic.

We made it to Blarney in a little less than 2 hours. We parked the car, and were thankful for some Irish sun. Time to climb up the castle and kiss the stone. Now I'm not sure what they were expecting, but both Grisell and Lindsay were having mild panic attacks as they climbed the castle. Grisell is claustrophic and Lindsay afraid of heights so the narrow stairwells and the open roof of the castle was not exactly pleasing to either of them. But they came all the way to Blarney to kiss the stone and so they did it like champs. I did it again... can't hurt right? This time Blarney was more bustling, so we didn't have the royal treatment and chance to chat with the workers like we did the time before.

This time everything was beginning to bloom. The gardens and horse pastures were full of those magnificent yellow flowers. We saw the horses again, including one who was preggers. I've never seen a pregnant horse before!

We walked by the Blarney House and into this awesome tree. It would be the perfect kids fort. I took Lindsay into the fern garden, knowing she'd love it, and then we walked to the Horse Graveyard. It was kind of weird... but there were little grave stones for past horses like Snoopy and Tiny.

We made our way out of the grounds, stopping at the various gift shops and then heading to Blarney Woolen Mills. After a bit of shopping (I just purchased some postcards to send...that's all I splurge on) we were back on the road. More driving. We thought it made the most sense to drive for a bit before stopping for dinner so we could break up the time a little bit. Cashel seemed like the best place to stop...I thought the Rock of Cashel would be a cool place for my visitors to see. We made it to Cashel no problem and found the RockHouse Restaurant. It was a cute little place and Joe (our waiter, and possible owner) was so nice. He took us upstairs to the carvery and through the kitchen so we could stand on the roof and see the Rock of Cashel. He was so hospitable. Just like everyone else that we have met.

We stopped at Tesco on our way out of town so Tracy could load up on Digestives, her new favorite snack. When we got out of Tesco there was a beautiful full moon so huge in the sky. It was magical. The last two hours of travel were the most painful. I was fighting sleep, but needed to pay attention to direct Lindsay. Finally we pulled into Dublin, and after a few twists and turns we found the N11 and headed to UCD Belfield. I took everyone up to my apartment and gave them directions and loaded Lindsay's 1,700 pictures on my computer.

I bid farewell to my lovely guests, and then retrieved a package from the front desk. A St. Patrick's Day goodie box from Mike & Char. What characters! :)

It was good to have visitors here, and the exploration of the countryside was awesome. So thanks for coming visitors! :) A million beautiful views. Ireland is just majestic. Now I need to figure out the rest of Spring Break plans (we leave on Saturday) and need to complete some homework since I have a bunch of projects due when I get back from Spring Break. I'm sure I forgot something but pictures speak a thousand words. And we got tons of pictures. Credit to Lindsay on some of these... I stole some of them from her. Irish Paparazzi.