Category: Vacation

Let’s just say that we made it.  I’m sitting in front of my tv watching good old American football while I finish this post up.  I’m just now starting to get my appetite back after losing 10lbs the wrong way.

We’ve had a good weekend just trying to recoup after a very rough trip home.

I wanted to thank everyone for following along with us on our trip.  We enjoyed reading all of the comments and emails that we received along the way.  Thanks for checking out Sara’s facebook galleries and praying for us each day.

After getting back onto the right side of the road I can’t believe we made it two weeks unscathed.  Our smallest roads are so wide, we really take them for granted.

Thank you all, we had a wonderful time!

Look for more photos soon.

High class, lay-overs, lay-overs, lay-overs oh my!

Okay first off, we didn’t sleep last night.  We went to what we both thought was our favorite place to eat last night in Navan.  I had a steak and got food poisoning or my nitrates aversion kicked in around 12:30am and I got deathly ill.  I passed out twice while the head hovered over the bowl.  I spare most of the gory details.  Suffice to say I wanted to not be in Ireland anymore.  Problem was I was so sick I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make the flight let alone drive us to the airport since Sara couldn’t do it!

But come morning, I forced myself to shower and get ready to fly.  It was the worst traveling experience ever!  I’m not a big fan on airplane toilets to begin with, but after three different flights I’ve become intimate with them all.  And just in case you ever decide to travel and our on a big plane, there is usually a handicap bathroom, use it the extra 2 square feet really help.

We made it through four airports, many security checkpoints, and numerous bathroom breaks.  Sara’s parents picked us up at midnight at the Pittsburgh Airport.

After a strange dinner and a good nights sleep we took off from Keef Halla outside of Belfast early on a sunny morning. We decided to just drive through Belfast since there isn’t much we could find to explore there. It’s mostly a ship building town, the Titanic was built there, and it’s pretty industrial. On our way through though we did run across “The Pittsburgh Bar and Grill” in the middle of Belfast! It’s a shame it was early in the morning or else I would’ve stopped in for a pint and a gab with the bar keep.

After a quick drive through Belfast we made it on south heading towards Dublin. We stopped off to see Monasterboice which is a round tower and grave site. This one is particular though is special because it holds Ireland’s highest and nicest of the high crosses. These large crosses were carved by hand centuries ago. They are very impressive. It was a small place off the beaten path and there wasn’t many people around.

Next we headed to county Meath to see Newgrange. It’s a neolithic tomb built a long time ago. You may not of heard of it but just to give you some perspective, “Newgrange was originally built between c. 3300 and 2900 BC, which means that it is over 5,000 years old. It is more than 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and predates Stonehenge trilithons by about 1,000 years.” – wikipedia. It was a very impressive site, and we got a tour and even got to go inside the tomb. It’s a tight squeeze so make sure your trim American form is ready to make it!

After this we tried to make it back into Dublin because the National Library was open until 4:30. I wasn’t able to do any Murphy surname research the first time we were in the city because of the weekend, but it was Thursday so we had a chance. Big mistake!! Not only did it take forever to get into Dublin during pre-rush hour. It took even longer getting back out to the ‘burb of Navan where we were staying that evening! Oh, well you live and learn.

Still a fun day, and the weather was nice to us.

Only a few more days to go and we are just turning the corner on Ireland’s full circuit. Sara and I keep just pinching ourselves at all of the amazing sites we’ve seen and things we’ve done over the past two weeks. It has really been a fantastic time.

Today we drove along the northern coast to see the remains of the famed Dunluce Castle. It was very cold and windy but kept you on your toes not knowing if you were going to fall into the sea with the remains.

Then we drove to the Giant’s Causeway and walked its geometric shaped steps into the sea. We ended up picking up a nice little water color painting on the Dunluce Castle while we were at the Giant’s Causeway visitor’s center.

After that we went to Bushmill’s Distillery for a tour and some whiskey tasting just to see how much hair Sara can grow on her chest. She wimped out and got a hot toddy instead of the standard glass of whiskey, but honestly I don’t blame her. My gums are still numb.

Then we traveled to a small town in the area called Dunseverick to find an old Protestant church that my friend from work has ancestors buried in. Unfortunately the weather turned very bad on us and it started snowing! I did see three head stones with the McCurdy name but the gates were closed and I was getting soaking wet.

Finally we had planned to walk the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge but due to the precipitation we couldn’t do it. It was a very cold day. I wish we could say that our holiday is ending with a bang, but more Ireland is kicking us out and sending us home cold and with nothing left in our pockets.

I’d like to say tomorrow will be great, but the weather forecast isn’t in our favor and we aren’t sure that we are going to follow through with our final plans if it’s going to rain on us all day long.

We are both coming home with a sniffle and a sour throat to give to everyone. Cheers!