Cabins and Baptisms

Erin and I had a few days to rest after our Ireland trip.  Last week Wednesday we drove down to the cabin in Cass Lake to meet up with my mom.

We had a nice few days relaxing and reading intermixed with some biking, swimming, and hanging out with family.  Zac and Bunny (my aunt and uncle) came out a couple days.  Bunny brought with the scrapbook she got for her birthday this year.  The pages were made by family and friends.  It was fun to look through all the pictures.

My Grandma even came out for a little barbecue.  Erin and I picked her up from Bemidji and drove her out to the cabin.  She was out for the afternoon and we had her back home in time to watch the Twins game on T.V.

From the cabin Erin and I headed to Brainerd.  Our friends Mike and Amanda were having their new baby boy Axton baptized and they had asked us to be the godparents.  We were very flattered to be given this honor.

It was a fun weekend of spending time with family.  We played a little bocce ball and grilled up some burgers on Saturday and then had the baptism on Sunday morning.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/bocce_ball.mov 320 260]

We spent the rest of the day hanging out.  It was very nice to catch up and spend some time with the new little one.  He is a very calm baby.

When we left this morning Mike and Axton were participating in the normal morning ritual of sleeping on the couch.

We are back in Cook for the evening and are leaving for Wisconsin Dells early tomorrow morning.  Not much down time for the two of us.  We should have posts up from the water-park excitement.

The end of Ireland

After staying at the Galway Hostel we packed up our backpacks and caught a tour bus out to the cliffs of Moher. We had a very cool driver named Paul. We were able to put our big backpacks under the bus which was really nice. We weren’t sure what were going to do with them while we were out hiking around the countryside.

Paul drove us out of Galway and into the Burren Mountains. The area is covered in limestone both rocks above the top soil and the base below the top soil. It was impressive watching Paul drive through the narrow roads avoiding oncoming traffic, the rock side walls, and talking about the local sights all at the same time.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/paul_driving.mov 320 260]

He dropped us off with a guy named John.  His family owns a farm in the Burren region that goes back many generations.  John had received a degree in Geology and had started up a hiking tour through his farm land to show off the unique region they lived in.

He took us up into the mountains and talked to us about the plants that lived in the area, and how the land was formed by it being under water a long long time ago, and then was carved out by glaciers only a long time ago (not long long).

On our way back down from the hike he brought us to a sliding stone.  It is a very large rock that has a smooth side that is flush with the ground.  You take another piece of lime stone, sit on it and then slide down this big rock.  John said it was something that the boys growing up in the area had been doing since his great great grandfather.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/stone_slide.mov 320 260]

We hopped back on the bus and Paul took us off to grab a little lunch and then to the cliffs.  It is pretty amazing seeing them drop dramatically into the ocean.  They had this set up a little different then the cliffs on Aran Islands.  They had barricades up that didn’t allow you to get to the very edge which was fun to do on the islands.  So I think if I were to give recommendations I’d say to go to the cliffs on the Aran islands over the cliffs of Moher.

Part of the reason they had the cliffs blocked off was to help maintain the puffins breeding habitat.  We thought it was just because too many people were falling in.

So we hiked around for a little while checking out the sights.  Then we got ice cream and headed back to Galway.

We got back into Galway around 5:30 and headed immediately over to the train station and got inline for the 6:05 train to Heuston Station in Dublin.  The train was a little late getting going and we had some really obnoxious kids sitting next to us with just terrible parents so the ride back was an extra long 3 hours.  We crashed in the hotel when we got in, were up at 5:00 AM the next morning and in the air heading back to the US by 9:30 AM.  Our two flights in the states were delayed.  The one from Chicago to Minneapolis was really delayed over 3 hours.  We finally made it to Minnesota around 8:00 P.M. to find that our bags had been lost between customs in the JFK airport where we rechecked them and Minnesota.

We were exhausted when finally made it in since we had been up for almost 24 hours so we grabbed the nearest hotel to the airport hoping to get some much needed sleep and that our bags may make it in over the night.  We are off to find out now.

The long bus ride….

Well Erin and I packed up our little camp and said goodbye to Killarney as we trudged our way the 1.5 K back into town to catch a bus to Galway.

Looking at the map and basing things on our bus ride from Dublin to Cork I figured we’d be driving for about 2 maybe 3 hours to get to Galway.  After the first two hours here is how things looked.

We switched buses in Limerick and finished out the 5 hour journey pulling into Galway around 7:00 P.M.  The weather was beautiful, and after checking into our sweet hostel we headed out on the town.

We walked around for a while and ended up sitting down by the waters edge, which happened to be a very popular place to hang out.  We saw jugglers, musicians, and the occasional group emptying their beer cans.

After watching the swans and ducks swim by for a while we headed back to the main street looking for food.  We found a little pub promising live music and bar food.  Well….. The bar food had already ended for the evening and the live music wasn’t going down for another hour, so we sat down, ordered a drink, and visited till the band showed up.  It was fun to get a little listen to the local music.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/pub.mov 320 260]
We were there for a short while and then headed back to the hostel for a couple of reasons.  One was to use the free wifi which is made available in the kitchen area.  Second if I had kept drinking and in the dark I don’t know if we would have been able to find our little abode.  The truth of the matter was I was lost anyway and had to rely on Erin to bring us home.

Well we are off to the Cliffs of Mohre this morning.  We need to find a little grub for the trip.  So we are off to pack up our bags and get on the road.  Hope to update you all this evening from the hotel.

Killarney or bust

We left our little bed and breakfast yesterday and found a little wifi hot spot at the steps of the court house.  We were able to push some photos to the gallery.

So we went down to bus station from there.  Took the bus from Cork to Killarney.  It was about a 2 hour drive.  We made it into town about 2:30 in the afternoon.  Caught a taxi to our campground about 1.5 killometers outside of the city center.  We got our tent set up grabbed a little lunch at a little cafe by our campground, and then walked into town.

On our way to the city center we came across this little park on the side of the road that went down by the river.  They had a little windy path through flowers and bushes that ended at a bench.

We headed the rest of the way into the city center which is jam-packed with shops and pubs.  There was a big game on tv not sure exactly what its called, but its a cross between rugby and soccer.  Really fun to watch. We stopped into a little pub to watch the end of the game.  Dublin was behind and then took the lead, and at the very end the game finished with a tie.

After the game was over we headed back out on the streets to look around town.  All of a sudden coming down the street was a line of tractors.  They were raising money for cancer research.  I guess they had traveled 260 K.  They were honking their horns and followed by people with buckets for the donations.

We explored around town for another couple hours and then headed back the long hike to our campground.  We ended up eating dinner at a little restaurant adjacent to our campground.

This morning we got up and headed back to the little cafe for breakfast.  Erin had a scone and some tea.

I had a “Full Irish Breakfast” minus the pudding because well thats really not very good.

After we finished breakfast we rented bikes.  Killarney is located right on the edge of a very large National Forest.  Our ride was about 12 K long and took us around a one of the lakes in the park.

The scenery was very beautiful.  The area is surrounded by mountains and lakes.   It looks like there are a lot of hiking and biking trails you can spend some time on.  Definitely a place to visit and spend a few days if you enjoy getting out for a hike.

We kept seeing signs to this waterfall and arrows pointing in the direction to find it.  So at one point we ditched our bikes and headed up a little trail that promised the waterfall at the end.  After about 15 minutes of hiking we were brought back to the road by which we left our bikes.  So we hiked back down the road the way we had come and picked up our bikes and then biked back the way we had walked.  After a little while more of biking and about three more signs claiming the falls were this way or that we came to the actual trail head to the falls.  We ditched our bikes once again and headed up the trail.

This time we had found the correct trail and found the falls just a few hundred yards/meters up the trail.

The forests are all very green and the trees are covered in moss or little vines that climb up to the top.  It is very pretty.

Since its been so sunny the last two days I am starting to get sun burned.  I had to buy a hat so the top of my head wouldn’t get burned to a crisp.  Unfortunately Nike was my best option at the moment.

Well Its our 2nd anniversary today, and we are going to go grab some dinner.  I need to get a shower taken and maybe find some “clean” clothes so I’m somewhat presentable at the dinner table.

There are more photos up in the Ireland area of Erin’s gallery if you’d like to see them.

Off to Cork

Erin and I packed up our backpacks hopped a taxi to the main bus station in Dublin and purchased two tickets to Cork.  Cost 10.50 Euro each.  This will come up later.  We immediately got in line for the bus which was rapidly getting longer.  Apparently it doesn’t matter if you have a ticket, its first come first serve for the seats.  So it pays to be in line early.

The bus was completely full. Our backpacks were put in a compartment under the bus.  The trip to Cork about 4 and half hours.  The bus ride was very nice.  The weather outside was beautiful and it was fun to see the countryside.

We made it into Cork just fine, grabbed our backpacks and picked up a taxi.  A short taxi ride through the city center with a very nice driver who gave us all kinds of information about what to do.  We arrived at the Crawford House.  A bed and breakfast we would be spending the next couple of nights at.

The place was very nice our room had its own bathroom and was just what we needed for our stay in cork.  Another interesting thing was the amount of bed and breakfasts that were on our street.  It seemed like the cool think to do.

We dropped off our stuff and headed out for a walk into the city center.

The city center seems to always be busstling with people.  There are stores lined up and down the street, with one side being full of French shops and the other well not being French shops.  It was fun to walk around and see all the different stores.  It was a bit overwhelming to have all those people swarming around.

There is a place just off main street called the English Market that seems to be under a whole city block.  There is a maze of walkways through little butcher shops, cheese shops, olive shops, chocolate shops, everything that you can think of.  They aren’t seperated by walls, they each have their own tables set up.  A very fun place to watch people interact and if you lived in the area to find a good deal on the evenings meal.

The next day we went out looking for the movie theater because thats what we do on vacation.  We had ran across it the day before and since it was raining today seemed like a good idea.  So we walked all over town unable to find it again.  We stumbled across a little street market that had fresh pastries, olives, cheese, and other tasty treats.

We finally found the theater and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean which wasn’t the greatest movie I have ever seen.  Erin really seemed to enjoy it though  ;)  j/k.  It was almost 3 hours long which seemed like an eternity.  After the movie finally finished we stopped off at a little tea and coffee shop for some tea, scones, and croissants.

For dinner that night (last night) we went to this little wine bar situated right on a river.  There were a few swans swimming around and fish touching the surface making ripples all around.

We had a very nice dinner and a tasty bottle of Malbec.

Today we bought bus tickets to Killarney which were 15 euro each.  Crazy right?  The trip from Dublin to Cork was over 4 hours.  This one will probably be less than one, and the price is way more.  Oh well.  Well be staying at the Flesk Caravan and Camping Park.  We’ll keep you posted on how that experience treats us.

Check our Erin’s gallery for all of our Ireland pictures.