Ireland!!

Okay, get ready for what is probably the longest post with the most pictures...

We went to Ireland!! My niece, Maddie, had her wedding in Belfast and we decided to make a family trip of it!! I'm so glad we did. We had the best time! It was very different from all of our family vacations to date but probably one of the most memorable. Here is the day by day:

Our flight left Wednesday afternoon. First leg was up to New York. 4 hour lay over in New York (bad idea... In my defense, it wasn't 4 hours when I booked it but the flight from Orlando to New York was pushed up an entire hour after I had already purchased the tickets.) You'd think finding our gate and having dinner would eat up most of the time. It ate up some. But it seemed like forever once we finally got on the plane to fly to Dublin. Then we had a whole 7 hour flight ahead of us. I think the kids slept most of that flight luckily. I probably got about 1 hour of sleep and was therefore totally wrecked the next day. Oh well, lesson learned. (side note - they fed us twice on that flight. Dinner and breakfast.  The kids were thrilled but I thought it was overkill. And when I wanted to be sleeping they were making a racket serving up food.)

Thursday morning. We arrived in Dublin about 9am. We got our luggage, got our rental car and headed up to Belfast to our B&B. We arrived there about 2pm. Daniel is a professional at driving a stick shift on the opposite side of the car and driving on the opposite side of the road. Ireland is just what you imagine... beautiful green rolling hills dotted with sheep!! When we checked in, we took a little rest and Jackson and Benny did some exploring. Eventually we got hungry and drove into Hillsborough for lunch. We walked around the historic Hillsborough Fort and Castle and around a trail through Hillsborough forest and Park Lake. It was beautiful and fun... a great way to spend the afternoon. That evening we met up with the wedding party at the Parker's home and spent the evening working on last minute wedding things and visiting. 

Friday we had a full day of exploring before wedding festivities began. We decided we'd drive up to the Northern coast and see Giant's Causeway. It did not disappoint!! Very, very cool rock formations. The kids really liked it. We wanted to cross the Carrick-a-rede bridge while we were up there but it was closed due to the wind. It was really really cold and windy while we were there! The kids enjoyed the break from the heat and I wish I had packed a couple more sweatshirts!! Before we left we enjoyed the cutest and quaintest breakfast hosted by our B&B owners. Very charming.  On the way home we stopped to eat in a cute coastal town, browsed a few shops, and stopped multiple times along the road to take pictures with the livestock.

Friday evening, back in Hillsborough, we ate at one of the Parker's favorite restaurants, found Maddie & Ben's new apartment and called it a night so we were well rested for the wedding the next day!

Saturday was wedding day! And this was a crazy, fun, exhausting day! We enjoyed another breakfast at our B&B (view from the window of our room) and then got ready for the wedding. Lots of pictures in our fancy clothes outside our B&B. We had to be in Lisburn at 11:40, wedding started at noon. Strike that. Wedding didn't actually start until 12:45 (which was when Maddie showed up). So we hung out at the church for about an hour waiting for the ceremony to begin. The ceremony was so so good. A couple really good speakers, a special musical number, and then of course, the actual nuptials. Party in the church parking lot for a solid hour after the ceremony, visiting, chatting, picture taking, etc... Finally we were all shooed away to where the actual reception was going to be, the Culloden Estate and Spa, about a 25 minute drive from the church (about 40 minutes from Hillsborough). We arrived and enjoyed some drinks and hors devours while the wedding party took pictures and right about dinner time everyone was moved into the reception hall for dinner! It was delicious and the reception was so much fun. Very interesting and colorful speeches from the dads, maid of honor and best man... cutting of the cake (dropping of the cake, multiple times actually, by the event manager while transferring to the kitchen), first dance, and then a dance party that went until midnight!! Don't worry, evening buffet came out around 10 for those feeling hungry again. I hate to admit it, but we left around 11:00... we were tuckered out!! But had a blast!

On Sunday we got up and attended church with Ryan and Heather's family and the Parker's at 10:00. They invited us over for a BBQ lunch afterwards so we spent the afternoon at their house visiting. We left late afternoon to head down to the Republic of Ireland for the remainder of our trip. We made a pit stop at Tullynally Castle. Missed being able to buy a ticket to enter the grounds by 5 minutes but made Benny squeeze through the gate to let us in. Our next destination was Athlone, near the Lough Ree where we planned to rent a boat and do some fishing!! We had dinner in Athlone that night and ordered Maddie's favorite Irish dessert, Eton Mess. It was delicious and we had a great nights sleep.  

Our plans changed Monday when we woke to rain. Weather was not good for heading out on a boat and fishing! So we headed east to Wicklow where our next B&B awaited us. On the drive I did some searching and booked us a sheep herding demonstration. That was actually really cool! Mike and his dog, Maggie, impressed us to the max by herding sheep all over the place... through cones, sorting the black sheep from the white. We were all impressed. Maggie was so smart! The kids got to bottle feel some lambs afterwards and it was a great way to break up the day. We arrived in Wicklow around dinner time. Walked to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed an evening of handball at a nearby handball field (think soccer + football combined). We stayed out late (since it doesn't get dark until 11pm in Ireland) and enjoyed a cozy evening in our B&B.

The next day, Tuesday, we had horseback riding scheduled in the afternoon but had a whole morning to kill. We decided to go walk Glendalough - a highly recommended trail on a lake amid the hills. It was so pretty and a perfect morning out. After our hike we headed up the Wicklow mountains to our equi tour. We were greeted by a pile of puppies which the kids thoroughly enjoyed (maybe even more than the horseback riding?) The trail was really beautiful and easy going. I think the kids would have liked something a little more difficult but it was a perfectly fine trail ride. After horseback riding we headed to our last destination in Enniskerry. We ate dinner in Bray, on the coast, and enjoyed walking the pebble beach that night. We all agreed we didn't have enough time to see everything in Ireland and we must go back!!! 

We woke up bright and early on Wednesday to get to the airport and return our rental car and had notifications that our flight had been delayed. No big deal, we didn't need to rush around. Well, once we got to Dublin, checked in and at the gate, our flight was delayed a couple times over. Darn. After spending a couple extra hours in the airport we headed out, but missed our connecting in Atlanta of course. No worries, they got us on another flight down to Orlando (we had to run to catch it) and of course our luggage didn't make it. But they delivered it the next morning so I can't really complain! It was good to get home but we had the best time!! Definitely the best way to start the summer!!