Day at the Museum

Today we were lucky enough to get to spend the day at the National Gallery of Art seeing the Degas/Cassatt exhibit with two sets of friends of both Lily's and ours.  We were joined first by Simone & baby sister Dahlia along with parents Mike & Elizabeth.  Then Fiona and mom Susan joined us.  Kim works with Susan & Elizabeth but has had play excursions with both Fiona & Simone in the past so it was a day of friends for all involved.  Susan was also amazing enough to share all her art knowledge with us.  She has several degress in art history, worked at the National Gallery of Art for 8 years and was amazing at explaining things to both kids and parents.  It was truly an awesome time and the girls were overwhelmingly adorable together.  It just really warmed my heart.

Simone & Lily

Simone, Fiona & Lily at the top of the East Building (at the top of the world as they described it)

Riding the infamous moving walkway between the East & West Building

 Girls having fun

And drinking milk

Back to the Beach (finally)

Finally we got back to the beach.  Even if it was just for one day it was completely worth it.  We got to hit Rehoboth early in the morning.  Of course we weren't disappointed when five dolphins swam in front of us.  Then back to the Peninsula for some fun at the wave pool.  Then a late lunch with our friends Madeline, Dave & Teresa.  Some shopping and then a stop in Annapolis for dinner.  Plus it was a beautiful day for a drive.

Ireland Day 10 - Seaside village of Howth

On one of our last site seeing days we got to enjoy the seaside village of Howth which is just outside of Dublin.  So close in fact you can take the commuter train from Dublin here.  Definitely the place I would want to live if I worked in Dublin.  The food markets, all the fish restaurants, coupled with the traditional seaside fishing village make this town a true stand out.  A very nice way to spend one of our last days.

Ireland Day 9 - Dublin (Trinity College, Guiness Tour, etc.)

We had a great time visiting Dublin for a second and more in depth day.  This time by foot only.  We hit Trinity College and had a great time going through the famous library and visiting the Book of Kells which was a learning experience in itself.  Larry, Venita & Chris also enjoyed a great Guinness tour while Lily and I visited the Viking Culture in the Dublinia museum and saw Christ Church.  

Larry and Chris atop Guinness Brewery

Dublin streets

Trinity College

Ireland Day 8 - Bunratty Castle & Cliffs of Moher

On our way back to our house exchange location, we were able to hit Bunratty Castle and the Cliffs of Moher.    Bunratty Castle was really interesting because not only did they have a castle from the 1200's, similar to the Trim Castle we saw earlier in the week, Bunratty also put in a bunch of "village" like houses so you could get a true sense of what an Irish Village would look like back during this time as well.  There were also lots of actors around the castle explaining what life was like during the times.  Very interesting.

It was a long drive to the Cliffs of Moher, and all the guide books even said that the Cliffs are beautiful even if its foggy... well we got there finally and the place was socked in with fog.  Totally disappointed, we started to depart, but just as we were turning around the fog started to lift and actually lifted for about 20 minutes while we got to walk around and get some wonderful pictures.  It made the drive completely worth it.

Bunratty Village

 Bunratty Castle

 

Cliffs of Moher

Ireland Day 7 - Dingle Peninsula & Limerick

We got an early start, trying to beat the tourists on the way around Dingle Peninsula.  The roads were indeed a bit crazy (maybe 1.25 lanes for 2 lanes of traffic) and Chris did a great job driving again.  The Dingle Peninsula and the town of Dingle was awesome.  We had a nice lunch and great ice cream in Dingle and then headed to Limerick for another hotel night.  The hotel in Limerick turned out to be awesome and right downtown so we could walk right downtown.  Chris, Larry & Venita even enjoyed a real pub experience in Limerick.

Beach on the Dingle Peninsula

Oh my goodness, she has a lamb on her head

 Views from the Dingle Peninsula drive

The town of Dingle has a famous dolphin named Funghi.  Unfortunately we didn't see Funghi in the water, but Lily did get to ride a bronze version.

Local color (and donkeys) in Dingle

The yacht club in Limerick on the river.  The Limerick castle can be seen in the background.  This was also a similar view to what we had from our hotel room.

Ireland Day 6 - Killarney

There are some other amazing sites in the West of Ireland.  Because the roads to get to these places are not so quick, we decided to stay in hotels for a couple nights so we could really see a bunch of the western sights.  Our first day, we headed out of Dublin to hit Killarney.  We stayed in a hotel right on Killarney Lake named "The Lake Hotel".  It was an amazing old style hotel and our rooms had beautiful views of the lake.  We were told when we arrived at the hotel that there is a red deer that is unique to the Killarney area and sure enough as the evening hit, we had great views of two red deer and got to enjoy them almost all evening.  Even from our window.  By the way, did I mention that there was only about 5 hours of darkness each night in Ireland.  It made for some interesting sleep patterns and sure enough there was room darkening curtains every place we went (thank goodness).

While Larry, Venita & Chris enjoyed a World Cup Game in the bar at the Lake Hotel, Lily got to experience her first jacuzzi tub which was a great hit (bubbles and all).

Lake Killarney

The red deer that are unique to Killarney