United Kingdom - ReginaDecember 2, 2013
Mom and I had a wonderful time in Ireland!! Thanks for checking in. My head has been spinning since I got back trying to settle into my new home (I feel like the unpacking will never end) and right back to the work grind. The Hayfield Manor was beautiful and the service impeccable. Unfortunately one night we had no heat though and woke up at 2 am freezing and had to have the night manager bring in a space heater. Oh well, but breakfast the next morning was yummy!! And we loved the pool, jacuzzi and spa! We drove the Ring of Kerry but didn’t kiss the Blarney Stone. We actually forgot all about it — oops! Our time along the ocean in Dingle Bay was wonderful too and we got some amazing photos. Hertz ended up not having an automatic car and I had to use a manual shift while driving on the left
side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. I
told the Hertz man he didn’t know what he was inflicting on his fellow
countrymen! Getting out of Cork was interesting as a result of the manual car, but we laughed about it! But the Irish are crazy drivers anyway! My left elbow got sore from all the shifting but I learned fast and became quite the whiz at it, and started to eventually love it.
But I think our favorite was the Currarevagh House in Oughterard, County Galway. An amazing old manor house from 1840 that could use a little interior decor update, but the family that ran it was fabulous and the home-made breakfasts and dinners they made every night were just amazing — things like duck a l’orange, fois gras, fresh fish from Lake Corrib and beautiful vegatables that were not to be had anywhere else in Ireland!!
I’m not sure the Irish really understand what fresh vegatables are. But the best were the desserts: baked alaska, chocolate mouse cake, lemon mouse cake w/ fresh blueberries…. I could go on and on!!!
We also did a little ancestry hunt and had fun doing so, but in the end hit a dead end. The Irish have great geneological societies established in each county and they plan to have them all on-line within the next year. So hopefully we can find out more concrete info here at home and then check again with the parish records in Ireland thru the geneological societies on-line. Thank you so much for all your help and hard work in pulling this together for us. It was a vacation we both needed and we really enjoyed living it
up!!! It was a very special mum and daughter trip — a trip of a
lifetime. Thank you!! Here are a few pictures.
