Some St. Patrick's Day

Dia Daoibh (pronounced jee-uh deev--hello to a group of people). During the week of St. Patty's day they were hitting the Irish hard at Max's school. Every day when I would drop him off I learned a new word or phrase. Some was retained. Our St. Patrick's day festivities kicked off on Friday afternoon. We headed to the...

Irish Craft Beer Festival!

 Kevin had Howling Pale Ale and Curim Gold Celtic Wheat Beer. I based my decisions solely on the names: Chocolate Truffle Stout (not THAT impressive) and Purgatory Pale Ale, good.

Max had a balloon. You will notice that the best craic for Max is face paint and tattoos. Just wait...

Saturday was the parade. We headed downtown around 10:15ish to wander, check out the scene and find a place to view the parade.

 ...and have a pint

And have a hot dog.

Some scenes from the streets. Everyone lining up along the parade route..climbing on statues...

This is the view from where we watched the parade. We found a nice spot with a wall we could stand on so we could see everything.

Our spot.

Then we waited for the parade to begin. We were near a grandstand so we had commentary throughout.

LAMBS!!! and Donegal Town

 The lambs are beyond cute. I was freaking out. We had seen loads of lambs on the drive to Donegal, but here we were on a nice small country road so I could stop, get out, and gawk. I want to hold one so bad.

 They jump!

This made my day.

Chillin out, MAXin, relaxin all cool...

Donegal Castle

Max with the Knight at the B&B

Inside the Castle

It was pretty cool walking around in the castle. The rooms were set to look like they would have looked in the 15th and 17th centuries...not sure what happened in the 16th century. hmm

 "There's a pumba on the wall?!" -Max

 We found this little boy in a stairwell

The original stone walls, floors and ceilings...and NOT original game, at least i assume they haven't been hanging there for a few hundred years.

We didn't go here, but since it was Ely Lodge Forest I had to get a picture.

Heading out of town.

more Donegal

Donegal turned out to be one of our favorite spots in Ireland. The area was so picturesque and had it all...from mountains to beaches, literally. And a waterfall.

 Irish coffee. Delectable!

Nancy's. This pub was so awesome. So much character and each little nook was different.

The waterfall

Kev senior pic by the waterfall. Good form with the leg up and an excellent angle on the head tilt.

A couple more black sheep grazing on this interesting island.

The grand finale of the trip is still to come.

As we were driving to Slieve League...somewhere after Killybegs and before the cliffs we turned off on a side road. It took us out on a narrow peninsula with the Atlantic on both sides. The ocean waves were HUGE...and the road was narrow, and here are the sights.

 Look carefully...you can see a lighthouse in the pic above.

 Yes, this is what it looks like. Kevin literally scared the pee out of this sheep.

I'd love to continue...but it is St. Patrick's Day and it's kind of a big deal around here. Have a great day!!

Donegal continued



Getting closer to Slieve League



Some sights from the drive...

We made it...but we were not pilgrims

 The wide open sea

SHEEP grazing..just living the dream

Max in the clown car. His favorite thing of the whole trip was playing in the front seat..don't worry E-break ON! And it just looks like he is in the driver's seat.

 The countryside

It did turn out to be quite the beautiful day. More to come. Cheers