Beach day

Today was a sunny warm day, so we hit the beach in Lahinch. 

The kids were happy with the great beach side playground, and I got to give surfing in the North Atlantic a try. It was 13 C and sunny, and people were out in shorts and t-shirts. There were even people swimming in the sea (no wetsuit, just going for a dip)!

This playground had a sweet zip line that both kids gave a try.

 I took a 2 hour surfing lesson with one of the surf schools on the beach. The water didn't feel as cold as I'd expected- maybe I'll give Kincardine surfing a try one of these days.

 While I surfed, the Pat and the kids explored the beach and played more at the playground.

 It is truly a beautiful spot, especially on such a rare clear day.

 Jasper is getting pretty brave climbing up the rope "Christmas tree". He only gets about 1 m, then wants help down, but he is giving it a try.

We went to a nearby cafe for lunch, and everyone was pretty worn out by then. The afternoon was spent napping and exploring the village we're staying in.

Lisdoonvarna

We had a relaxing rainy morning in Dublin, then we had to say goodbye to our "new house" and head across the country to Lisdoonvarna, County Clare.

 We will miss our full equipped family with small kids housing.

 We are staying in a "large family room" in the Burren Hostel for the next 4 nights. There is plenty of space for us all and we have our own bathroom, but we still have to manage sleeping in one room together- plus sharing kitchen and common spaces with the other guests. Luckily, the baby monitor range reaches the common area, so we are not stuck in the room after dark.

 We didn't plan on any outings today, since we had 3 hours of driving, but the hostel receptionist suggested we head to the Cliffs of Moher this evening.

 The rain had cleared, and the tour buses had left by the time we arrived at 5:00.

 The cliffs area is quite built up for mass tourism, and we appreciated the walls and safe trails for carrying the kids.

 The cliffs are quite impressive- although I think we were spoiled with the cliffs we saw in Maderia last fall. The Cabo Girao in Madeira is 580m tall, vs. 214m at the Cliffs of Moher.

Dublin tourist highlights

Today we hit two major Dublin tourist spots: the Guinness Storehouse and Kilmainham Jail. We also stumbled upon the Jameson Distillery in between.

 The Guinness Storehouse was described in our guide book as the "Disney of breweries", and it definitely lived up to that. The glowing blue waterfall was to illustrate that water is a key ingredient in beer.

 The kids enjoyed the many exhibits, and especially liked the section on transportation. Ellis found herself a place to sit on the back of this train.

 She was also pretty confused by the fish riding a bicycle on the marketing/ advertising floor (there are 5 floors of exhibits, plus 2 more with bars and restaurants!).

 We got our complimentary pint at the roof top bar with 360 degree views of the city.

 It was a rare (somewhat) sunny day in Dublin today, and the views were quite good.

 We had a few hours to kill before our tour of the jail, so we took the kids for a walking nap. With no destination in mid, we happened upon the Jameson distillery and went in there for another tour.

 If there was a Disney of distillery tours, I think Jameson would be it. I'm not a whiskey fan, but it was an entertaining experience.

 Next stop was a tour of the Kilmainham Gaol. Both kids were awake at this point and felt like holding hands for a while.

 We arrived a bit early for our tour, so the kids blew off some steam by running around in one of the courtyards.

 The guided tour was fascinating, although it was a bit too much for the kids to handle, especially at the end of a long day.

 I couldn't always hear everything the guide was saying, so I'll have to read up more on the 1916 uprising tonight now that the kids are asleep.

Tomorrow we pack up and leave for the west coast-next stop, Lisdoonvarna!

Imaginosity Dublin

I may have been overly optimistic about our jet lag situation as I the wrote blog yesterday. As soon as I hit "publish" at about 9:30 pm, both kids were up on-and-off until well after midnight. We're hoping to get them on a "European" sleep schedule of about 9-8 (instead of 7-6 at home), but we're not there yet. We'll see how tonight goes.

  I had to wake everyone up at 8:15 am so that we could get to our timed 9:30 visit to the Dublin Children's Museum. The place is small, and pretty busy so you have to book ahead for a 2 hour visit interval. They both fell asleep on the 20 minute drive there.

 The kids perked up when we got to the museum. There was definitely lots to keep them busy for 2 hours.

There was a cool looking outdoor garden area on the roof, but it was closed because of the rain.

 The museum was out in the suburbs, so we were able to stop back in at home for lunch and a much needed nap.

 After nap, we hopped on a double decker bus into the city centre. We wandered through Trinity College, and stopped in to the National Museum of Natural History for a quick browse before close. Jasper was asleep, but Ellis loved the cases full of taxidermied animals.

From there, it was on to St Stephen's Green to see the birds and flowers.

The kids were pretty pumped to see a swan, and lots of ducks diving for weeds in the pond.

It was raining pretty hard by then, so we stopped in a pub for a Guinness and "cold regular white milk" to warm up.

We walked back to the bus stop through one of the pedestrian streets, where Jasper could check out the "rock star" busker on each block. Riding in the top of the double decker bus on the way home may have been Jasper's highlight of the day.

Arrival in Dublin

Our flight over went about as well as it could have. We had the entire middle 4 seats of the front row of the plane to ourselves, plus Jasper and Pat took over 2 seats by the window.

Both kids slept pretty well, and didn't make a fuss, but it was still a very short night. I really don't understand why they serve 2 meals on a 6 hour overnight flight. 

We picked up our rental car and drove to our AirBnb in the outskirts of Dublin. Pat did a great job driving standard, on the left hand side, after < 1 hour of sleep.

Our house is lived in by 4 kids, aged 10 months- 6 years, so there is plenty of baby and kid stuff to use. If we were here the whole time, we'd only have needed 1 suitcase!

We were all pretty beat after the flight, so we stayed nearby, got some groceries and went to the park.

 Spring has arrived here a few weeks earlier than at home, so everything is nice and green.

Our hiccup so far is that we brought the wrong plug adapters. Although Ireland is in the EU, it does not have the same shaped plug. Oops! We couldn't find an adapter in the stores nearby, but shouldn't have a problem getting one once we're in a more touristy area.

Tomorrow, we're heading to the Dublin Children's Musesum and then downtown to explore. That is if the kids will leave this house- there's even a trampoline in the backyard!

3 years old

Jasper is now 3 years old! The day before his birthday, I took the morning off work and we took him for a special outing to see "Bunch of Munch" in Blyth. They acted out 5 of Jasper's favourite Robert Munch books. It was his first live theatre experience, and he was pretty mesmerized the whole time.

After the play, we took him to lunch at Cow Bell brewery. It's quite the impressive facility, I need to go back when I can try some of the beers. 

On the weekend, the whole family came over and we had a birthday party for Jasper.

Great Grandpa measured Jasper on the wall. He is almost 3 feet tall.

Ellis wanted to help with the presents. 

Aunt Heather made Jasper the coolest construction equipment birthday cake.

Jasper got some lovely presents, including a scooter, a tricycle and a rain coat that matches Aunt Heather.

Everyone was pretty tuckered out after the party.