Checked Out-Checking In

Our library checks out books for 3 weeks at a time, so on Oct 4, I checked out 3 books, determined to read one each week and actually get them turned in on time. (Luckily, our library doesn't do fines for overdue books!)
I met my goal!! All 3 books have been finished and are ready to be returned tomorrow. (Hopefully the library will have a new issue of Runner's World on the shelf tomorrow too!)
I checked out (and will be checking in tomorrow):

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume. Lately, I've been interested in  re-reading a few of the books that I remember reading when I was a kid... maybe since I'm almost 30?!?!?!?!  Earlier this year I re-read Island of the Blue Dolphins, and I think maybe this might be a project for next year???

Dating Hamlet, by Lisa Fielder. This one caught my eye while I was browsing in the teen section. I have found some of my favorite books in the teen section, and it's usually a sure bet for a quick, easy read! This story was fun & makes me want to ask my dad to send me my big ol' Shakespeare anthology. The story is written in Ophelia's point of view, and I just saw that the author also has another similar story, Romeo's Ex. Will have to see if that one's there tomorrow.  Or maybe I'll stick with Hamlet and see if "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein is available.

How to Be an American Housewife, by Margaret Dilloway. I read books for grown-ups, too! The endpaper summary had me hooked-- this is the story of a Japanese woman who married an American military man after WWII and tried to assimilate to an American lifestyle. I loved that the descriptions, words and names in the book took me back to Okinawa! I loved the writing style, the characters, and the story.

I'll let you know what I check out tomorrow!

From the Fitting Room

Tomorrow, I'm going to a party.
So today, I went shopping.

My wardrobe pretty much consists of "teacher clothes", "camp counselor clothes", and jeans. I've got cotton cardigans in a variety of colors. I've got a billion t-shirts. I have a decent little collection of button downs or shells to wear under cardigans. I've got fleece top layers. And I have jeans. Tons of jeans, most of which seem to be too big for me, since I always buy jeans when I am in the states and I'm usually eating a lot while I'm in the states.
I'm okay with my wardrobe. Except for when I have a party to go to. Then I wish I had something a little more trendy. I don't want to wear my almost-2-sizes-too-big jeans and an Old Navy fleece to a club in the city. I want to wear a purple mini dress, grey tights, black boots and a long strand of grey pearls. Unfortunately, I only have the tights and boots, I don't know where the nearest fabric store is, and my aunt who would be able to help me make my party dress is about 4,000 miles away.
So I had to go shopping.
I don't hate shopping, but I don't love it. I'd rather shop for yarn, books, or scrapbook supplies--things you don't have to try on. I hate trying clothes on. It's hard to find things that fit me right, and sometimes, I don't even know what the item is supposed to be. I tried on something purple today and I still don't know if it was a shirt or a dress. It was shapeless and pretty much transparent, so I put it back on the rack.
Since there were no suitable purple dresses to be found in town, I ended up changing my "vision"-- black top (that I already have), skinny jeans (don't have), black boots (have) and a long purple necklace (don't have). And so began the search for skinny jeans. Let me tell you that when you've been wearing almost-2-sizes-too-big jeans for a long long time, you feel a bit ridiculous trying on skinny jeans. I ended up buying a pair of the same jeans in each of two sizes, so I could make my decision about which to wear at the very last minute. And I might even keep them both, because the bigger size doesn't actually have the "skinny" fit, so I can see them becoming just another "regular" pair of jeans for me. Best of all, the jeans are grey! I was just wishing that I had some grey jeans the other day. And second-best of all, this clothes shopping should be just fine to hold me over for a while so I can save my shopping energy for other things-- like Christmas decorations!

12 of 12: The Can't Find My Camera Edition

Well, I sure am glad that this is NOT going to be the final year for the official 12 of 12 after all, because I have not done well at participating each month!
I don't know where my camera is! I had it on Sunday, I do know that... but it's not in any of it's usual hangouts.
So my 12 of 12 exist only in my mind--

1. 0705- Woke up, checked watch and actually remembered it was 12 of 12.
2. 0745- Dressed & ready for a run to my friend's house, a walk & run with her, and a run home. I'll go ahead and count that as 3 runs for the day.
3. 1045- Breakfast-- Special K. I'm saving my last box of Frankenberry for later.
4. 1100- Washing dishes, until I decided not to wash anymore dishes.
5. 1300- Commissary, where I tried to pick a pumpkin but they were all displayed so you didn't notice the dented, moldy side.
6. 1500- My pretty pink & yellow flowers outside the front door. Unfortunately, the rosy smelling roses seem to have died as suddenly as they appeared. 
7. 1600- Organizing coupons & throwing out the ones that expired 7 months ago. The commissaries only accept the ones that expired less than 6 months ago.
8. 1740- David comes home from work.
9. 1815- Our dinner looks tasty and beautiful-- Penne w/ Salmon & Asparagus.
10. 1820- We watch tv while we eat... tonight is How I Met Your Mother.
11. 1900- I decided to knit, but...
12. 1910- we researched travel ideas instead.

Need to find my camera for next month... November should be an interesting 12!

Holiday Dinner

Happy Columbus Day!
Or, if you're Canadian, Happy Thanksgiving!

October-December (well, January 12, actually!) is my favorite time of year because of all the festive foods! Christmas cookies, all the yummy Thanksgiving side dishes, apple cider, pumpkin goodies, "creepy" Halloween foods, chili, tamales, pierogi, fudge, bark & brittle... it's a great time to eat!

Since today is Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving), I decided that we'd have to have Italian food for dinner tonight, in honor of that famous Italian who wasn't actually the first person to sail to America.  (I don't know any Canadian recipes)
I planned a Giada DeLaurentis recipe for tonight-- Roman-style Fettucine from her Everyday Pasta cookbook. I don't know if Columbus ever went to Rome or if he ever ate anything like this, but it was good!

Unfortunately, I was baking apple bread (delicious!! from the Better Homes & Gardens classic "red plaid") while I was supposed to be cooking dinner, so David took over the dinner-cooking tonight. He's not exactly a great recipe reader, and I still chopped the veggies, herbs (the thyme was from our garden!), and garlic, but the dinner was great!! But, since David did the majority of the cooking, I have to do the dishes! :( Boo! 

2010's the Charm

I think I'm going to "pre-make" a December Daily album this year. Don't know what December Daily is? It's an Ali Edwards project and you can get an overview here. 
The basic idea is that you build an album or pages for your album for the month of December, in advance, and then during December, you journal & take pictures of what's going on on a daily basis (hence the clever title, December Daily) and just add in your journaling & photos. In my case, I'll be adding my photos later because I don't print at home.
I'm going to make mine a mini, since I've been really into mini-albums lately. I've been so into mini-albums lately that I actually made one, bringing my collection up to 2. But I have plans for a few others, including this one.
During one of my flickr searches for mini-albums, I found this one made from a box of soap. I use the liquid body wash, but lucky for me, David uses bar soap. (Irish Spring, in case you were wondering.) I searched "soap box mini album" on google and the first link that popped up was actually this video tutorial made by the same person whose flickr photo had inspired me!

I have tons of holiday themed papers in my scrapbook stash and my mom brought me some more adhesive when she came to visit. I've chosen the format of my project and declared my intention to do it. So, there's no turning back now! (Unless I can't manage to clear a path from the doorway of my "hobby room" to my table...)

On the Needles

On the Needles right now:
Helena  (here's my Helena on Ravelry) -- I'm making this baby sweater for no other reason than to make room for more yarn! I'm so close to being finished.

It now has two sleeves and I finished turning the picot hem. My least favorite task lies ahead--picking up stitches around the front opening & neck.

Amused  (My Amused on Ravelry)-- I am completely embarrassed that I started this project 360 days ago. And it's shoved, unfinished, in my step tansu.

It probably still looks a lot like the photo above. I'm frustrated by the color pooling, and I can no longer remember where I left off in the pattern. I don't know what I will do with this sweater...finish or frog??? But at least I've now acknowledged its existence.


Big Snugs (my ravelry project link)-- Another project that I can't believe I'm admitting to hiding in the step tansu.

I know that this is still the spot where this project is because, unless the little knitting elves sneaked in and fixed it for me, I'm stuck at this part. Literally. I did something really wacky when picking up my stitches and my needle is so very stuck in there. Like really, really stuck. I'm in this strange stage of the knitting-related grief process where I'm no longer in denial about the problem itself, but still dealing with a lot of denial with regards to the solution to this problem most likely involving a tiny pair of scissors. Or elves.


Also on the needles are a few swatches that I'm supposed to take to a knitting class I'm taking on the 23rd. Just 2 more weeks!! It's "finishing school" where I will finally learn the "right" way to seam those projects that do make it off the needles!

Coming up for air

what have I been doing in the past... I don't even know how long it's been... since I last blogged??

Girl Scouts--to include a weekend trip w/5 tweens to Germany
Yuletide Bazaar committee-ing
reorganizing my scrapbooks
knitting
printing saved recipes & filing in a binder
looking at yarn online
tutoring
harvesting my cherry tomatoes and planning next years "crops"
buying plane tickets to Poland (but not researching hotels...need to get on that!)
catching up on Gossip Girl episodes
reading
running, but not as much as I'd like to

In all of September, there was ONE day that I didn't have anything on my calendar.
I'm going to make a conscious effort to blog more in October!

Progress Check

I really need to make a point of blogging more often... it's a great way to save stories for future scrapbook layouts, have my lists collected in one central place, and get motivated to work on/finish knitting projects!

Today I wanted to check my progress on my travel goals for the time that we'll be here in England. (Currently, most likely until Feb 2013, but possibly until Dec 2013) I checked my old post, Thursday Thirteen-Places to Go for my list and I'm excited that I get to check some off already!


1. Southern & SW Ireland
2. Scotland (road trip!)
3. Paris, France
4. Normandy, France
5. Krakow, Poland
6. Spain
7. Copenhagen, Denmark (a stop on a cruise we're hoping to take!)
8. Russia (another stop on the cruise!)
9. Isle of Man
10. Switzerland (ski trip!)
11. Brugge, Belgium
12. Donegal, Ireland
13. Hungary

I'm hoping to try for Krakow in late October, but we'll see. There is a (really long) day bus trip to Brugge, so I might try to find someone to go on that trip with me sometime soon.

Ireland Day 3: Cliffs of Moher

When I was planning our little trip to the Emerald Isle, I read that the Cliffs of Moher were Ireland's most visited tourist attraction. Then I saw that scenes from the Princess Bride & Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were filmed there and that sealed the deal... I decided we had to go! I found a bus tour with the Cliffs as one of the stops and signed us up.

Before the first stop (Limerick), I was feeling really carsick. The trip was a mini bus/large van and I wasn't in the front. I started sweating like crazy and took my coat off...Lisa couldn't believe I was warm. We weren't scheduled to stop for an hour and a half and I didn't know how I was going to make it all the way... it was like my prayers were answered when the bus driver made an unscheduled stop so he could use the bathroom at a gas station! I told Lisa not to let him leave without me and ran in behind him! We went the rest of the way to Limerick and after a quick stop in the bathroom and quick photos of King John's castle, I switched seats with Joe (who was in the front) and we were off to the Cliffs!

I felt much better once I was in the front, but I was still suffering from some residual motion-sickness. When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, though, it was worth the carsickness!

After some time at the Cliffs, we headed to Irleand's "traditional music capital," Doolin. Unfortunately, we didn't hear any music! We just had lunch & then it was about time to head to our next stop.

We spent some time at the Burren, a "lunar landscape" of limestone. David found a great crevice in which to take a picture, but it was too scary for me to watch!  I enjoyed the view of Galway bay from safer ground!

We wish Joe's leg weren't in this picture!!!
After the Burren, we went to see a really old tomb called Poulnabrone. To say it's old is an understatement... evidence shows that at least 33 bodies were moved from a previous burial site to this one in 3000 b.c.

Our last top was Bunratty Castle. We didn't go in... Lisa & Joe did some more shopping and David and I got ice cream cones. Then it was back to the van with our crazy driver to head back to Cork. Most of the time we were moving, I was sleeping... I hated to miss the Irish countryside, but I didn't want to be sick!

Kitchen Table Update!

I have a feeling that this may end up being one of those stories that future generations tire of hearing, gathered around our table for a big family meal... the great kitchen table saga of 2010.

Remember when we built this table?

Well, during the building of the table, our neighbor came over and offered to assist when we needed to get it into the house. I joked (or at least I thought I joked) that we were not taking the table into the house, we'd just be bringing our chairs out to the garage and eating here. Would be easier to bring food out here than take the table to the kitchen!

But really, I wanted my table in the house.

I looked at the table, I looked at the kitchen. I measured the table, I measured the kitchen. I panicked.

I bought a few extra days as we varnished the table.

I bought a few extra minutes while we put my finishing touch on the table.

But, once our names were signed and our work was dated, I had to face the fact that I had nowhere to put our masterpiece.

It would fit in the kitchen, but we'd have to turn sideways, crawl under or climb over to get from the kitchen door (British homes have doors on every room!) to say, the sink, the fridge, the washing machine, etc. And since I like going to the sink & the fridge (I could do without the washing machine), I was not looking forward to the inconvenience. Plus, people tend to gather in the kitchen. My old neighbor had a thing in her kitchen that said, "No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like my kitchen best"... and it seems to hold true in my kitchen. In my tiny Okinawa kitchen, we'd all squeeze in there and chat over appetizers or cookies or whatever. And here, in my nice spacious kitchen, I finally have room to have a conversation with someone AND stir a pot without bumping any elbows. But if that table were in there, there would be no more gathering.

So, I had to think of something else. My friends here asked, "Why not the dining room?" My answer was, "The massage chair is in the dining room!" Our "dining room" had become sort of the "point of no return" room... empty boxes, massage chair, chair that matches our couch & loveseat but that I didn't think would fit in the living room (it does), entertainment center filled with board games, old television that hasn't been plugged in for 5 or 6 years (and yet, we brought it along), and a box of Christmas gifts that I never mailed...so I'm already all done with this year's Christmas shopping! WoOhOo!

I was at a loss for ideas. I finally allowed David to convince me that we could put the massage chair in the kitchen and put the table in the living room. Friends who were supportive of this idea tried to promote it by saying I'd be able to have a massage in my massage chair while I waited for pasta water to boil. It began to sound like a good idea. One evening, I came home from somewhere (tutoring, maybe? or a volunteer committee meeting? I don't know) and the table was in the dining room. And it looked gorgeous! It looked as if we had actually intended for it to go in there! And the massage chair was in the kitchen. And it looked TERRIBLE! Even though it is black and our floor is black, it didn't "blend in". There was no denying the fact that there was a 500 pound (I'm estimating), 3 foot long piece of furniture that was required to be placed 2 feet from the wall, near an outlet, and looks more suited to a dentist's office than my KITCHEN in my kitchen.
(The empty boxes were trashed, the chair moved to the living room--I made some measurements and drew a diagram, sent David an e-mail with my idea of how it could all fit, and when I came home... it was all in place! Isn't he the best?---the entertainment center hauled to the garage, where it now houses our tool collection, the tv given away or taken to the recycle center, and the board games stacked in a pile on the floor. The Christmas box is still there waiting to be wrapped & addressed for next year.)

David went golfing on Saturday and while he was gone, I set my plan in motion. I had to get that chair out of the kitchen. Well, I had to get David to get that chair out of the kitchen. In order to do that, I had to make a place for it somewhere else. I knew that David would agree to move it IF all he had to do was move it. If he would've had to move any other furniture, wait for me to clear a space, etc. my plan would not work.

I spent hours in the tiniest room in our house. Our former home-office/home-gym/half-laundry room or "multi-purpose room" for short. It's a tiny room, but with a little bit of magic and a LOT of determination to get the massage chair OUT of the kitchen, I made it all work.
I moved the dryer from one side of the room to the other, slid the digi-piano/keyboard down along the wall to the very end, got rid of the end table that once supported the printer & phone and put the printer on a little wire rack on the floor under the piano and the phone on a file cabinet. The weights & yoga mat went under the other side of the piano. And, there was a space just about big enough for the massage chair. It's cramped, but the door still closes, and the only people who will ever need to go in that room would be playing my piano, doing my laundry, talking on my vonage phone, or sitting in my massage chair. And if you're doing one of those things, chances are you know me well enough not to judge me for having a lot of stuff going on in one tiny little room.

David came home and moved the massage chair right away. Sort of. He had to remove the kitchen door in order to get the chair back out of the kitchen, and he had to remove the tiny-room door to get the chair into the tiny room. But some smarty-pants had painted over the hinges on the tiny-room door so instead of just taking the door off the hinges, he had to take the hinges off the doorframe!

But now, all is said and done and the massage chair is in its new home, where it doesn't offend me and where I actually use it.

I've got to do another post about building our benches...but we used the old camera (since David forgot our new camera's battery charger in Ireland) and I don't know where it is right now!

Ten on Tuesday: Things to do instead of watching TV

The TV usually doesn't come on until David gets home. Every now & then, if I'm home in time for Jeopardy or Oprah, I'll tune in.  Here are 10 things you'll find me doing when the TV isn't on...
1. Surf the web! One link just leads to another, and I could waste hours on the computer...
2. Wash dishes, do laundry, general tidy-up (that's what I did yesterday...all day!)
3. Read
4. Do a crossword puzzle
5. Listen to a podcast. I have about a billion-quatrillion podcasts that I subscribe to.So if I'm doing dishes, cleaning, cooking, scrapbooking, running, or driving, it's usually to the sound of a podcast.
6. Plan a trip, a party, or a grocery list
7. Run (only time I do this while watching tv is at the gym!)
8. Knit (I'm usually doing this when the tv is on too)
9. Sew
10. Scrapbook (I DO still scrapbook, believe it or not! I was just working on a project this morning. If the tv's on, I'll digi scrap!)

Another attempt at a meme... Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday
Let's see how long I stick with this one...


Ten on Tuesday, July 13--Ten Things You Like About Where You Live

1. It's in England
2. There's ruins of a 12th century priory about a mile away
3. Dogs & ducks roam the neighborhood and enjoy walking right into my house
4. David lives here too
5. We meet our friends every Wednesday at the pub less than 3/4 mile down the road
6. There are hanging flower baskets in the town center
7. There's a nice path for running/walking along the river
8. There's a nice path for running/walking to Tesco
9. When I drive to base, I often get to drive past a whole bunch of sheep grazing in a field
10. Lots of interesting places to go for day or overnight trips & easy travel opportunities for longer trips too!

12 of 12, July: It's my Half-Birthday!!

The 12th of June was the first day of my trip to Ireland, so I didn't get to add my photos on time. You can see June's 12 of 12 here.

On the 12th of May, I was basking in the sun in Morocco... that 12 of 12 is here.

Everyone else's 12 of 12s for this month can be found here on Chad Darnell's blog.

And now, onto my July 12 of 12... (please consider visiting my links to my May &  June 12 of 12s so you don't think I'm a boring hermit!)

1. 1225, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

I'd already been up for hours, wishing myself a happy half-birthday and ordering a couple more birthday gifts for David, but totally forgot about 12 of 12! Luckily I saw Helen's fb status! Anyway, this is my CLEAN craft room! I cleaned it last weekend and I just love the way I can walk on the floor now!

2. 1230, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

One of the most exciting parts of cleaning my craft room was cutting my yarn down from 5 plastic bins to 2. It's unimportant that one of them is a gigantic 40-gallon tote.  Anyway, I decided to bag up the yarn so I'm more likely to find it in that big ol' container and also so it doesn't get quite so tangly. I worked on the last of the bagging (and adding to my ravelry stash!) today.

3. 1240, Craft Room, Thetford, UK

Needed to take a break from stashing and clean off the table. My little friend (she's 13 and at least a foot taller than me!) came over to work on some scrapbooking & cards today and we needed a place to work! So I didn't get around to making an apron from this cute tea towel I bought at Tesco the other day. I don't really know what tea towels are for, so I figured I might as well make myself an apron!

4. 1757, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

David was so excited to receive this package, he couldn't even part with it while he came upstairs to change out of his uniform. So, we opened it in the bedroom... a big box full of heaven! Coco's Curry straight from Okinawa!!! Yum, yum!

5. 1757, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

Then I made David look at the cards I made today. He was a little less excited about the cards than the curry, but he still told me that they were very nice!

6. 1758, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

Then David gave ME a card! After all, it IS my half-birthday!!!

7. 1802, Bedroom, Thetford, UK

My mom sent US a card... for the 4th of July. Wonder where my 1/2 birthday card is!?! God Bless the USA...and you know what? God Bless the IRS too... our tax refund checks were in our 4th of July card!

8. 1905, Kitchen Thetford, UK

Even though I'd had pulled pork in the crock pot all day, David insisted that we have the Coco's for dinner tonight! We learned that while I need David for things like moving furniture and getting rid of bugs, he needs me just as much for making rice. Poor guy messed up the Minute Rice!

9. 1909, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

Since I let David choose the dinner menu on MY half-birthday, I was in charge of dessert. I assembled Banana Boats while David salivated over the idea of our favorite Okinawan fast-food.

10. 1915, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

I know I'm making it seem like David is the only one who loves Coco's Curry...but that's really not an accurate representation of what was going on here tonight. We leaned in to smell the curry and HUGE smiles came across both of our faces!

11. 1944, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

Who has to wash dishes on her half-birthday??? I didn't have to do them all, David did all of the other ones, I just rinsed our dinner plates so we could eat dessert off of them.

12. 1946, Kitchen, Thetford, UK

David's first ever Banana Boat. I don't know why we haven't had them before, they're one of my favorite treats... we had them out of the oven tonight, and they were ooey, gooey and delicious but they're much much better cooked in a campfire!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to check out the ones I didn't get to post on time-- May-12 of 12 in Morocco &  June--12 of 12 in Ireland!

12 of 12 (June)--Ireland

Hmm, well... I need to come back and post pictures from days 3-5 of our Ireland trip! But first I have to go back to day 1 of the trip, because it was the 12th...and I need to post a 12 of 12!!

0. I wish I would've gotten a photo of the clock as we pulled out of the driveway...at 0330!
1. 0815, Killarney Guest House, Cork City, Ireland

we arrived at our b&b bright & early and were served tea, coffee & Irish soda bread. It was all very yummy. I drank an entire pot of tea in under 30 minutes. I couldn't help myself... they had sugar cubes!

2. 0953, Courthouse, Cork City, Ireland

I'm still trying to figure this one out... a faucet on the outer wall of the courthouse urging those who use the faucet (for what?) to keep the pavement dry. We were out walking around in search of shampoo & soap since we didn't think to get any 3 oz. or less bottles before flying with hand luggage only!

3. 1050, Killarney Guest House, Cork City, Ireland

We weren't sure when Lisa and Joe would arrive, and we were exhausted! I was content to fall asleep sitting up, but David decided to pull off his shoes & make himself comfortable on the couch in the lounge. This behaviour encouraged the people at the b&b to have our room ready early.

4. 1526, Cork City, Ireland

Lisa & Joe arrived & woke us up from our nap (in our room, not in the lounge), we went out for lunch (David chose a Mexican restaurant), and then we walked around Cork City for a little bit.

5. 1531, Cork City, Ireland

We're getting ready to take a look at the Holy Trinity Church.

6. 1534, Holy Trinity Church, Cork City, Ireland

(At least I *think* it's the Holy Trinity Church... the signs were a little confusing)  Ever since we went to Edinburgh Castle, I always notice when ceilings resemble the bottoms of boats. Speaking of boats...

7. 1551, Lapps Quay, Cork City, Ireland

Our next stop was the end of the Ocean to City Race and Maritime Festival.

8. 1729, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Not far from our b&b, there was another festival going on... here's a guy who juggled fire and got a bunch of people disco dancing. He was either Canadian or American.

9. 1745, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Joe had to use the bathroom and there was a LOOOOOOONG line for the 3 port-a-potties there. David went off in search of pretty pictures while we waited for Joe.

10. 1809, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

Probably the next best thing to the World Cup. Or maybe the next to next to next to next best thing.

11. 1815, Fitzgerald Park, Cork City, Ireland

This guy wins the prize for the creepiest street performer!

12. 1916, Bob Fox's, Cork City, Ireland

We found a place where David could see & hear the World Cup USA vs England game AND have his very first Guinness.

Ireland, Day 2- Ring of Kerry

Our 2nd day in Ireland was spent touring the "Highlights of Kenmare & Killarney". Most of the tour consisted of the views from the bus windows as we rode around the "Ring of Kerry". Fortunately, we were the first 4 in line and we all got front seats on the bus! The views were green, hilly and full of sheep and cows... it was *just* what I hoped Ireland would be!

The bus driver dropped us off in the quaint little town of Kenmare to have coffee, but we opted to check out the shops instead.

 We took a photo-stop at "Ladies' View," a place where Queen Victoria thought the view was so amazing that she summoned to her ladies-in-waiting to check it out. QV knew her stuff... it was a beautiful view of the Killarney Lakes & mountains!

 Our next stop was Killarney National Park, where we had a view of one of the three Killarney Lakes. The park was very nice! Pretty flowers, big trees, nice paths, etc. And of course, beautiful views of County Kerry.

Muckross House is found within Killarney National Park. Distant relatives of Queen Victoria lived here at one time, but they went totally broke preparing to host Her Majesty and lost their house. It eventually ended up being a wedding gift, before it and its grounds were turned into a National Park. We decided not to pay the admission fee to go inside because we'd already seen the interior on Rick Steves'. And because I feel that if you've seen the inside of one Victorian-era estate house, you've seen them all. Unless you are into that sort of thing. I'm not. And I'm pretty sure that David's not either! :)

David enjoyed exploring the grounds at the park! I have no idea how he managed to get up this huge tree!

Muckross Traditional Farms are also on the park grounds. We paid admission for this, because I was really hoping to feed a baby cow with a bottle or shear a sheep, neither of which happened. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to walk through.

There were recreated cottages and farms from the early 18-1900s across different "income brackets" The cottages were super-cute, their fireplaces were going and guides were warming bread for us to eat on our way through.

The guides kept telling us to watch our heads on the way through the cottages, but I didn't see the point! More proof that I'm not short, I'm just old fashioned!

Even though I didn't get to shear any sheep or bottle-feed any baby cows, (we did see horses, cows, geese, a HUGE pig, a goat, and sheep... just didn't touch them or milk them) I was thrilled to spend lots of time petting this sweet kitty. I wonder why!?! Doesn't she look familiar??

We headed to the town of.... I don't remember! Killarney, maybe! And had lunch before heading back to Cork City for the night.