Ireland!!

IRELAND - I'd dreamed of going there and when I was 19 I went and I LOVED it!! I went with my college choir and we had previously toured England and Wales and took a ferry over to Ireland. I wanted to stay - I wanted to live there - I want to go back!

My friend Jodie and I stayed with a family in Larne, Ireland. They had two children Jennifer and Garreth who we gave a lot of attention to - they were fun and enjoyed listening to the way we talked. We enjoyed listening to them as well. The family took us around to see the sights and we were able to experience the culture of Ireland first hand. It was amazing!!

So - in celebration of the Irish holiday Saint Patrick's Day I share with you a few of the photos of the places we visited on our adventure:

Disclaimer (no, I did not take the photos below! But we did visit each of these places, either with the choir or with our host family!) I have the photos that I actually took in a scrapbook that I did not want to dismember for a blog post - sorry!

The Giant's Causeway (pretty incredible!)

view from one of the bluffs by the Giant's Causeway - we hiked around a lot of the bluffs and the most amazing thing about them was the tufts of grass because they were bouncy - it was fun!

View of the countryside in Northern Ireland

Another countryside view - so stinkin pretty!

Carrickfergus Castle 

Old lighthouse outside BallyGally Castle hotel

A neighborhood similar to the one we stayed in with the host family.

We were taking a Sunday afternoon walk with our host family and they took us off the beaten path into this little part of the forest where we saw this: - it was incredible!!

On our way into Belfast we saw the cranes that built the Titanic!

We took an afternoon and shopped in downtown Belfast!

I am anxious to return someday and visit more of this beautiful country.

Happy St. Patrick's Day