What started off as a quiet calm weekend on the McDermott dairy farm, became a celebration as the Wicklow Gaelic football team won a huge game on Sunday.

Steph took us all over County Wicklow, including Glendalough – where many of her ancestors are buried in an ancient Monastery. We also visited the site of her and Chris’ upcoming wedding and the beach by her farm. We learned how a dairy farm operates and even learned about the calving process as one of their cows gave birth while we were staying on the farm. Other highlights included Sheela’s cooking and incredible baking and a tour of the neighboring horse ranch.

Congratulations Wicklow on the big win!

We’ve just spent a wonderful week in Ireland, enjoying the very generous hospitality of Chris and Steph and her family. We spent a few days in Dublin and made trips to Counties Kerry and Wicklow.

Steph hooked us up with tickets to the Dublin city bus tours. It was a great way to get oriented to the city and our driver/commentator was hilarious! We also caught the very entertaining Seafarer play and spent several nights out on the town.

Ever since I first tasted Guiness, I’ve wanted to try a pint in Ireland. We skipped the Guiness Factory, but I sampled Guiness all over the city!

Last Tuesday we hired a car for several days to see the Irish countryside. Despite the bicycle-sized driving lanes and the speeding oncoming traffic, we really enjoyed the convenience of having a car and the opportunity to explore County Kerry.

We stayed in the town of Kilarney, the site of the Muckross House and the impressively restored Ross Castle. We walked along the lakes of Kilarney and even headed up to see the local waterfall.

We spent one day driving the narrow, beautiful roads of the Dingle Penninsula on Ireland’s west coast. Some of the ruins of previous communities dated back 1500 years!