Woah, Sleep!

Monday the 31^st of Jan.

I accidentally slept in until 11am.  Mind you, this was no small feat since my bedroom was the living room and the kids got up at 6am.  I was exhausted and Seth and Jessica were incredible and kept the kids really quiet so I slept like a baby. 

Once I finally woke up, Seth and I packed a lunch and headed out to Declan’s Hermitage. Saint Declan came over from England and his servant forgot to pack his prized bell.  He prayed that God would restore it to him and legend has it that they spotted the bell floating on a rock.  The followed the rock until it stopped in Ardmore where they set up camp.  If my camera battery hadn’t died I could show you pictures of the rock, I’m not sure what really happened but it definitely looks out of place.

The hermitage itself was unbelievable. So picturesque.  It was this bright green hillside beside the ocean with the white and gray stone structures jutting out of the land.  Flowing through the middle of the hermitage was a spring that supposedly has healing properties.  (As I’m typing this I have my iTunes set on random and the End Credits from Braveheart just came on.  How apropos!)

Next we hiked along these incredible cliffs. It was just amazing to walk with the waves crashing below you, the clouds above you and nothing but green beside you. 

Here’s a couple of shots where I tried to capture the sky.

Metering the ground.

Metering the sky.

We finally got to a point where there was ocean on both sides.  The bay on our left and the Atlantic on our right.  It was gorgeous.  The wind was really howlng at this point and it got kind of cold but thankfully there were structures to duck into.  One was a small shack built to look for German U-boats and the other was an older castle, probably built to look for Viking or Norman raiders.  We climbed all in and over both and it was a blast.

This is a little further down the trail looking back at the point. 
You can see the castle on the left side.

Even the paths we were hiking were pretty.  So green!  Even in February!  Unfortunately, shortly after taking that photo my camera battery died so the remainder of the day will be photo-less. 

We finished the loop and hiked down into town to see the church there and to find the stone where the bell had supposedly rested.  Once those two objectives were accomplished we took our picnic back to the Hermitage to eat.

On the way home we stopped at Moby Dick’s for a pint of Guinness.  I’ll be darned but it really does taste better here.  I don’t like it at all in the States but I actually enjoyed it here.  Moby Dick’s is named thusly because it’s where they filmed the old movie of the same name.  Once we got home we had a really wonderful dinner and just chilled out.  I love relaxing and feeling like a local and not a tourist.