Family.

(Sometime I just like to throw in pictures to make the post more exciting.
Hence this sunrise photo.)

I have a really bad habit of starting things, getting bored or busy, and then forgetting about it. Ie: this blog...  I am not a fan of writing. I can't tell you how many journals or diaries I started as a kid and filled up maybe the first page before forgetting about it. But I'm not going to do that with this blog! I am halfway through and committed. So that is my excuse for this post. Due to my lack of writing, I now have two weeks to catch up on!

Last weekend, I went on a retreat with my Christian Union to County Wicklow.  There were CUs from schools all over Ireland there, and about 80 students made up the group.  It was an amazing time of fellowship and just learning so much from God. We stayed in a town called Avoca at the Ovoca Manor. It did rain the ENTIRE time, but that's expected, so I've pretty much gotten used to have wet feet and hair all of the time. Major flashbacks of weekends at Susque.

So that brings us to this past weekend!

First real Irish Guinness!

My parents arrived bright and early Friday morning to experience Ireland! They had never been before and of course, I was very excited for a visit. The day they arrived, I dragged very tired and jetlagged parents around Limerick cafes and shops and pubs. We found this interesting restaurant of 'Thai with Italian influence' cuisine, but it ended up being pretty great.
I have been saving 'sightseeing' Limerick until they came so Saturday we headed out to do that.  But in Limerick, that really isn't saying much...






We spent the morning at the Hunt Museum in town, which is loads of artifacts and antiques that were collected by this man, named Hunt obviously, who lived in Limerick. That doesn't make it sound that exciting, but we did enjoy it and saw amazing things from the early Stone and Bronze Ages and made friends with the man there who gave us a nice, impromptu tour whenever we happened to run into him! (No pictures were allowed though, boo), but we had a nice time time & scones on the Shannon River.                                                             




We explored King's Island for the rest of the day, visiting St. Mary's Cathedral and King John's Castle (whom I am supposedly related to- my claim to fame).  The Cathedral had been built around 1168 by O'Brien and it still looks the same, inside and out.
We had lunch at the Locke Bar and Oyster House to experience authentic Irish food aka Fish&Chips and Irish Stew. Yum!

We headed up to Galway on Sunday for church and then explored the city.  I am in love with that city.  Shop Street is the best.  I could live there for days!! So we had a great time exploring a 'real' city, as compared to Limerick... It was great, besides being the minority of people dressed in normal clothes (I can't imagine what my parents must think Ireland is like on normal days... ha!).  Randomly ran into a flash mob dance to Thriller (gotta love Halloween in Ireland!) We drove down to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park on Monday, which is a place with authentic buildings they brought there to let you experience Irish history from medieval times to the early 1900s. It was really nice, though it rained, it ended up being a fantastic day. 

I was too big for the door :(

The Perfect Village

I had a great weekend and I was so blessed to have my parents visit so I could show them why I love this country. Now the only question is, did they like it enough to ever come back?