The North

Friday, 26 July 2013

Do you want interesting reading or just the facts?  If you want poetic, check out Liz's blog - her poetry and prose have left us speechless (but in stitches), especially when spoken with an Irish accent.  Here, we're just going to give you the facts.

Fact number one:  Ireland is beautiful and green.  There is a reason they call it the Emerald Isle, even in a drought.  People have told us that this summer is the driest and hottest it has been in many years.  We can't tell it, though, because we've felt the humidity.  And it's rained practically every day!  Not all day, but every day.

Aunt Kathy at Dunluce Castle

Fact number two:  Dunluce Castle is still there, we are happy to report.  Nothing else has fallen off into the sea.  Aunt Kathy really enjoyed the history and the antiquity and explored every nook and cranny.  She is going to tell her grandkids that she went to a castle just like the one in the movie "Brave."  Liz, on the other hand, guarded the car because our neighbors in the car next to us had been robbed.  They were gone for about 10-15 minutes, came back, and their daughter's backpack, with her phone, passport, and credit cards, in essence, her life, had been stolen.  She is a reporter for Bloomberg News in London (they were all Americans), and so losing her phone meant that she'd lost all of her contacts.  It was really sad.  The boys climbed down into a cave underneath the castle.  Never mind the sign read "No Entry;" Rich said that that was just "a suggestion."  The cave was used millennium ago by early inhabitants of the region.

Liz at the Giant's Causeway

Fact number three:  The Giant's Causeway was created by an Irish giant named Finn McCool.  We have all bought a book that says so, and we know that books don't lie.  Fact number three.1:  We really liked the Giant's Causeway, even if it WASN'T created by Finn McCool.  The site was crawling with a million people, but we still managed to get pictures without all of them in it.  The boys went on a hike and then we headed back on the bus to Bushmills.  We talked with the bus driver, who is a Harley biker (we gave him a card for the Ride for the Fallen), and he told us about a place where the locals eat in Ballintoy.  

Rich and Reed
We feel sorry for their
mother.  Was she
ever able to get a serious
picture of them?  Then,
again, maybe she didn't
want to!  Would you?
No, really!?!

Fact number four:  Ballintoy is a quaint wee town.  We ate with all the local day trippers in a restaurant down by the harbor.  It was a beautiful place.  We'd passed a wedding at a church down the road, and lo and behold the wedding party showed up to take pictures at the harbor.  The place just felt happy.  The food was good, and we expanded their culinary knowledge by asking for ice cream on the rhubarb and apple crumbles and apple pie.  The waitress said they had never done that before.  

Fact number five:  You cannot drive very fast in Ireland.  So, if the GPS says you will arrive by 6:00pm, add 45 minutes.

Fact number six:  The McKenna Clann International Rally started off with a rousing show.  We registered and then started to mix and mingle.  The musical entertainment was provided by a McKenna family from Clogher who now live in the church where possibly Hugh and Mary were married.  Rich got all their names and contact information, and the mother, Mary McKenna, has said that she will help us in our search.  She's going to talk to their priest about the Catholic records.  We think there were about 75-80 people there, and they came from South America, 

Reed and Liz with Chieftain Maria,
the new Clann McKenna leader

Australia, the U.S., Europe, and, of course, Ireland.  A new chieftain was inaugurated, a woman, and we all had our picture taken with the new clan chieftain - or is that chieftainess?  We think we will be in the next Clann McKenna book - so now we're famous.  Oh, by the way, we were able to accomplish another of our objectives by buying Vol. 1 of the Clann McKenna books.  At the end of the night, everyone joined hands and danced around the room.  It's too bad we don't have a video of that!

Kathy as we normally see her

Fact number seven:  Liz doesn't have a blog.  Sorry.  You are missing out on her poetry and pose, but you really need "to be there" to enjoy it.  And we're not sure that Rich enjoyed it even then.