First Post

I thought it would be good to start a blog to show pictures and keep everybody posted about what we have been up to. I am new to this so it should be interesting.

As many know we recently got back from a trip to Ireland, we were gone for two weeks and had many adventures and saw some amazing scenery while we were over there!

I'll copy our emails here for those who missed them:

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Thurs. July 19th ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well, this is the second attempt, just lost my first, so you will likely get a much shorter version.

we are alive and well, driving over here is not too bad, especially since Nate as driven everywhere so far.

our flight out of Rochester was delayed 1.5 to 2 hours so Nate was all stressed out about making it on our flight to Dublin, but luckily the Dublin flight was delayed as well, for different reasons, so we arrived here on time at about 10 to 6. we rented a car and then headed to our b&b in Enniskerry. we took about an hour nap then went for a drive on the Military rd through the Wicklow mountains. We toured a monastical ruin at Glendalough, pronounced glenda-lock. And then went to see Powerscourt Gardens, huge formal gardens, some say the last of its kind.

Powerscourt Gardens

After that we went to a small market to get a phone card and something simple for supper. we had cheese on rolls, not bad, but in our state it wouldn't have taken much to please us. we did our best to stay up, and finally gave in at about 8 pm, Nate slept until 7 and he dragged me out of bed at 8. 12 hours and I could have slept more!!!

We had a great breakfast with another couple who had stayed there. they were on a trip to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. We left at about 1030 to go to Kilkenny. we will see a castle here and then go to the rock of Cashel on our way to dingle tomorrow.

Hope this finds you all well,
the best,
Nate & Jana

Sat. July 21st ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hello all,

we are in the dingle peninsula for 3 days, fri. sat. and sun. tomorrow we are going to go on an archaeological tour and then go to the pitch and put, a bit like mini golf, but not as mini.

we saw fungi (pronounced foon-gee) today, he is a male bottle nose dolphin who lives in dingle bay, he jumped out of the water and did flips, got lots of pictures, but from far away, he has been living in the bay for 22 years!!

All for now,
Love,
Nate & Jana

Sat. July 28th ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all, It has been a while since our last update. Things are going well, we are doing fine and keeping busy, been doing a lot of walking lately! Nate is going to write this one, hope everyone is doing well, we will be looking forward to seeing you all when we come home!! -Jana

The keys are slightly different. So if this comes out as unintelligible mess, I can always blame that. :-) Jana is reminding me that we're paying by the minute here, and I better get on with it!

Belfast has been a very interesting city. I have to admit that I didn't know what to expect. We took a couple of tours: a historical walking tour and a double-decker bus tour. I was kind of surprised that the latter took us right through the heart of the sectarian violence-- "the murder mile" they call it- complete with bombed buildings, melted traffic lights, and highly political murals. It's an indication of how much things have changed. This is definitely a city that is growing with a vengeance, with new construction going up everywhere. The new opera house is completely fronted with glass, something that wouldn't have possible a mere ten years ago. This is the first place that seems really, REALLY delighted to have tourists wandering about.

Good scenery sometimes makes for pretty lousy land (and vice-versa). For the most part, Northern Ireland has been far less dramatic than what we've seen in the south. The Connemara region in particular is stunningly beautiful, with peat bogs, mist shrouded mountains, and rocky fields. At the same time, the land is worthless for anything but grazing sheep which occasionally wander the roads.

So, I better tell you, we had an accident. Don't worry, we weren't hurt in any way. While driving in the aforementioned Connemara region, Jana veered into the ditch to avoid a giant bus that was barreling down the same narrow road. Understand, this is how things are done in Ireland. You quickly get used to shrubbery smacking the passenger side of the car as you avoid other traffic. Anyway, unfortunately, this time there was a giant rock, and we hit with this with the front passenger tire. This destroyed the front suspension and we slid up the road for another 20-30 feet before coming to stop. Needless to say we were both pretty shaken up by this. I ran down the road to get help, found a shepherd named Decklan, who kindly made several phone calls, and drove us to a pub where we waited for 6 hours for our replacement car to arrive. Destroying our rental car should have ruined our trip, but it's been so good that last few days, I tend to forget it (we'll have to see how well I can forget it when the bill comes... :-) . I'm glad I got the super insurance.

Ok, Jana tells me I'm too long winded, and I'll never get to write another letter!

Hope things are going well. Can't wait to show you all 700 of our pictures. :-)

Mon. July 30th --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello again, this will be our last email from Ireland as we only have one more action packed day and then one day of traveling home, hopefully arriving at 6pm on Wed.

I am getting really homesick and my interest in all the sights we are seeing is dwindling faster everyday. It is not that things are boring, they are very neat, but your brain just gets so packed with new things that you just want to get back to something familiar and comfortable.

See you all soon! Jana

Nate here:
Alas, poor Jana. Next time we're going to rent a little motorized wheelchair, I'll ride on the back, screaming at people to get out of the way, and we'll fly around the little cobblestone streets with Jana sitting comfortably in the front drinking a Mint Julep. :-)

Well, Dublin is definitely the most cosmopolitan of the Irish cities we've seen thus far. In many ways it's a little indistinguishable from many other big cities. Today we toured Trinity College (think Oxford or Harvard), and saw the 1500 Book of Kells. The exhibit leading up to book was excellent. The monks spent up to 6 months creating a single page.

We also saw the Dublin Castle, which is a Georgian mansion wrapped around an old Norman fortress. Also very neat.

So much more to say, but time is gone...

Nate
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So that was our trip in a nutshell. Since then we have had a visit from Cari and Vern Musgrove and their little one, Colter (such a cutie). We went out to the lake with Chris and Mary and the boys on Friday night (3rd) and then over to Chris and Mary's for supper on sat. night. Then we had Cari and Vern over for supper on Sun. evening.

My sister, Gina, and her three little ones came for a visit, from Monday afternoon to Saturday afternoon this past week, so that made for a lively household! It was great to have them here, very entertaining and it was nice to have my sister here to go shopping with and other fun stuff.

Then tonight we had Aaron, Jami and Chloe Starling over for supper and a game. We made fresh pasta!!! Aaron, Jami and Nate were in charge of pulling all the pieces apart and putting it on the rack to dry. I was in the kitchen, extruding the pasta using my kitchen aid mixer with the pasta attachment. It was pretty good pasta! We also had homemade ice cream and fresh raspberries for dessert.

Well, I think that will about do it for now. I will work on posting some pictures, we have almost one thousand from our trip!