8 may 2011 - the family comes to town (part 2)

hello all! hope everyone is doing well :) i for one am having a blast at holy cross right now (currently watching shows in the library while everyone else does actual work... sorry i'm not sorry). but i thought it was about time i finish up my family post!

i left off with petra and nick's departure on sunday. it was sad to see them go but thankfully i'll see them in a few days when i return to madison! dad and i headed to the guinness factory after easter mass (interesting combo) and had fun learning all about the "ruby red" beer. after that, we headed to trinity and checked out the campus there before heading back to the hotel for a nap. after the nap, we headed to dinner and then out to the pub. we stayed out late catching up and laughing at some fellow pub goers who were a little more inebriated than us :) there was also some traditional music going on which was a plus!

these two were deep in conversation/loving on each other all night!

dad and i left our hotel in the morning and made our way to kilmainham gaol, a former prison outside of dublin. eileen and i are especially obsessed with prisons and get sucked into prison documentaries all the time so this was a must-see. we took an obnoxious amount of pictures so that eileen could feel like she attended as well.

yikes!

after getting our fill of prison action, we hopped in the car to drive to swinford, which is where some of my irish ancestors come from. we wandered around the town and made our way to the local cemetery (surprisingly hard to find), where we found a bunch of potential relatives. after creepily taking a bunch of grave pictures, we hopped back in the car and did a quick stop at kylemore abbey and clifden. on the way, we decided to grab a quick dinner but since ireland doesn't have a mcdonalds every 5 feet, we were forced to be a little more creative and ended up buying bread, turkey and cheese and making sandwiches on the road (more difficult than one might think. especially with constant twists and turns). we finally made it to galway and had a delicious dinner at a restaurant called artisan.

because i can't go one post without a sheepshot

in the morning, dad picked me up bright and early and we made our way to the aran islands only to miss the boat by 8 minutes. instead of waiting around for 3 hours for the next one, we decided to go to connemara national park! we spontaneously decided to climb to the top of "diamond hill" which was more of a small mountain. i realized how horribly out of shape i am when i had to stop multiple times on the way up. the hike was worth it though and we had a fabulous view.

after an exhausting day, we headed back to galway, had dinner at an italian place in town, and parted ways so dad could drive to dublin for his flight in the morning. it was an absolutely amazing week full of great memories! can't wait to see the fam in a few days!!!

also can't wait to see this...