Ireland, Day 7

Day 7 Itinerary:  Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, and then a show called Traditional Irish Night that evening.  We were finally going to hear some Irish music!!

Bunratty wasn't too long of a drive, and it was a really neat place!  They had a castle, and then a folk park set up that was a recreation of an 18th century village.  They had traditional farm houses, shops, the doctor's house, a church...everything that would exist in the village.  It was very cool!  They also had some animals around, which of course, the kids LOVED!  The weather was pretty horrible this day.  It would pour rain for 15 minutes, and then the sun would come out for a bit, then it would pour rain for another 20 minutes, and then the sun would come out again.  We all got a bit wet!!

All gathered up and ready for our last full day of adventures!

Bunratty Folk Park

The Corn Barn...this is where we would watch our Irish show later in the evening.

Mac's Pub, where we ate lunch.  I ordered a ham sandwich...it was white bread, butter and ham....simple, but yummy!

Bunratty Castle.  I wish I could get my hands on one of these tables!  They were amazing...several of them made from one huge piece of wood!!

View from the top of the castle.

MiMi & PaPa at the top.  Again, MiMi & I weren't really planning to make it to the top, but somehow that's where we ended up!

All bundled up and ready to brave the rain!  MiMi didn't have her silly yellow hoodie from Paris, but this time PaPa sported the look in his bright blue raincoat.  : )

The next time I am complaining about my tiny German washer, I am going to refer to this picture, and be thankful for what I have!

We knew we were having a late dinner, so we stopped for homemade apple pie and hot chocolate about mid-afternoon.  It was the perfect way to wait out another burst of rain.

It was pretty good!

Little R thought the hot chocolate was good to the last drop!

Cheers!

R & I were trying to capture pics of the deer...then they walked right up to the girls at the fence!

Traditional Irish Night.  Dinner, storytelling, music and dancing!

My boy!  This smile, these eyes...melt my heart!  If I am even half as special as this boy thinks I am...then I am doing okay!

T chose the lamb stew.  She was a little anxious about eating lamb, but she said it was delicious!

I chose the salmon.  Although I did try one bite of the lamb stew.  I think salmon was definitely the better choice!

 This was just some of the dancing during the show.  The girls both loved the music and the dancing.  They are both asking to take Irish Dance lessons now! : )

Little R didn't make it to dessert.  He was one tired little boy.

T thought she would be like the grown ups and finish her meal off with coffee.  Yeah, she wasn't a fan....her face says it all.

We purposely left the outside lights on when we left that morning because we knew it would be late when we got home that night.  The house was very welcoming after another long day.

Little R slept like a king all week...literally!  The bedrooms had big, king size beds, and Little R wound up in a room to himself, in a big 'ol bed!  It was hard to find him in all the pillows and covers...but he sure did sleep good every night that week!!

This was our last night at the house.  The next morning we had to check out and drive to Dublin for a short overnight, and then our flight home on Sunday.