Here Come the Irish!

 “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” Jim Bishop 

I must agree! Cooler weather is on its way, Denny and I celebrated 55 years of marriage, and I was blessed with another birthday, making it 76. With all of that and our continued good health, I am  grateful and very excited once again for the new season before us.

Another highlight of this beautiful Autumn season was that we went to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game. It had been 17 years since we last visited the campus and this time our son Jeff and our grandson Oliver joined us. 

Oliver is 16 years old and a Junior in high school. He is beginning to think about where he may want to go to college, and Papa was more than happy to show him his Alma Mater.

We are very lucky to have a friend who marshals at the home games and knows all the treasures that the campus has to offers. Colleen spent the day with us on Friday and made sure we didn’t miss a thing - there are so many changes that have happened since we were last there. 

 As you’ll see in the pictures, it’s a beautiful campus, it’s emotional,  it’s spiritual, and it’s filled with an energy that I wish I could bottle and live every day of my life.  I feel so lucky and honored that Denny brought Notre Dame into our lives to be enjoyed over the years.  

 The weather was perfect. Cool 60- degree days made it delightful to walk about town and all throughout the campus. We visited the Notre Dame Cemetery, which was beautiful, and saw Knute Rockne's grave. It used to be at a near-by cemetery in South Bend, but the family decided this year, to have Knute's, along with his wife's and their son’s graves moved to the campus.  

The campus was alive as ever with its Golden Dome, the Sacred Heart Basilica, and touchdown Jesus. 

One of the sites that was new to us was the "Cross in the woods" and the bench where you can sit and see the Golden Dome and the Basilica from the other side of the St. Joseph Lake.

One of my favorite settings is the Grotto.  The Grotto is a quiet sacred spot, where you can say a prayer, light a candle or just sit and reflect.

The locker room was off limits, but photos were available with a re-creation of the locker room. 

Since it was a game day weekend, we didn't get to go onto the field like you can when there is no game, but we did get to walk down the tunnel that the players run out of. 

The ambiance at the stadium is always wonderful on game day. The game against Northern Illinois was exciting, however, the final score was not in our favor.  

Game day weekends are a lot of fun and everyone in the town seems to be a Notre Dame fan. Most of the staff in the South Bend restaurants and pubs wear Notre Dame shirts or hats.  

If you get the chance to see the campus, don't miss an opportunity to experience the tradition, beauty and magic of Notre Dame. 

 We will definitely be back and are  looking forward to getting our other two grandsons there. 

Wild Energy!

Turning 75 this month has been one of the most wonderful times of my life. I am so very grateful to be healthy and I am excited to tell you about my most recent trip to Ireland.

 I was talking to a friend who lives in Limerick and after telling her I wanted to get back over to Ireland again and this time would like to go to Donegal, she said she was free to travel for a few days, and had a car. We still laugh at how fast and spontaneous it all happened.  I booked my ticket; she picked me up at Shannon Airport and off we went.  

From Limerick to Galway, over to Donegal, Westport and ending in Killarney. We stopped along the way to see the beautiful beach at Spanish Point. 

Spanish Point is on the west coast of Co. Clare on the Wild Atlantic Way. It’s named for the Spanish soldiers who died in 1588 when their ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked during a storm.

It is now a beautiful seaside village for swimming, surfing and even has a 9-hole golf course overlooking the Atlantic.

The Wild Atlantic Way, is 1600 miles in length beginning at the Inishowen Peninsula of Donegal winding all the way along the west coast to Kinsale, County Cork in the south. 

Its massive waves, along with the chill from the wind and rain gives it its truly wild personality.

It was a lovely walk in Galway, the beautiful Corrib River and the St. Nicholas Cathedral.  

Continuing on, we were happy to find the sign for Drumcliff. We were afraid we had taken a different road and was going to miss seeing where W.B. Yeats is buried.  but there it was, and the hydrangeas seem to be very popular in Ireland. They grow everywhere.

Onward to Teelin, Co. Donegal, where we stayed at The Rusty Mackeral B&B. I would highly recommend it, even though we had bunk beds that night. 

 Dinner was wonderful, the fish is the freshest. We actually ate a lot of fish. 

It was the next morning that we went up to the “Lookout point” and came to  Sliabh Liag  Mountain. 

Sliabh Liag is Gaelic for Grey Mountain and is on the Atlantic coast of County Donegal supposedly having cliffs that are the 2nd highest point in Ireland. The first being Croaghaum Mountain. 

I had to really push myself to get to the top where you could look out over some of the most stunning views. Surrounded by the sea, the path was beautiful, so glad I did. 

The next day we drove to Downings, Co. Donegal to our B&B. The owner of the B&B plays the tin whistle with a group at the local pub. There was another couple staying at the B&B from Oregon, so we all went to the pub that night for some good Irish music.  

I have to say I believe the highlight for me on this trip was going to the Fanad Lighthouse. I have always wanted to go into and to the top of one and look out over the ocean. Never did I think I’d do it in Ireland overlooking the Wild Atlantic Sea.

Fanad is still an operational lighthouse, but it no longer has a lighthouse keeper. Everything is automated. There are 3 lighthouse keeper’s homes you can book and stay in. I wish we had known that before we got there. Something for next time. 

We then drove up to Derry in Northern Ireland, we got in late, had dinner and before leaving the next morning  walked along the walled city in the center of Derry.  

Westport and Killarney

Westport is a beautiful town! It was my first time there. Our hotel was on the Quay overlooking the harbor. The staff was wonderful, they had a fabulous restaurant and we had a lovely room. We stayed at the Westport Coast Hotel. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Westport. 

Our plan was to stay there just the one night and then onto Killarney the next morning but we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave.  After thinking about it, if we were to stay an extra day, that would give Valerie a day without driving. She did a lot of driving on this trip. 

We agreed to check with the desk and see if we could stay an extra night. We had to move rooms the next day but we stayed and roamed the town,  had a nice lunch out and did a lot of walking. 

Actually, Valerie mentioned when we first checked in that the next day was my birthday. and when we came back that 2nd day from shopping and seeing the town, we had a bottle of wine and chocolates waiting for us. 

The next morning we headed  for Limerick. It worked perfect as Valerie dropped me off at the bus station in Limerick and I went on in to Killarney. She went back home. It's just an hour and a half bus ride. 

It was great getting to Killarney and seeing all my friends at Murphy's. I was glad to have gotten there on the evening of their "Culture Night" Two of my Poet friends,  Eileen Sheehan and John W. Sexton read poetry, there were wonderful refreshments, and the Kerry Ukrainian Choir was fabulous with their beautiful voices. 

Another one of the highlights of the trip for me was that I decided before I left home I was going to take a harp lesson. I contacted the Killarney School of music and had myself an hour lesson. I've taken a couple lessons at home but thought how much better could it get then to have a harp lesson in Ireland? 

This definately is going to be my year for going for it! 

Here's to Wild Energy!

A Grand Finale!

 It’s Wednesday morning and I was totally wrong on my weather forecast yesterday. It never did stop raining in Killarney,  it didn’t clear up and it was dam cold. It rained a little harder as each hour passed.  

Still it was hard to leave. It’s never been easy for me to leave Killarney. 

We took the 2-hour train ride into Cork and one of the things I wanted to do on this trip was take a side trip to the near-by town of Kinsale.  There are busses that go every hour so we checked into our room and off we went. Kinsale is about 25km. south of Cork and it took about an hour. . 

On our walk through this charming, small, seaport town, we came across “Prim’s Bookshop,” an interesting, independent used bookstore with a collection of very old books.  There was a piano, a chess board, a little coffee bar, and a few chairs to sit in. 

It was very cozy, and it was raining. I really love this quote they had written on the wall, 

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something ~ a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things ~ which you had thought special and particular to you. And now here it is , set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. “ Alan Bennett~ The History Boys

We’re staying at Jury’s Inn in Cork, certainly not the hotel Scott’s was in Killarney, we have a very small room but I do love the view outside our window. I mean there’s not many mornings I wake up to find four little seagulls sitting at water’s edge waiting for me to open my curtains. 

Denny asked why I thought they were waiting for me, and I told him “A girl just knows these things.” 

We really enjoyed seeing Kinsale, but the real highlight while being in Cork was our trip today to Cobh. Cobh is the last port the Titanic stopped at before its fateful journey. The Heritage Center gives tours of the history and the town is lovely to walk through. 

Little did we know, how lucky we were to be in Cobh on this very day. When we arrived, sitting there towering over the town would be for sure the grandest of cruise ships.

 Early that morning, the MSC Virtuosa arrived with 6300 passengers and 1700 crew members, one of the world’s largest cruise ships., 331 meters in length.  Stunning to say the least. It was leaving that night continuing on to the U.K. 

Cobh has a Beautiful cathedral,  Ardeaglais Cholmain ~ St. Colman’s Cathedral. I knew I wanted to see it, I had heard it was pretty spectacular. Viewing it from the street it involved a massive climb up a very steep hill.  Denny wasn’t having any of that. 

I asked one of the men who was standing around near- by how one would go about getting up there, he said there were two options, I followed the path half-way up the hill and then cut over and went up the stairs, (supposed to be a short cut}. 

I climbed and climbed and just when I thought my heart would burst through my chest,  

there it was! There was a Mass going on, it was just ending. 

I am thrilled I did it. It really was well worth it. 

So  today, we leave Cork City.  We’ll take the 2 1/2 hour train ride to Dublin for the night and fly home tomorrow. We’ll stay our last night at the Dublin Airport Hilton.  We’ve stayed here before and it’s a convenient and comfortable way to end the trip. 

It’s really been a wonderful trip, but 10 days is too short. We did get a lot more rain this time, but that’s part of the beauty and ambience of Ireland. 

The full Irish breakfast was delicious each morning and the only real outstanding meal we had was at the “Bar Italiano” in Dublin.  We both agree you don’t come to Ireland for the food. 

The biggest take away for both of us was the music. We heard fabulous music everywhere we went. One of the best being, a group of men sitting in town center Cork City yesterday.  

Ireland is full of emotion. One’s life is certainly enhanced by a visit to the Emerald Isle. 

I am always inspired by the elegance, love and loyalty of the Irish people.