An Afternoon in Killarney

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I felt like I was waking up all night but it was still dark outside so I would stay in bed. The thought ran through my mind that we might possibly have slept through the following day and it was night again. By the time daylight finally came about, we dragged ourselves out of bed around 11:15am. Billie and Matt weren’t moving any earlier than we were so it was okay. I had a bowl of Frosties (Irish for Frosted Flakes) and orange juice. We made plans to hit Killarney today since it is close by and there are several sites in the area. Right after we hit the road, we remembered daylight savings time so that set us off at 1pm.

The first stop was up a winding road past Killarney National Park about 14km. Ladies View gets its name from the pleasure expressed by Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-waiting on their visit to this spot in September 1861. The ground was very swampy and wet considering how high the elevation. The view over the three lakes of Killarney was gorgeous but the camera can’t do it justice. On our walk across the street, we found the sign for Leprechaun Crossing but no little green guys in sight. I found some little gifts in the store for the girls; a teddy bear that says “Greetings from Ireland” and an Irish Leprechaun Magic Beanies bar. Robert and I picked up keychains to attach to our travel bugs and send them back in a race to Bend. I got a little redheaded girl in an Irish dancing dress and Robert got a leprechaun. Now we have to get our damn GPS to fix on our location so we can find a geocache to drop them in. I don’t know what we are doing wrong but it isn’t picking up ANY satellites at all.

Our next stop was the Muckross estates of the National Park. The main reason I had Robert pull over was because I wanted to see the Torc Waterfall and we ended up getting a whole lot more than we bargained for. Right in the parking lot, we were offered the hire of a jaunting cart ride through the park. The price sounded pretty good, only €10 per person. I had planned on taking a carriage ride around Killarney but this was just as good. It turned out to be the smartest decision of the day. The ride took us several kilometers around the park. Our driver took us back to the Muckross House, which we did not tour due to the price, €5.75 per person. After the cost of the ride, we didn’t want to spend more. The driver took us around to the Torc Waterfall which was nice but nothing in comparison with the waterfalls back home. Our driver gave us time to get out and walk around and enjoy the sites before taking us to the next location. On our way back, I asked him to drop us off at the Muckross Abbey so we could walk around and look at the building and cemetery. It dates back to the 15th century and the cemetery is still being used by the local people.

Our final stop was downtown Killarney, in search of an internet café and good grub. We parked in the lot in front of the Killarney Outlet Centre. They were holding an arts and crafts fair so I picked up a loaf of fresh lemon Madeira with soft lemon icing. Other than that, we stopped in at the Blarney Woolen Mills. I got a cute little onsies for Kara’s coming baby that says “It’s not easy being this cute!”, a leprechaun holding the US and Irish flags ornament for our Christmas tree, and a wooden picture frame with a celtic design carved in it. The handy list I printed off the internet led us straight to the Ri-Ra internet café. I was able to post my blogs for days one and two. It sounds like its working out well since I got comments back from Genivieve and Susie. Hi ladies!! Thanks for the comments. I don’t really have time to check my email and write many replies since it cost us €2.95 an hour and I have people waiting on me.

We had dinner at Danny Mann’s which wasn’t too bad. I had the hot Irish bacon and red apple salad which had this interesting type of lettuce on it. It was very tasty but I didn’t care for the lack of lettuce even though it doesn’t provide any substantial nutrition. Robert had the sirloin steak with whiskey sauce cooked medium rare. It came back almost raw so he sent it back. It was smothered in mushrooms which I enjoyed along with his colcannon mash (mashed potatoes). I was going to have some Bailey’s cheesecake for dessert but I remembered the lemon cake. I stopped at a phone booth while Matt ran over to the liquor. The €10 phone card I bought on the airplane only bought me 21 minutes of time. I called Kara’s cell phone and got her voicemail of course. Not quite as bad as calling home from Iraq and getting the answering machine but it would have been nice to talk to my girls and make sure Kara hadn’t gone into labor yet.

On the way home, we stopped off a little grocery store to pick up some supplies. I got several things to tide me over and also bring home for the girls. We got this huge square bread, “American style” creamy peanut butter, lemon marmalade, tea and sugar, cheese spread and crackers, candies for the girls, Cocoa pops that you use to drink with and then eat (a lovely novelty since I know my girls love to use their food for straws), a bottle of something called Fat Frog that I just had to buy for the name, a four pack of Bacardi orange drinks, and lastly we found some Magnum ice cream bars!! I thought I was going to have to travel to Turkey to enjoy these again. They are so special to me because I enjoyed some of them during my travels to Iraq and they are just delicious! I was one happy lady after that, lol.

Then we were homeward bound. After downloading all of the pictures to the laptop, we played a game of Phase 10 which took us several hours. Matt was the first winner and then Billie came in second place so we will definitely be having a rematch very soon. It was nice to sit down and relax after being on the go all day long.

Our plan tomorrow is to head over to Cork and enjoy their annual Jazz Festival, kiss the Blarney Stone, and see some sights.

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