If I did it.....

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Yesterday, my mom and I went on another Paddywagon adventure! This time we went to Cobh, Kinsale, and Blarney. Cobh is a beautiful sea-town. We are lucky because the weather there was still sunny this morning! It is the 2nd largest natural harbour in the world (Sydney is the largest). It was also the last port of call for the Titanic. After getting some great photos, it started raining so we took refuge in a little antique shop. The woman had a vinyl record player, and we had a lengthy discussion about how they are making a come back. (I had no idea, but i guess a lot of today's artists are now recording Vinyl as well as CD's). Kinsale is a neat town we stopped in for lunch. WE saw many sailboats, as well as some neat stores.

Blarney Castle was neat to see. Apparently the Blarney stone is called such because there was a landlord (a middle man for the Queen) by the name of McCarthy. He was a nice enough man and liked to "work with" those who could not afford to meet rent. When the Queen would ask for her payments, he would never offend her but always had long, elaborate excuses as to why he hadn't collected all of her fees. When asked about the landlord McCarthy, the Queen described him as "full of Blarney". Kissing the stone is said to give the gift of gab for 7 years. However, local lore is that people sneak in to the place at night and urinate/ect. on the stone. Our tour guide assured us that this was not the case, and the place is well guarded and situated in such a position, that I can see where it would be hard to accomplish that! I won't say if I took part in tradition, but my blogs have been rather lengthy lately! All and all, it was a wonderful trip, and there were Birthday celebrations for our next door neighbor when I got back!

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