I love you!

Needless to say, this melts Bryan's heart... :)

Whaaaa-at?

I missed the really good example of her doing it, but this is Adaline's "new" funny thing... I will try to get better footage later. Enjoy!

October 19 - Dingle Penisula

Let me begin by stating - so far, the Dingle Penisula is the favorite trip we have taken... If you are going to Ireland, we would now recommend the Dingle Penisula over the Ring of Kerry. When you are planning your trip to Ireland :), we would be happy to tell you all the reasons why.

The first half of our day had rainy, windy weather. We drove from Tralee to the town of Dingle. We had told Adaline all about Fungi the dolphin - but no boats were going out to look for him in this horrible weather. Fortunately she was fine with seeing the statue. Don't you love her stroller rain cover? We look like an Irish family, don't we? :)
Did you know that parts of Ireland have palm trees???
A cemetery for nuns in Dingle
After leaving Dingle, the real fun began. Our first stop was an ancient ring fort. It was still rainy and windy, and Adaline wasn't wild about walking in the rain...
Bryan and I, however, were completely amazed by the scenery regardless of the weather.
Adaline was miserable.

Eventually she decided that if Mommy and Daddy were happy, she could be happy too!

Here is a picture of the fort.

These sheep were enjoying one of the ramparts built to protect the fort.
Next stop was a series of famine houses - they had this horse and two donkeys in the front for people to feed. I felt really bad for the animals, who followed us up the hill wanting some food.
Adaline is having fun in a rain puddle - completely unaware of the fact that she was standing in front of an ancient beehive hut!





Adaline was thrilled when she spotted the sun, which brought about cheers of joy for several minutes. :)
More beehive huts.

Further along the Dingle Penisula - view from Slea Head. We left Adaline in the car listening to our Greg Russell CD.
Slea Head
View of the Blasket Islands


Bryan went down on the beach where Ryan's Daughter was filmed - Robert Mitchum starred in it.
He got caught when the water came rushing in to where he was standing!


Our last stop was an ancient church. Adaline thought it was so cute...

Adaline suddenly started a new thing - saying "Whaaaaaaaaaaa-at?" I will try to post some footage of it. Very funny.
Once again we wore her out! A sign of another great day! :)

October 18 - Castleisland and Tralee

On our way to Tralee, we stopped in Castleisland for lunch and some child-friendly fun! We ate in a yummy pub, and we were the only people there - so Adaline could move around without constantly hearing "don't do that - be quiet - come back here!"
She was trying to teach Mommy how to say "I - Love - You" (aka - eyes, heart, point finger). Mommy had to be taught multiple times. :)
This is the hotel/pub we ate in that was on Main Street in Castleisland. Main Street was busy and VERY small town - we probably stood out amongst all the locals, who were out doing their Saturday shopping. Adaline was very excited about what came next...
A local farmer has seized on the fact that he has a cave on his property and developed it into a tourist attraction. Crag Cave has a HUGE children's area, perhaps bigger than Pump It Up (if that is possible...) - and Adaline was delighted. She ran and ran and ran and jumped and jumped and jumped - and wore herself out!

Here are Bryan and Adaline inside Crag Cave. She was not really sure about going inside the cave, but ended up loving it by the end.
Here is one of the few pictures that turned out inside the cave - they call this the "wine bottle." Ha!
Afterwards we had to play a little more. We all enjoyed Crag Cave - but I don't know if I would recommend it to people who were traveling in an adult-only group. While the cave was interesting, we have been to others where you could see more...

We arrived in Tralee around 6pm. We stayed with Eileen at Denton Bed and Breakfast. She was a wonderful host and made us feel welcome. She had picked a room on the back of her house so that Adaline wouldn't hear the traffic while sleeping - very kind. Adaline's bed was in a nook so she could sleep safely against a wall, which we appreciated since she fell out of her bed in Kenmare.
Adaline is getting into taking funny pictures after serious pictures...
We were all tired and worn out, so we walked next door for dinner at the Meadowlands Hotel. It was yummy, and we celebrated the day by letting Adaline have ice cream. Needless to say, she was completely exhausted by the time we got home and slept quite well... :)

October 15 - Bubbles in the sun

We have had a fair amount of Irish rain, so Adaline was THRILLED when she woke up from her nap on Wednesday and discovered sunshine outside. As I recall, it rained all morning, so it was particularly wonderful to find some sun outside. We ran outside to blow bubbles and had a great time in our front "yard!"

This is the view from our apartment window, and the trees have helped us gauge the progress of fall in Cork. While the picture doesn't make the view seem all that special, we have all grown to love our little patch of trees which are a border line for the college campus.
This is our front door and mailbox - we walk in this door every day and are the apartment on the left on the first floor. Thank goodness we aren't on the third floor - getting the stroller up all those stairs would have gotten old after a few days...
We decided to celebrate Wednesday. Why, you might ask... Well, it was Wednesday! :) Do you need another reason to go out to dinner? We had heard about a restaurant named Scoozi's and decided to try it out.

On our way down Western Road, we ran into Adaline's classmate, Anna, and her parents. Adaline and Anna held hands for about half of the walk, and Adaline gave Anna a hug and kiss when we turned off to go to our restaurant. Very cute.