First day of school

First day of school 

A little morning football to warm them up 

Then the walk to school . Kids from 3 different schools walking together 

Sorry for the rear shots , trailing behind 

End of the day jack is down to undershirt on 70 degree day

Jack seemed to have okay time , Audrey also . Will see as time goes by.

meanwhile when kids were away. Mom and dad had a coffee date and tour of the local castle. Maynooth castle was home to he fitzgeralds who at one time were most powerful family in ireland , and  one may be able to assign blame to them for England's takeover . 

This castle was one of the first that cannons were used against , unsuccessful mind you due to the fact the walls are 9 feet thick.

The walls are so thick they have guest rooms and hallways inside. (Guest room above)

That's all for today 

Rob

irish names

it turns out that many names have been translated into Irish over the years. If your name was a saint name, norman name, english settler or missionary there is often an irish equivalent.
3 of 4 of our family have Irish names

Seán Mac Tomáis

Riobeard Mac Tomáis

Sorcha Mac Tomáis

can you guess whose missing?

Audrey and Jack have a few aunts and uncles with Irish names

Mairéad, Marta, Peadar, Siui, Uilliam (thats 3 unlucky without and only 1 happy couple with irish names)

last only 1 grandparent with an irish name (see Riobeard again...)

Rob

More observations

Single sheet toilet paper

- at public loos the toilet paper is not a roll but sheet by sheet like Kleenex 

Lunch at the gas station

Most of the gas stations seem to be full service delis , seems common to grab lunch there

Instant coffee

The break rooms don't have coffee machines, instead they have can of instant coffee. The instant coffee section at the grocery store is quite large. Or may be our b&b was serving us instant also ...

Dryer 

The spin dryer has a condenser , so not only do you empty lint but also water after every run . She is not a fan

Rob

First holiday recap

After nearly a month in ireland, Sarah was getting antsy to do something. Somehow government visits, setting up utilities, buying cars was not spiritually satisfying. School was also looming, starting next Friday so no time like the present for a summer holiday.

Originally we were thinking of heading out to Galway (Easy trip on the M6). Then we looked farther west to the the Aran Islands (of sweater fame). When doing our research their were 3 islands to choose from Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer or in Irish terms Inis Mór, Inis Meáin, and Inis Oírr,  I ended up choosing Inisheer because we could get a boat that would take us to the Island for 4 hours then a 2 hour trip back via the Cliffs of Moher. I reserved  ferry tickets and B&B so we were ready to go.

Day 1
We planned or first day to stop at the walled city of Athenry on the way. We had meant to go there last week during National walled towns day but our car insurance wasn't ready so we stayed local for the Maynooth tour last weekend. Turned out to be a good choice to go on a weekday.
First stop in Athenry, the playground next to the castle. Yet another park with a zipline (Oregon pay attention, these are great and work in all weather even if our weather was sunny this day). Then we went around Athenry castle. It was more than a ruin and was quite a good site.

Next stop , the Athenry heritage centre. Seemed a bit pricey and on the surface looked a bit hokey.
First stop was the costumes

I'll admit not my usual cup of tea. Sarah as a former S.C.A member was all over it as were the kids.
Kids also got to try on some armor and yield some real medieval weapons

Then some time at being royalty, not that different then there normal pampered existence I'd say.

The dungeon , fun stuff like stocks and a neat new punishment device where two quarreling people are locked together for a week. They have to learn to cooperate to eat, sleep and other stuff...

Lastly to seal the experience they had archery lessons included.

even a balloon pop for Jack and Audrey.Kids had a great time and they'd love to go back. 

 Then the second half of our drive to our B&B where we ran across a random castle on the coast tat was quite spectacular

Day 2
Woke up early , had some beautiful food at the B&B

Then off to the Doolin Ferry and Innis Oirr

the Ferry was appropriately the Jack B. When we arrived at Inis Oirr it was raining a little so we grabbed a guide bus/van for a quick tour around the sites. 

shipwreck

"beach"

castle

more castle

sunken church

Then on to the boat again for the visit by the Cliffs of Moher. Definitely the way to see them up close and personal. 

Then an evening meal followed by a little traditional music.

Day 3

We hadn't fully figured the return day out. We decided to head out into the Burren which is the geographical area in this part of Ireland. First stop was Caherconnell fort. One of 600 stone forts that once stood in the area.

One of the amazing things we had being seeing on this part of the trip is the stone walls. All stacked with no mortar. 

After the fort we headed to the a dolmen called a Portal Tomb

The dolmen also happened to be in a great area of the Burren that showed the limestone erosion patterns the Burren is famous for.

That about wraps it up. We had about 2 hours from their to home. Turns out 2 hours is about the limit for Jack on road trips without a break. A bit squirrely at the end of it. .

Overall a successful weekend. Good weather overall, a few surprise finds and some lessons learned.

next adventure school... starts Friday

still many things left on our to do list
1- European pin and chip credit card
2-bank account for Sarah (has been harder then you think)
3- another visit to immigration office
4- visit to social welfare office
5- driving lessons/licenses
and more...

Blogging for the procrastinator...

Well, I've been the most remiss blogger ever - it has been over a month since my last post and so much has happened.

Saying goodbye in Oregon was really tough.  The "see you later" party was wonderful, but also hard. Lots of tears and hugs.  For the adults and for the kids.  Then we had a few days at our hotel home in Hillsboro with nothing to do but see family and try to get in as much love and coffee as our little hearts could hold.  Then the really hard day came, when we had to say goodbye to family for good.  Hard to watch all of the cousins sobbing as the car pulled away.

Then on to Florida.  Our week-long vacation with Rob's parents was simply wonderful.  A week when we couldn't do much about our move to Ireland, and were forced to sit by the pool, take boat rides and eat wonderful meals prepared for us by my mother and father in law.  Then the day came when we had to say goodbye and head over the big ocean to a our new home.

The trip went really well - the kids were champs and before we knew it we were landing in Dublin.  Then it got interesting. Our rental car was a stick shift.  Let me just paint a picture for all of you who have spent your lives driving down the right side of roads with normal sized lanes, on the left side of the car with the stick shift operated by your right hand as God clearly intended.  Here we were, faced with a car having the steering wheel on the right side, asking us to drive on the left side of the road, and operate the stick shift with our left hand.  Rob drove.  I squealed and jumped. The children cried, then we finally made it home.  Within a few days both Rob and I were feeling pretty confident with the crazy new arrangement - enough that when we bought a used car a few days ago, we chose to get a stick.  Better mileage and all.

That first day was a whirlwind. We landed in Dublin at 8, took the above mentioned- cringe-inducing ride, got the keys to our new house at 11 and met the movers with our 1108 pounds of stuff at 1.  After an hour or two of unpacking and learning how the house works (let me just say that it isn't as intuitive as you might imagine - I will devote a whole blog posting to the wonders of boilers, radiators and electric showers) we went to our hotel.  We stayed at the hotel for a few days to get our bearings and get the house ready to live in.  And to have the chance to eat out rather than face cooking.

So now we are here.  We have trash (or rubbish) service, a TV with cable (a new treat for the kids), a car and internet.  We've been to a bog, a camogie match and to the pub to watch hurling.  Our kids have a gang of friends in the estate (what they call a neighborhood here - fancy isn't it?) and Rob and I have our first overnight trip planned.  We will be traveling to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher and Innishmore.

I'm homesick as hell, but each time we can pry the kids away from their new friends long enough to see some of our new home we all are happier for it.  So see our new home and surroundings we will.  But if you can come to see us, the guest room is set up and the pull-out couch is waiting.

Surprising challenges

Here we are 12 days after getting keys and won't don't we have
1- bank account details. It took a week to open a bank account, still waiting for debit card and official details in the mail
2- new car, number 1 has killed number 2. Had to wait to get details to transfer US money to Ireland. Now need to get online login in the mail to see if money arrived. Meanwhile rental car is out of my pocket so times a wasting
3- trash- seriously, they say 10 days to setup still waiting for trash bins...big pile of recycling and compost ready to go
4-internet- comes tomorrow, then I found out yesterday that the address check for the faster company which said I didn't qualify for fiber internet lies, my neighbors all I have that , more speed and cheaper.

Hopefully all this gets fixed this week and we can say we are all moved in



Rob

Meeting friends

Audrey is now getting into meeting new people. Yesterday we met some new kids at Malahide park. Then we went to Maynooth park and met some new friends. Found out when we got home that they are our neighbors across the back fence, since awkwardly we can see into their house from our bedroom window. Then they were out scootering and found out our street is well stocked with kids, some go to the same school as Jack and Audreyand some go the Irish immersion school (Gaelscoil).
Kids have been out playing down the road with new friends for the last 2 hours. Just arrived in our house with the new friends...















This is family living

Rob