Dingle

Friday, August 17, 2007

We had originally thought that maybe it was too far to drive to the Dingle Peninsula from our house rental but Mark decided to give it a go even though he hates driving. And are we glad we did! The Dingle peninsula is really striking, more so than the Ring of Kerry. Even though it was raining for much of the time, it was still a nice drive. We passed a few beaches on the way and the kids wanted to stop but I was motivated to hit Dingle by lunch so we told them we’d try to stop on the way back. We made it to Dingle and by now it was not only raining but also really cold. We parked the car and Mark went in search of a bathroom (his soda addiction does have a price to pay) while the kids and I wandered over to where the boats leave for the Fungi tour. We had opted not to do this because of the rain but it would have been cool to see the dolphin. He’s been there quite a while–how long do dolphins live, anyway? Then we walked through the town and had lunch at the Goat Street Cafe, a tiny little restaurant that served really good food. Then Mark went to check email and I bought a little print of Dingle for our cabin (it looks similar in style to one of Noyo Harbor we already have) and then went to check out the stained glass at the church. The girls each lit a candle and said a prayer for Shadow. Mark still wasn’t done so I took them across the street where they each got a chocolate. Once Mark was done (Shadow still recovering nicely) we went to the Oceanworld aquarium. It was pretty good but we’re very spoiled with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The one cool thing is that Genevieve got to go nose to nose with a sea turtle. Now it was really pouring so we opted not to walk around the town anymore (although I could tell it would really be something on a sunny day) and drive back. On the road, all of a sudden there was a huge bang and Mark started to swear. Apparently a car came out of nowhere and passed us so closely on the road that our mirrors smashed together. The glass on our mirror was popped out and Mark kept honking his horn at the other driver to get him to pull over. He did, and we pulled behind him and got out of the car (me reminding Mark to calm down). The other driver was very apologetic and the crazy thing is I popped the mirror back together and that was it–there wasn’t even a scratch on either of our vehicles! Such a loud noise for no damage (and an inch or two closer and it would have been a whole other story). So we had our Irish car accident and it wasn’t even bad! We stopped at the Inch strand so the kids could get their fix and it was FREEZING. In August. They did get lots more shells though. We made it home in plenty of time to get dinner ready, and then Maria, daughter of the owner, came over to play with the girls. They had a blast, and Genevieve asked her to be her pen pal which could be kind of fun. We got the kids to bed a bit late because they were having so much fun.