A View From My Window: Happy St. Patrick's Day

In 2012 I toured Ireland with my Son, Daughter, and Brother. I’ve wanted to create a picture book of our travels, but here it is almost 3 years later and I still haven’t taken the time to do that yet. Procrastination is a terrible thing. I must do that this summer before the memories fade away forever.

Here are a few photos from our trip around the beautiful Green Isle.

I had planned our trip to Ireland for weeks, telling my kids how to prepare, what to bring, what to pack, what to wear…well, you get the idea. They were weary of mother’s nagging, and the trip hadn’t even started yet. One item on their list of things to do was to get an International driver’s license. I sure wasn’t going to drive on the wrong side of the road, not when I have two grown adult children who could take turns driving. We were sitting in the airport waiting for our plane to Dublin when my son announced that he had forgotten his driver’s license at home. After the shock and red burn left my face, I turned to my Daughter and said, “I guess you’re the driver! Son can navigate; you can drive.” She was less than pleased. I’m certain the first day we drove the rental car is the day my stomach created its first ulcer. I was barking directions from the back seat, my son was giving me dirty looks, and my daughter was telling me to shut up. As time went on, my daughter got more used to driving on the left-hand side of the street, and my son became very adept at downloading our route on his phone and giving directions. We used the round-abouts as sort of a merry-go-round until we determine which road we should take next. We got lost plenty of times, but just kept making left-hand turns and ended up where we wanted to go in the first place.

We stayed in Ballyseede Castle, occupied by a spirit named Hilda and two amazing dogs. It's been reported that the ghost Hilda makes her appearance every year on March 24. My son and daughter were convinced she visited their room the night we stayed there.