While I certainly can’t top our girls’ stories about our recent family trip to Ireland, I thought I would finish up with a few last thoughts.

Ireland was a trip that came about almost by accident in a short amount of time. Even better, we had friends who were just crazy and awesome enough to be up for this last minute adventure together! Aiding our co-travel experience were similar temperments, travel styles, energy levels, and no shortage of humor. I can’t speak for Nate and Jana, but it really was like travelling with family…in the best possible ways. 🙂

What can  I really say about our trip? I fell in love with Ireland. Like want-to-pick-up-and-move-there kind of love. I felt like I could breath. It’s a land full of rainbows (sometimes two or three a day!), lush green fields, ancient stone walls, sheep, and castles. Pair these with cozy pubs serving warm, hearty meals, a pint of Guinness, warming up by a fire, and some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet and you’ll start to get a picture of the charm that permeated our trip start to finish.

The girls’ posts pretty much covered it but here are some last photos…mostly to show that the grown ups were there too:

Megalithic Tomb in The Burren dating to 3000 BC:

The Cliffs of Moher:

Bofey Quinn’s Pub – Corofin, County Clare

Hiking on Inis Mor:

Nate’s trip was made complete by feeding little lambs. Only one mama sheep hissed at him:

Flying a kite at the end of the world…or the western-most point in Europe. Same same but different:

That’s our guy:

Killarney National Park:

The Long Room – Library in Trinity College Dublin.

We finished off our trip at the Vale of Avoca – a site where two rivers converge into one. It was made famous by the Thomas Moore poem ‘The Meeting of the Waters’. It was our last “tourist” stop on our trip and at the risk of being cheesy we decided to read his poem as we stood on the site. It seemed fitting since we did the trip with dear friends.

There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet
Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green
‘Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill
Oh No ’twas something more exquisite still
Oh No ’twas something more exquisite still

‘Twas that friends, the belov’d of my bosom were near
Who made every scene of enchantment more dear
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve
When we see them reflected from looks that we love
When we see them reflected from looks that we love

Sweet vale of Avoca! How calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace

And what about that guitar mentioned in the title, you ask? Well…my awesomely ridiculous husband decided it would be a great idea to bring one of his guitars to Ireland. We thought we might make a fun group music video throughout the trip. The reality was that we were far too busy to bother getting out a guitar at each stop. And so, his guitar traveled ’round Ireland with us without being played once. On the LAST stop of our trip, he decided it at LEAST had to make an appearance. So I leave you with this final photo of Andy on the shores where the two rivers meet: