Day 1

All right - well we're in an internet cafe so I better write fast! Yesterday was near disaster - we made all our flights just find but Marianne and Kimsey's flight to Boston was delayed and they JUST missed the flight to Shannon -- well, fortunately they were able to get on another flight an hour or so later so they caught up with us there -- but of course, their luggage didn't make it. It's supposed to be delivered to us at Ashford Castle tonight. On top of that, we barely had room for OUR luggage in the small car we have so we had to empty our bags and leave a couple to be stored at the airport till we got back there. Sigh. Oh well. Anyway -- we finally made it out of the airport after dealing with all that drama -- and we went for breakfast -- we were all exhausted from lack of sleep and time change and all that but we found a place to eat in Ennis which was good. From there we went to the Cliffs of Moher (yay Em!) which was EXTREMELY windy -- thought I was going to die -- sooo grateful that Katie insisted I take her raincoat because it blocked the wind and it rains on and off here with no real warning!

Anyway beautiful stuff there -- then we drove around forever looking for Burren national park only to realize we were basically IN it the whole time. Took lots of pictures, saw lots of stuff, went to the Caves at Ailwee which were neat, also dark and wet. But fun. Driving has been an adventure, Cindy is amazing, I don't know how she's doing it. I'm totally confused by the roads.

Last night we got to Devondell House - Cindy passed out from exhaustion and Marianne, Kimsey and I went to dinner, had some good Italian food -- the radio had some weird stuff, Dolly Parton singing an old Diana Ross song -- it felt a little dream-like cause we were all so tired. But Devondell House was fantastic, and Berna, the host, was lovely and wonderful and helped us out immensely.

Went to an amazing Cathedral this morning for Catholic mass. Oh, yeah, Berna was impressed with what a devout Catholic I am. Ha. Sha, should I convert??

Okay well we've got shopping to do so I think I better run - those are just the highlights -- tonight we'll be at Ashford Castle -- amazing!!

talk to you then!