Zip Line

Last Saturday, we were invited to go with our friends Claire and Brian to a newly opened "ZipIt" zip line park. 

We were there to celebrate Claire's 30th Birthday. It was an all-day affair, with different courses for different skill levels. We had a blast!

Each course was made up of numerous different obstacles. Each challenging in its own way.

They had an ingenious system to make sure once you clipped in at the start of each course, there was no way to be unclipped until the course was done. Safety first.

During one of the breaks, we took some time to celebrate the birthday - with lunch and cake!  Unfortunately, a rain cloud decided to burst during our meal, so we took the party indoors (in our car), where we waited out the storm.  Welcome to Ireland.

Claire was a natural daredevil.  Rebekah was fearless. She even rode a bike on a small wooden bridge 40 feet in the air.

The Tarzan swing did not go quite so well.  I lost a shoe, Rebekah had to literally tear her shorts apart in order to break free, and we both ended up with bruises and cuts after this one. 

The day ended on a positive note, with Rebekah jumping off a platform and zipping her way back to earth. Look how small the people are on the ground! We had a wonderful time. It was a unique and exhilarating experience, with great company to round off the day. 

Money for Molly

Today, all of our visitors were gone.  The kids were bored and looking for something to do. I was at my office working, and kept getting phone calls from Weston, asking if he could come down and play his recorder on the street and ask for money? I was not sure what to say? So I said no.

 After the 6th call, I caved in and invited them to walk to my office (as I was preparing to leave).  When they arrived, I sent them to a busy corner by an ATM machine, and then went to the store for some last minute shopping.  I was glad to have a reason to leave.  I was still unsure if I should be proud or embarrassed. What kind of parent am I?  When I came back 5 minutes later I found them playing 'Molly Malone'  with Shayne holding the music and saying "thank you" to people who stopped by.  That is one brave boy (let's just say he is not a professional recorder player).

I suggested they change locations to the harbor (as it was closer to home) and there were large groups of people there. I left them there and went home, mulling over the question - "who lets their kids beg?"  Within 20 minutes the kids came running in the door.  They had earned 7 Euro's (which is just over $9 US dollars) in less then 35 minutes. They could barely wait to go spend it.  I could barely contain my pride. Nothing wrong with a gypsy family. 

Fast Belfast

Just before Doug's family and my Dad left, we took a quick road trip to Belfast and Northern Ireland. It was a large group and we had to take two cars. The good news was-- we have two cars.

The bad news was, one of them was broken into outside our Belfast hostel and our GPS was stolen. Oh well, welcome to Belfast with Republic of Ireland license plates.

But I am ahead of myself.  First stop was castle Rouche. An old abandoned castle in the middle of a field. Doug even asked the farmer if we could park inside the gate.  The farmer obliged.

We stayed just long enough to enjoy a picnic in the rain. Luckily no one got cow manure on their shoes, because we were back in the cars and on our way to a 3 PM appointment at the new Titanic museum. 

We did not take any pictures at the Titanic Museum?  Except this one of some people playing 'Words with Friends', while we waited for our 3 PM time slot.  It is kind of strange that this city celebrates their role in such a major disaster.  They built the Titanic after all?  You would think they would down play it.

After a cold rainy night in Belfast  we hit the road again for The Giants Causeway (after we wrapped cellophane around the door and broken window)

Our first stop was the Carrick-ARede Rope bridge at Ballintoy.  It is believed that fishermen have been crossing some type of rope bridge over this 100 foot gap to the island for almost 350 years, in an effort to catch the spawning salmon (who are no longer around).

Then we arrived at Giants Causeway, a natural rock formation caused by an ancient volcanic eruption.  

Of course - according to legend it was built by two giants, one in Ireland and one in Scotland,  which is just a 'wee' distance away from this part of Ireland.  You can see it on a clear day. In fact, the clouds broke just long enough for us to have a few lovely sunny walks and get a peek at the Scottish hills. The legend gets much more bizarre from there, and includes a camel, chimneys, babies etc...so we will just leave it. 

We spent some time on the wishing chair.

Then we took some silly photos, because in the end... it was just a bunch of rocks, that did not do anything exciting.

Then we drove to another amazing castle ruin.  But this one charged an entrance fee.  No worries - it was closed, so we just walked around the outside.  It was quite imposing, up on cliff like that!

There was even a huge cave underneath the castle that lead right to the ocean. So we explored that.

I think we lucked out that it was closed. That way we could ignore the "do not enter" signs. 

We ended the day at a pleasant hostel in a charming LITTLE village called Downhill.  Nothing more then a few homes, including the white house turned into a hostel (behind Rebekah in this picture).  Downhill is on a massive sandy beach, overlooking the Atlantic, with county Donegal in the distance. 

It was a wind swept beach.  Here is some sand in your eyes!

And the best part; they allow you to drive on the beach. You may notice the nice tape job on the car window below.   Unfortunately, we had to get back to Dublin, so we left Downhill behind us, just one day before the annual Kite festival.

But before we left, we stopped at the local bakery in Castle Rock called Ruth's. Dad bought all kinds of scones, pies and breads. He was in heaven. 

Then it was off to a tiny park on the road side, where we battled the wind as we gorged on pastries and breads of all kinds. We needed the carbs.  It was a four hour rode trip back home. 

And some of could not see out the drivers side window (or hear each other talk!)

Busy Days in Dalkey

I arrived home from Turkey to find our little village of Dalkey abuzz! American flags were hung from every pub and lamp post.  

Everyone seemed to know that Michelle Obama and her daughters were coming to have lunch with Bono, and his family, at his favorite pub in Dalkey (Finnegan's) I hope it was not suppose to be a state secret?

The streets were lined with police and security.  Here is a picture of Bono, his wife Ali and their two boys outside the pub. This was taken by a friend. Rebekah was invited to go along but decided to enjoy the lovely weather in Wicklow county instead of in the crowds downtown. 

The next day was 'Fairy Tale' dress up day at school.  As usual, we heard about it that morning while getting dressed. After a mad rush around the house, we came up with little red riding hood and Paul Bunyan (only one American boy knew of Paul at school.  I guess he is not very popular in Europe?).  Next year we will be prepared!  

On Saturday, we enjoyed Castle Park's Sports Day.  We were luck to have my Nephew Matt Jackson staying with us. He was a good sport and came along (not that he had much choice).

Like any good track and field meet, most of the day was spent sitting around talking with friends. Luckily it was a nice day. Here are the kids with other members of "Toone house."

Then for a few brief mad seconds, The race was on.  Shayne won her heat.  She was bit surprised to finish the race with no one in sight... but decided to lean in to the tape for good measure. 

 

Weston participated in a few events. As luck would have it, they all seemed to take place in the last 5 minutes of the day.  He was running from event to event.  Here he is throwing the discus.

Then it was off to the Long Jump, where he broke the 3rd grade record! Nice work!

And then on to the big final event...  the Boys 4X100 relay.  He was asked to run the anchor leg for the Toone House team.

He was up against his good friend Sebastian (the fastest kid in 3rd grade). Wes had a slight lead after the handoff...

And managed to hold of Sebastian and win the race for Toone House. He was ecstatic (and so was his Mom)!

After all the events, came the fund raising. Weston, Shayne and a couple of friends had entered an idea for a carnival game.  Their idea was one of the games chosen.  For 10 cents, you were given one ball.  With that ball you tried to "Hit the Wolf."  If you hit the wolf, you won a prize.  Here is Weston drieesed like a wolf, while some kid is trying to pelt him?  Not sure which of them came up with that idea? But they were able to raise some money for their school playground.  We all went home exhausted.  It has been a busy few days in Dalkey.