Family Matters

My apologies to our readers if you are confused. Since we’ve never quite caught up, I’ve had to write posts somewhat out of order. I’ll do my best to get us caught up so we don’t have to keep hopping from the past to the present. In the meantime, this post spans late August/early September – just about six weeks behind!

After Craig and Nathan left, I had five days to clean again and do laundry before our last major visit of the tourist season – Nate’s parents! We were truly excited to host them and show off everything we’d learned during our 11 months here.

Nate’s family covered a lot of ground in a short period of time! Local excursions included a visit to Guinness (of course, although I’m not sure if they cared for the black stuff), Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Jail, Trinity College, and Malahide Castle. Nate’s mom is an accomplished gardener, so they also toured a variety of local gardens. We recommended a few of our favourites, like the Powerscourt Estate and St. Stephens Green, but Nate’s mom was able to find even more and better ones that we hadn’t even heard of.



Nate’s fam also took a few long-distance treks out to the west coast. In true Irish fashion, it rained incessantly on their one-day trip to the Ring of Kerry! That’s zero for two for those of you who are keeping track on our good-weather score for the Ring! We had a bit better luck on our weekend in Galway though. We all took a trip around the northwest Connemara region, which sports some of Ireland’s greenest, hilliest landscapes. It was cool to see the peat bogs, with chunks cut out of it to use in the fires here. One of the quintessential elements of Ireland: the smoky-sweet smell of a peat fire. We also visited a beautiful Abbey (pictured below). Kylemore Abbey was a private family home to some super-rich guy from England. Now it’s a nuns’ residence and an all-girls boarding school.



We wrapped up the trip with a visit to the pub where Nate’s brother Pat and I had previously discovered a great traditional music group. They didn’t disappoint – the group fit in the right amount of ballads, classic sing-along songs, and fast, whirling instrumental jigs and reels before we finally had to retire for the evening. I really want to make it out to that pub a few more times before we leave! It was a great end to the visit for Nate’s family. The next day they departed with a few souvenirs, a ton of photos and even more memories for us to share around the holiday tables for years to come!