St. Patricks Day in Dublin

St. Patrick's day parade in downtown Dublin was quite the event.  We arrived over an hour early to be 4 deep behind the barrier.  After 1.5 hrs the parade made it to us and we managed to hold the kids on our shoulders for 45 min so the kids could see while we looked at the backs of other peoples heads.  The majority of the the crowd saw the parade by holding up their camera, taking a picture then looking at the photos.  

One and done, next year on to smaller and more isolated activities!

look at how many on the statue at 11am

now look at how many on the statue at 12:15pm

in the crowd

on a shoulder

45 min of this is hard work

Trim Castle, Belfast and Portrush

A tower next to Trim Castle.  It's in Ireland but used to film the Scottish warring in the Brave-heart Movie.

Really great tour of the inside of the castle.

You get to walk around the top.

The Entrance

Trim Castle to the left.  See the railing around the top?   We were up there.

This last weekend we drove to Belfast, this is the Titanic museum.  Great place, really enjoyed it.

After Belfast we went to the village of Bushmills to the west and toured the distillery.  No photos allowed, worried about spark and volatiles causing a fire.    

The next day we went to Giant's causeway.  It was Sunday they were doing special celebration for Saint Patrick's Day, Ella and Hanna got their faces painted.

The causeway is known for its pentagon rock formations that are lava that cooled and cracked in a large pool.  Here they are eroded by the sea. 

 http://srsddn.hubpages.com/hub/Columnar-Basalts-of-the-World 

Stopped back in Belfast on the way home to eat and walk around the city center.

Of course there was the north coast and a surf at Portrush.  That's me in the water.  The Hotel operator owned a surf shop.  He snapped a few pics of me for his facebook page.  They were stoked about a New Mexican in line up.  I was stoked to be in the line up.

weekend to Galway

Surf at Lahinch

Kids on the beach.

The boy on the beach.

Galway church

Older Franciscan church and grave yard

weekend to waterford

exploring phoenix park

at the base of the monolith

Steak and chili on the grill.  The chili can be really hot but much sweeter than anything in NM.
better than nothing.

Playing with food

Trip south to Tramor and Waterford, oldest port in Ireland

Old Church

I think a carving image of King James (?).  There was 3 of these of different kings carvings, each with a progressively longer sword all hanging from their belt.... 

Dinner out on our way home in an Irish pub.

Bike ride in Phoenix park with rainbow and sun.