Day 22 - Little Swimmers & Delicious Desserts

Unless you have a wet suit, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, around Mayo, is not really feasible unless you plan on freezing. 

Fortunately the family we are staying with are incredibly sweet and gave us a few vouchers for a swimming pool for rainy days. 

Since we woke up to a rainy and windy day, we decided to head out to the pool. The kids were extremely excited. In Ireland, it is a requirement for everyone who goes into the swimming pool to wear a swim cap, even children. Hannah totally enjoyed this. 

Hannah posing in her swimming gear

After swimming, we went to the Westport Harbour for some food. We looked at a couple of restaurants and decided to eat at the Creel, mainly because of the airy and family oriented atmosphere.

We all enjoyed our food, the delicious desserts, and the fast Wi-Fi :) 

The Creel

The Creel

The Creel

Panini with a side of red cabbage salad and rhubarb chutney

The Creel

Lemon Meringue Pie

The Creel

Chocolate Cake

The Creel

Happy Customer #1

The Creel

Happy Customer #2

It was still very windy and rainy, but Hannah really really wanted to go to the playground.  Kian was too tired so he stayed home with Daddy.  Hannah lasted about 5 minutes on the playground before she asked to go home.  She had a great time for those 5 minutes.

After playing at home for a while, we made a quick dinner of carrot sticks, marinated sweet chili chicken wings (purchased marinated, baked in the oven at home), and home-made cheesy bread.

Chicken wings, cheesy bread, carrot sticks

We sent the kids to bed fairly early, since tomorrow we are going on a 3 day road trip down the west coast. We are very excited to see some castles, caves, cliffs, and more. A good portion of our drive will be on the Wild Atlantic Way, so I am excited about the views!

Day 13 - Walking around the city of Westport

We woke up to the sound of rain and remembered we forgot to bring our sneakers inside! Yiikes! We had left them out in the sun to dry the day before and completely forgot to bring them in before going to bed :( The rain passed quickly and we had blue skies and plenty of sunshine. The original plan was to go to Clare Island and do lots of hiking but with what? flip flops? 

Change of plans. We decided to head into Westport and just spend the day checking out the stores and restaurants, because walking around a town in flip flops is doable :)  Westport has been voted as the best place to live in Ireland.

Hannah and Kian in an Irish Telefon kiosk

The kids had fun with a metal bicycle. It is very interesting to walk around with kids. The things they notice can easily go unseen by the adults.

Kian on the metal bicycle

Hannah enjoying her "ride" on the metal bicycle

This I believe is the town square with a statue of Saint Patrick. The writing on the stone says, "I am Patrick. A Sinner. Most Unlearned. The Least of All. The Faithful, And Utterly Despised by Many."

St. Patrick's statue

The streets of Westport are very quaint with many unique shops and restaurants. 

A street sign in Westport. All signs are in Gaelic as well as English.

After some exploring around town we decided to get some coffee and a snack. We came across a lovely chocolate shop called Marlene's House of Chocolate Delights.

Marlene's House of Chocolate Delights

The shop smells delicious and there is a great variety of chocolates to choose from. We selected 3 different kinds and they were all delicious.

Variety of chocolates available on the day of our visit

We headed back home in the early evening as I had planned to make dinner at home. The kids had a great time playing puppets with daddy while I prepared our food.

Puppet time

We all had spaghetti and meatballs with salad and fruits :) 

Spaghetti & Meatballs

After dinner the kids played some more by themselves as we cleaned up. They were each allowed 1 Oreo cookie as dessert. As they ate dessert I read them "The Princess and the Frog" and "Cinderella". We put these children's books on the iPad (using the Kindle app) before leaving the US.  Much better than lugging actual books around the world.

Story time

We wrapped up the night with teeth brushing and some tickle time :) all in all it was a great relaxing day.

Tickle Monster attacks :)

Day 12 - Happy 4th from Silver Strand

We started off our day by going to Westport for some real grocery shopping. We had heard from one of the neighbors that Lidl has great prices, so off we went. We had fun shopping, and since by the time we finished it was after lunch time, I let the munchkins split a chocolate chip muffin before we got back in the car.

Happy kids

I think I should mention that we are both getting very good at driving this stick car on the "wrong" side of the road. Hopefully I am not jinxing us. On the drive back the rain stopped and we had plenty of beautiful sunshine. 

Once we put all the grocery shopping away we decided that since it was a beautiful day we should head to the Silver Strand beach which is about 6 km from the house. The road to get to Silver Strand is even narrower than the roads around the house, and there were some sheep that were just hanging out on the side of the road. Keep in mind that this is meant to be a 2 lane road! 

The road to Silver Strand

Once we arrived, we were completely wowed by the scenery. There is a long sandy beach, about a 5 min walk, before you even get to the water. We have heard that the water comes up and covers the entire sandy area when the tide comes in, and some people who park too close have even had their cars swept away. 

At first we were all alone on the beach before just a handful of people arrived. Although it was a bit chilly, we had a great time running around, writing and playing in the sand.

Happy 4th of July from Silver Strand

We came across quite a few purple jellyfish in the sand. Apparently the purple jellyfish don't sting, but we stayed clear of them anyways, although I'm not sure if they are even alive if they are out of the water.

Purple Jellyfish

A bit further down there are some small pools that have formed in the sand and the water in them was actually fairly warm.

The small pools/streams on the beach

Kian had a blast running from puddle to puddle and splashing around. He even fell down a couple of times but didn't mind it one bit, despite the cold winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean.

Kian with Batman in one hand and Robin in the other having fun in the small pools

Meanwhile a bit further away from the water, Hannah was having a great time with her sand toys, although she was not so jazzed about the wind.

Hannah holding on to her hood

Hannah playing with sand. She can be entertained with sand and rocks for a long time :) 

I also had fun on the beach and took advantage of the hard sand to do a few yoga poses by the water. 

My attempt at the wheel. It still needs work!

The two Supermen returned from splashing in the pools and posed for a photo.

It's bird. It's a plane. It's Superman...wait there are 2 of them :)

We all put on our flip flops and ventured down the beach to climb up a small hill for an even better view of the ocean.  Before there were some sheep up there, but they came down long enough for our photo.

Views from the top of the hill

Munchkins and Mommy (Would you believe the sheep can climb up here? We had to look out for sheep poop!)

The 120 degree panorama view from the top of the hill

Hannah and I hiked back down the hill and once we got past the pools and back on the beach, I took a picture of the Supermen. If you look carefully you can see both of them on top of the hill. 

Supermen on the hill

Shortly after, as it was getting closer to dinner time, we started to head back to the car. On the walk back Hannah had a blast collecting seashells. We kept hearing her say, "Guys wait wait wait" as she would stop to pick up a new seashell. 

Hannah showing one of her collected seashells

Once home, Hannah washed all of her sandy seashells.

A small part of Hannah's seashell collection

We all had tomato soup with bread for dinner. We were too hungry to take any pictures.