castles

Having our passports in hand and plane tickets booked made the adventure finally real!!

It all started nearly 19 years ago. 2 amazing things happened that year: I met my future husband, and left for Ireland 3 months later! He didn’t know it yet, but I became friends with his cousin when she came to work at the Cannon Beach Conference Center for the summer, and as we shook hands when he came to visit her and we met, God told me I was going to marry him! God didn’t tell him for a while though. :>

I had started working there the year before, and through the Bible school that meets on their grounds, I was given the opportunity to spend a year in Ireland as a missionary. (That 1 year actually turned into 2) It was very difficult for me to follow through and keep my promise to God to go on that trip after meeting my future husband, but I eventually made the right decision and left everyone and everything I knew to head off to the lovely Emerald Isle. I have NEVER regretted that decision!!

Fast forward about 18 years to June 2012 when a friend announced her engagement and asked us to come over for her wedding. As they say, “the rest is history.” We began planning, Steve’s cousin (who has become more like a sister to me) decided to come along on the adventure, and we were off!! It was so much more fun having her with us!! :>

On to the photos! By the way, I highly recommend keeping a journal for trips like this…so glad I did!

The patchwork quilt of green separated by stone walls never gets old!

Our luggage after meeting up with cousin Leta at Heathrow…somehow my 1960’s case missed the photo opp.

Our home for the first half of the trip was my former home, but in the director’s old flat, at Drewstown House in County Meath about an hour’s drive NW of Dublin. (Yes, it used to be a manor house). I LOVE the Irish countryside!!

We popped by to say hi, have tea and get a tour of the director and his wife’s new house.

I think I need to make one of these for my sewing machine like Robin did for hers!

The next day they took us into Athboy to the bank and Newsagent/Post Office.

2 products I really wanted to buy for myself:

Irish dancer ornament…

…and a cottage peat burner, which could be like my version a German Smoker.

After a yummy breakfast of course! We drank a lot of tea and ate a lot of scones and rashers. I already miss rashers!!!!!! America is missing out!!

Then we visited nearby Trim and Trim Castle. I’ve never seen the inside, but this is where Braveheart was filmed.

The church across the road:

Oh no…Leta is in the stocks!

I find pretty flowers wherever I go!

“Where’re ya from?” She loved that we are Americans and wants to visit, as most Irish do. We couldn’t convince her that Ireland is gorgeous. She repeated over and over again, “Ireland isn’t gorgeous!” Um…yes it is, but the grass is always greener…(although, if you can find greener grass than in Ireland, I’d love to see it)!