When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

In honour of St. Patrick's day, I thought I would write a blog about our trip to Ireland a couple years ago.

My husband works for a company that also has a plant in Ireland.  They were introducing a new machine and he and a group of other employees were sent to Ireland to learn how to make the machines.  He was gone for 2 weeks and enjoyed himself.  About a month after returning home, they learned that they would be going back for another week each.  Because they had just been away from home, the company agreed that they could bring their spouses and children, so long as we paid for the flight, work would take care of accommodations and food.  What an awesome deal, too good to pass up.

So we started our adventure, a 2 year old in tow.  The plan was all worked out.  Brian had to work for the week, so that just left Hayden and I alone each day.  The hotel we were staying at had an indoor play centre right across the road.  Hayden and I would wake up with Brian at about 5,he would go to work and we would then fall back asleep until about 10.  The play place was half price until about 11 and you also got toast and tea.  We would have breakfast and play for a couple hours, giving house keeping a chance to clean the room.  Then, we would go back and order some room service for lunch.  The pool was just downstairs and that occupied time for a couple hours.  Nap time and then Brian would be home for supper.  We would eat downstairs in the restaurant and then back to the pool before bed.

We had one weekend to do some sightseeing.  My only goal for Ireland was to see a castle, and we did get to do that.

Here are some of the sights we saw:

Dunluce Castle

Peek A Boo!

Giant's Causeway
(secretly, I stole this picture from Brian's trip,
but labelled from ours!)

Our visit at Giant's Causeway
Hayden slept through the WHOLE thing!

Checking out the Ocean

This is one of my favorite pictures!

All in all, it was a great trip and a great opportunity.  It's a shame that we only had 2 days to devote to touristy stuff, but we made the most of it.  We wanted to do a tour of the Whiskey Distillery, but couldn't with Hayden.  Plus, the roads were so curvy, they made him terribly car sick!   Perhaps one day I will get back to explore my Irish roots a little further!