The UK - Part III

Here are some more of my shots from the trip.. this time all from Ireland.

1. This first one is one of my favorites... boats lined up along an inlet just below Ross Castle. I may make an enlargement of this one and frame it.


2. A shot of Ed and I in a little seaside town on the Ring of Kerry with the North Sea as a backdrop. All the shots of the two of us were shot by semi-camera illiterates on the trip... so many are either, a. dark, b. grainy, c. shot from too far away... etc. sigh... can't have everything! We did get some very nice shots of each other individually.... This one was nice, but again shot from too far away to enlarge it well.


3. The three girls and I at Ladies View overlooking the ocean. We look severely windblown, because we're so high up that the wind is always blowing here. But it was fun. The girls were a blast to travel with and we had such a good time!


4. The total Irish scenic package, cows in the foreground, oceans with islands in the background... and green beauty everywhere else in between! Beautiful!


5. A shot of me up at Ladies View, so named because Queen Victoria used to travel here with her entire entourage of ladies-in-waiting to admire the vistas. She was smart and supposedly LOVED natural beauty... since it couldn't have been too easy to get to this spot in the 1860's either!

UK trip - Part II

As I said yesterday... a few photos each day will tell all about our trip.
(top to bottom; remember, you can click on each one to see it larger... and use the back arrow to revert to the blog)

1. The cottage of Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife) was getting a re-thatching job on the rooftop. It was quite interesting to see that in progress as well as to tour the house.

2. Slowly, yet ever so slowly, I climbed a 700+ ft. mountain. It had a ruins of an ancient Welsh fort, Dinas Bran, at the top and overlooked an entire valley below. You can see some of our hiking group still working their way toward the summit in the photo. You zigged and zagged your way stopping to soak up the scenery and catch your breath. We stayed in the tiny town below of Llangollen, Wales... at a 400+ yr. old coaching inn. Very cool!

3. This is us at the top of Dinas Bran in Wales.

4. Me on the ramparts of Beaumaris Castle in Northwest Wales. We caught the ferry from Holyhead just a few minutes from this castle to get over to Ireland. Beaumaris is huge and quite interesting. However, once you see it, you never fantasize about living in Medieval times again! The rooms were dank and small and the floors were an uneven stone mess! You could imagine those poor medieval ladies busting their hips from falls at every turn! I also can't imagine trying to lay siege to this place and hoping to win!

5. Yes, another castle... this one is Ross Castle not too far from present day Killarney, Ireland. It sits on an island in the middle of a lake. It was the last castle the Oliver Cromwell destroyed near the tail end of his 'reign of terror'. It seemed so desolate and yet so beautiful all at the same time... this is one of my favorite shots from the trip.

More tomorrow!

England, Wales and Ireland... our big adventure for this summer!

This summer's adventure was touring England, Wales, and Ireland with a wonderful trio of our students from LHS. We left the states on June 4th and returned around 8pm last night (the 12th) The weather was cool and mostly dry. The sights were amazing both in cities and the countryside. We saw at least half a dozen different castles, each one unique in it's own right. We mingled with locals in towns and at the hotels which made it all so much more interesting and educational. For the next few days I'll be posting some of our adventures.

Today's post includes: (top going down) Myself and the three girls... Sarah, Sarah, and Kaylee, at Trafalgar Square in London.

Next, the red phone booth pose which everyone who comes to London has to make.

Third down is a guest arriving at Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen while we were wating for her guards to change.

Fourth is a lovely Cornish Cream Tea that we had outside Windsor Castle.


And finally, the last shot is of Ed and I near the central courtyard of Windsor. The palace is the oldest continuously inhabited Castle in the world and dates back to the Norman Conquest. It's pretty amazing! It's where the Queen prefers to spend her time if she's not at Buckingham in London or at Balmoral in Scotland.

My Two Favorite "Fish"

Summertime means Pool time! The boys came to visit this weekend and both of them LOVE the pool. Asher was pretty brave for being only one and a half. He laughed at the antics of big brother Gabe who was jumping and splashing enough for two! Then he got brave enough to do some serious splashing of his own. Pool time is some of the BEST fun two boys can have with water!