Valencia Island—Went to bed with bad news. Our Skelling Michael trip was cancelled. Curse this stormy weather! I was so disappointed. We are going to have to come back to Ireland just to try to do this again.
THE FLOWERS. I cannot get enough. I wish we had more time to explore this island on a day that wasn’t pouring rain.
At the Kerry Cliffs the wind almost blew us away. And the rain was pelting. We were soaked by the time we were done. But it was worth it. These cliffs were the prettiest ones we saw. But, I still think I prefer Causeway Coast—it’s just more wild and free. At Kerry we all had to be behind a fence.
Dingle is the cutest little town you ever did see. We pulled in late in the afternoon. We sat down at a little cafe and got to watch the second half of the Gaelic football finals. County Dublin vs County Kerry. We were in Kerry, so we were rooting for the home team. Flags were flying all over and everyone was wearing their jersey to support the team. It was neck and neck all game but Dublin pulled ahead right in the very end to steal the win. Such disappointment.
Just a bit later we were walking down the street and Rusty tripped on the curb and stumbled. A lady scolded him pretty hard telling him to “sober up now.”
Josh–As we were driving near Dingle we passed a beach about 20 minutes from the hotel and we remarked how miserable it would be to be swimming out there right now. The temperature was in the low 60s, the wind was whipping and it had been raining almost all day. Off hand, my mom remarked, “I’ll give anyone who jumps in the ocean 100$” thinking that nobody would ever take her up on it. 100$ was a massive offer for an pain that could be relatively short and so me and Blake eagerly took her up on it. After we dropped out stuff off at our hotel we went back to that same beach with our swimsuits on. I had been wet all day from the rain and had already been in the ocean once this trip so I assumed it wouldn’t be too terrible. As soon as I got out of the car I noticed how cold the wind was now that I didn’t have my protective layers but I powered on anyways. The ocean was super cold and inch beach lived up to its name as it took forever to get to a depth where I could dunk my body. Blake was right beside me and before a particularly big wave came in I told him I was jumping under it and he did it with me as it broke on top of us. The initial shock was intense but it seemed to really go away fast so as Blake ran to shore, I stayed and played in the waves. As Blake saw what I was doing he came back and joined me and we ended up splashing around for a good while. The high wind made for super fun waves and as long as I kept my body mostly under the water it was good because the wind couldn’t get me there. After our teeth started to chatter and the immunity seemed to be wearing off we went back and quickly grabbed our towels and clothes. Back at the hotel I had a nice long hot shower and was 100$ richer. It was definitely worth it, and I would for sure play in those waves again just for the fun of it.
