The Irish Adventure Continues (Green and Photo Heavy)

Well friends, I know really you just want to see photos of Ireland, but bear with me for a bit while I tell you what our last few days have been filled with.  If you'd like to, you're welcome to skip past the wall of text and just admire the green insanity that is the land of Eire.  I promise I won't judge you or write blog posts about how sad I feel.

On Sunday morning we ate breakfast and drove to Southern Ireland.  The drive was lovely, albeit a bit foggy which I guess is sort of par for the course here.  We arrived in the town we're staying in for the next week and knew already that our trip was only going to get better; the town has a small population of 1700 (much more our scene, as previously indicated) and a lovely downtown that is reminiscent of New England in all the best ways (or I guess New England is reminiscent of Ireland, really, since it was first).

We checked into our B&B, which is run by a really sweet couple and an adorable little beastie named Kim.  We really love it and they've been so incredibly helpful already. After relaxing for a bit, we headed downtown to grab some dinner.  Rob really tapped into his Irish roots and ordered a Guinness (duh) and shepard's pie, while I had a screwdriver with some traditional Irish lamb stew.

As an aside, I'm pretty sure that my ancestors were rolling in their graves because of the screwdriver I drank, but in my defense it's the celiac disease that they passed on to me that prohibits me from drinking more Irishy drinks like whiskey or beer.

The next day we had breakfast at the B&B which I guess makes sense. The caretaker made Rob a traditional Irish breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, black and white puddings, and tomato) and made me a mini version of that thing because I guess the puddings contain along with dried blood cereal or some other gluten product.  It was amazing, truly, but intensely filling and we were feeling it all goddamn day.  We spent all day walking around town, taking photos and of course lots of naps, and watching Netflix because we are on vacation and lounging around is awesome. We also had blue skies and sun that day which apparently makes us very lucky indeed.

We also saw an old abandoned abbey and cemetery near our B&B, and if you know me at all you know I love morbid shit like that so of course we had to stop for photos. Erin, my dear, this particular spot reminded me of you and your abandoned house explorations.

That night we ate more yummy food and had some drinks while listening to some Irish traditional music. And taking goofy photos.

Also on Tuesday we saw "the Druid's Circle," which is a 3000-year-old rock circle presumably created by the Druids or some other collection of pagans.  The signage wasn't completely clear on why the pagans moved these rocks from like, 50 miles away to set them in a circle, but most of it seems to point it being a place to keep track of time/seasons by the sun and moon, or maybe a ceremonial site. Essentially it's just a circle of heavy rocks with a bigger, flatter rock in the middle, but it was still a pretty spiritual site when you think about how those rocks got there and the potential purposes they held (Rob's educated guess was sacrifice).  In the US we don't have much that is 3000 years old and still standing, at least to my knowledge, so this was a pretty cool sight for us. Also, SO MUCH GREEN.

Oh god, guys, I really didn't mean for this post to be this long. I seriously culled them down to just the basics for this post--I have approximately 8000 other pictures of the same shit. If you're thinking "Jesus, Caitlin, split it into a few posts next time," then you have something in common with the voice in my head and maybe I'll listen better for the next post.

Anyway I hope you are enjoying the green hallucination that is Ireland through my eyes.  We're having so much more fun here than we had in Dublin--with every trip we take we become more and more convinced that city living (or apparently even city visiting) just isn't for us.  Give us small-town living any day of the week.

I commented back to all of you I think, but I just wanted to thank you for the sweet words on my last post. I love having friends that live in the computer.

Our Weekend in the Grand Canyon (Yep, Lots of Photos)

Well, not in the Grand Canyon but nearby.

This past weekend we decided to make the 6-hour trek from Santa Fe to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Our original plan was to go to the North Rim, which is less developed and thus less crowded, but due to Amie's new work schedule we didn't really have the time to drive all the way up there since it's an extra 200 miles or so.  This time around we had to settle for the more tourist-y side.

The drive down was actually pretty awesome.  Rob's back has been a lot better in the car for some unknown reason so he's been able to drive without a ton of pain.  Since driving causes an inappropriate level of stress for me, this works out really well for us. COMPROMISE. Also, driving 6 hours in the Southwest is so much easier than driving the same distance on the East Coast--the speed limit is 75 the entire way and the road is mostly straight--so the ride really wasn't as awful as I'd feared.

We got to the park and got our camping site all set up.  We managed to find a "corner lot" so to speak so we had tons of room and were positioned far away from the old people in RVs, which meant we could talk loud and drink and listen to music without fear of bothering anyone else.

Soon afterward we drove to one of the scenic viewpoints so that Amie and Robbie could actually see the Canyon since neither of them had before.  I know this probably makes me into a super nerd but I think I was actually more excited than I was the first time I saw it, just because I was anxious to see their reactions.  We spent the rest of the day checking out the different spots, throwing rocks over the edge to see how long it took to hear them land, and doing a lot of general oohing and aahing.  I took a lot of photos, too, as you can see (and the first photo of Amie is a great photographic portrayal of her initial reaction to the Canyon itself).

That night we had mac and cheese and hot dogs by the fire, and a few drinks of course. Pretty typical.

Also, I did a sexy dance, which Rob wanted to capture and I decided to share with you.

At around 9 or so we decided to go back to the rim and see how the Canyon was at night without the huge throngs of people cluttering everything up.  It was seriously gorgeous and, dare I say, almost spiritual.  I kept thinking about how crazy it is that the sun rises and sets on the Canyon every single fucking day without a single thought about whether I'm there staring slack-jawed at it or not.  I felt so insignificant and in such awe of our world and my tiny place in it, and yes, even atheists can be rendered speechless by how beautiful nature can be.

As we stood there, I decided to play with my camera settings a bit and see what my camera could do taking photos at night.  The pictures below were taken at this time (around 9pm on Saturday night) with no light whatsoever except an almost-full moon.  I haven't made any changes to these editing-wise except for a little bit of brightening on the first one.

Crazy, huh? It looks like midday!

Anyway Rob wanted to make sure I added that he did, in fact, pee over the side of the Grand Canyon while I wasn't looking.  He was pretty proud of himself.

We returned to the campsite and enjoyed the fire and each other's company.  We got a little crazy with the photography settings.

We all slept very well snuggled in our sleeping bags, and in the morning Amie was kind enough to make us some amazing breakfast sandwiches to start our day.  We went back to the Canyon to say goodbye and made our way back home.

So there you have it, a recap of my third time to the Grand Canyon.  We really had so much fun as a trio and I'm hoping we can take a longer, less crowded trip at some point.  

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.