Holy Island

This morning we awoke to cold & rain..... much as we expected from England, & why should Ireland be any different? The room was also cold, but Chad reminded me that the houses here are not as well insulated as we are used to, and the heat is not turned way up to compensate, and the people must be more used to the cold b/c I was FREEZING!! Last night we were sitting up while Asher fell asleep & I had to keep my coat on b/c it was so frigid in the common room. This morning I had the presence of mind to wear my shoes to breakfast & I was very glad I did b/c the dining room felt like it had been open to the elements all night.

We decided that since the weather wasn't great, we'd go into Limerick & see if we could find a shopping area just to stay out of the weather. We found a small mall & bought a new pair of shoes for Asher b/c he's been working really hard at breaking the pair he has. We also enjoyed a latte from Esquires Coffee. We were a bit surprised to see an Esquires b/c we have only seen them in western Canada, so we thought they were just a small chain there, but they had the same logo & the penguin mascot.

The weather was quite warm by about 11am, so we decided to take Asher to a park to run off a bit of energy before lunch. We stopped at an old mill pub for lunch & ate out on the deck in the sun, enjoying the view of the fish ladder & falls. After a short nap on Asher's part we departed for the Holy Island. When we were in England a few years ago w/ Chad's folks we had tried to see Whitby Island (where Christianity first came to England), but the tide had been up & the road was impassible. So we thought we'd try to see Ireland's Holy Island. Unfortunately you can only get there by boat & you must call ahead to book, so once again we were out of luck. We took some pictures from the other shore though.

After our botched trip to the H.I. We drove back to Ballina/Killalae, stopping at a waterfront park along the way to let Asher stretch his legs a bit before supper. Taking a road trip with a small child can be very S-L-O-W, since you must stop every few hours for sanity breaks! Then we were off to the Chinese Restaurant so highly recommended the night before, & it was EXCELLENT!! The prices were a bit steep, but I had figured w/ such a high recommendation that they would be, so we were prepared.

While at the restaurant Asher spotted a picture on the wall of Mao Tze Tung & declared it to be “Uncle Brian.” It seems everyone he meets these days is “Uncle Brian.” It doesn't seem to matter what they look like, or how old they are, “Uncle Brian” is a universal man.