More Pictures!!

Ryan in a passageway at Blarney Castle. (wearing shorts - which is a sure-fire way to stand out over here - nobody wears shorts!)
Blarney Castle from the lovely garden area surrounding it. The Blarney Stone is at the top of the castle on the left edge as you are viewing this. Quite a narrow set of spiral stairs all the way to the top.

If you look really, really hard you can see America through the fog... This was taken while taking the Ring of Kerry Tour out of Killarney.

The Cliffs of Moher. A bit of a tourist trap but it's hard to argue with scenery like this.

A bit of love on a windy day overlooking the Cliffs of Moher.

Leah at our our sweet campsite in in a farmers field while on the Burren Way between Ballyvaughn and Doolin. At this point the ground was only damp but after the stormy night it turned into a swampy marsh.

View from the Burren Way of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.

View from the top of a hill on the Burren Way looking toward our next hill challenge.

The Burren Way before the climb just outside the village of Ballyvaughan.

One the road before arriving in Ballyvaughan on our way from Kinvara.

Traditional Irish thatch roof.

Leah at the harbor in Galway.

(I'm pretty sure these pictures are in reverse chronological order)

We've made it all the way down to the city of Cork. Another sweet place with tons of history - including the nearby town of Blarney wherein you can find Blarney Castle at the top of which one can find the famous Blarney Stone. Yes, Leah and I have kissed the Blarney Stone and will now be gifted with eloquence beyond imagination!! It was a super-touristy thing but worth it. The castle itself was really awesome because it has been kept in such great condition.

Ireland has been incredibly awesome. We enjoyed getting out of the big cities and into the little villages the most. The people have all been very welcoming to us, especially in Northern Ireland along the north-eastern coast. We have had dozens of offers for 'lifts' from people and tons of smiles all around. We were even invited in for tea on more than one occasion by people we met along the road. Although it is a pretty small island there is an amazing amount of history here. And the beauty of the place was more than I had expected - especially once we got into the hills with the ancient rock fences and clear streams.

These will be the last pictures from the island of Ireland as we are heading to France this Sunday via ferry. We have completed a fairly complete loop of Ireland and have jammed as much into every day as humanly possible. There are of course hundreds of things we've missed but we'll just have to save those for our next little trip. Hope you enjoy these pictures (including some of our faces per parental request) and we'll post again once we land in France.