A YEAR IN MY LIFE ( or 3 ): April 2009

It's hard to imagine that a year ago, my sister Heidi and i made plans for her and her family to come and visit. That year went by so fast! They arrived on Friday March 6th very tired but very excited! I hadn't seen my sis or my nieces and brother-in-law in 15 very long months, it was like a dream that they were here.

We had to take a bus and a taxi to get to my place as my little VW Polo would not have fit the 5 of us and all their luggage, we tumbled in and they made themselves at home. Within minutes it was like we had never been apart. Sure, the girls have grown alot and are now young women but to me they were just the same.

The next morning i took Bud and the girls out for breakfast and they just sat there staring into space. When i asked what was wrong, they just shook their heads and said they couldn't believe they were here and the accents were so strange. I just laughed, i've been here so long i don't even notice the accent anymore! The next few days were spent sight seeing, trying to find Enya's castle and Bono's home (of U2 fame) in Dalkey, enjoying coffee at Starbucks in Malehide and watching the wind whip up the sand at Bull Island-it was even too windy for the kite surfers to be out. We experienced hail, snow and rain (all in one day) and toured through castles.

Since they had come all this way, they had to go to Paris! It gave me a much needed break, cleaned the house from top to bottom and got ready for our trip to Dingle and the Ring of Kerry. Since Paris was their trip, you won't see any of those pictures here. Maybe Jaycee will put those on her blogsite http://jphotography777.blogspot.com/ Check it out! She is amazing!

I rented us a cottage in Dingle which is in County Kerry on the South west coast of Ireland. It was a long drive with all 5 of us squished in my car and our luggage, but with many stops for stretching and pee breaks, we made it in one piece. The weather gods were with us the whole time, by the end of our visit, we were walking around in our t-shirts. We decided to "do" the Ring of Kerry the next day, a 197 km ring of ancient history, making stops along the way. We scrambled through an old tumbling down castle and walked along the tops of Ring Forts! We viewed the Unesco World Heritage site of the Skelig rocks from some pretty awe inspiring cliffs and toured through old thatched roofed cottages.

If you think you can do the Ring in one day, don't!!!! We drove the last 75km in the dark on some pretty scary, narrow, windy roads with shear drop offs to Killarney lake! Actually, i'm glad it was dark as i don't think i would have wanted to see where we could have ended up! We made it back at 9:30pm, me so bugged eyed, i couldn't see straight and we all headed straight to bed.

Dingle is a very funky and colorful little village and the drive around the Dingle Peninsula the next day was breath taking. We made frequent stops on narrow cliff roads to take pictures of the ocean and baby lambs. At one stop we were rewarded with the birth of a baby lamb and mommy cleaning it and encouraging it to stand! Definitely the high light of our trip! St. Patricks Day was spent on a boat trip in Dingle Bay and getting to see Fungi, the resident dolphin. Fungi has been a resident in the waters there since 1986 when he made his first appearance, he plays there every day and you can guarantee a siting of him! He loves to chase the boat and jump around for you, but all i ever got was his fin in my pics!

Back on land, we watched the St. Paddy's day parade and then headed back to Dublin. I went to work and the gang had a few days on their own before heading back to Vancouver. It was a sad good bye but i must say, i haven't laughed that much in 3 years, my stomach hurt all the time! The Clarkson's like to play word games and i think Heidi won the prize with her " i've got sheep for brains"