Off to Ireland!

 In the month of February we made three trips to Louisiana and said goodbye to grandparents. When March first came, we were more than ready to travel for happy reasons! Spring break comes early for us, so we decided to go somewhere entirely new and Ireland was our choice for our first trip abroad as a family!

A 5 am arrival in Ireland, lost luggage, and a long wait to get a rental car that we could all fit in did not dampen our enthusiasm! First stop was McDonald's to try the Irish breakfast there. 

Next we made our way to Rock of Cashel to see the cathedral ruins. Originally built in the 12th century, it is believed St. Patrick came to this place to convert one of the local kings to Christianity in 978. 

We know the key to happy road trips is lots of snacks. We stopped at a Tesco to stock up on Irish snacks and found some favorites!

Sis loved Hula Hoops and we brought a bunch back!

Charlie found an interesting Dorito flavor to try - pepperoni pizza!

We all loved the Cadbury chocolate covered Oreos!

Next we visited Blarney Castle. 

We all kissed the Blarney Stone, except for Charlie. He said it would be gross! I will see it was more of an acrobatic effort than I expected. 

Continuing south, we made our way to Cork and toured Cork City Gaol. Charlie wanted to see a dungeon and this was the closest we could find. 

The tour was well done and told stories of individuals, why they were there, and some of the work they had to do while serving their sentence. The most heartbreaking was the story of kids who were being abused by their mother, she was locked up here and the children were sent to the workhouse. Seems they paid a heavy penalty for her mistreatment. 

It was really cold and windy but we walked around a few blocks in Cork before heading to our hotel for the night. We were so tired! Who would have guessed we would sleep for twelve hours!