Tullow
This last week Amy and I have been around the southeast side of Ireland, mostly in Wicklow and Carlow counties. The weather has been wonderful. We keep asking, "What's this stuff about rain?"

Tomorrow we start heading to the north of Ireland. Our first stop is the race horses in Curragh. We've never been to the races before, but they seem to be quite popular. I'm planning on putting my 2 euro bet down on the one that Amy says looks happy. From there we plan on seeing some ancient sites called Hill of Tara and Bragh na Bonnie. Then we'll make our way to the top in Buncrana where we'll be for five weeks.

Here are some shots of where we've been:

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland -Its people
                             Today's Topic: Neatness

Although Ireland is not by any means a wealthy country, it has a fastidious and tidy nature.  The people and the towns are clean, and the people take pride in their spartan lifestyle.

Even though in Dublin city we did find the ubiquitous, spay-painted graffiti, this seems an anomaly. In the small towns, the majority of Ireland,  we found the walls and streets to be cared for.

We witnessed this in the quaint village of Enniskerry where we saw townspeople on their hands and knees in the street's gutters with dust pans and hand brooms brushing up the street's litter. "Will you look at that," I said to Amy.

This pride in town was most public in today's Irish Times which published the results of the country's tidy contest. It devoted a two page spread, listing each town's score of cleanliness, each town rated: With the winning town receiving a 10,000 euro prize!

This a country with a history centuries-old and a country which is determined to preserve it. And although the people are in an unstable, financial world of limbo, their sense of place and its value are things within their control.

Hurling

Yesterday we went to a loud and raucous pub to watch on a big screen the National Irish Hurling Championship game between County Galway and County Kilkenny.  We had never heard of “hurling” before, but here in Ireland it’s as big, if not bigger than soccer (football).

It’s something like lacrosse, but the sticks have flat blades not nets, and the game is just as rugged and physical. We didn’t understand all of the rules, but we got the gist. After much back and forth, in the end the score was tied, and everyone started walking off the field. I asked a guy, “Now what?

 “It’s a replay.”

 “So?”

“They play the game again.”

“The whole game?”

“Yah, next week.”

Everyone was happy to do the thing again, and as we left, there were no sad faces in the pub.

 



              WE'RE OFF TO IRELAND!


                                                              MORE TO FOLLOW                                  

Anna in Maui

rainbow at waimoku waterfall

spider webs are prettier in maui

bamboo forest

o'heo gulch pools

rocks at black sand beach

(taking a rock is bad luck...and against the rules)

red sand beach from the cliff above

the town of hana

stalactites in the lava tube

(not to be confused with stalagmites)

As you can see, Dane and I have been busy playing in Maui while mom has been at work.  It has been a wonderful week and I can't believe it has gone by so fast!  Tomorrow's adventures include snorkeling, exploring the crater at Haleakala, beach time, and crossword puzzles (for Dane). 

Fish

Every few days I go down to our local loko (an ancestral fish pond) and hope that our fisherman has come  in with his catch.

Off the back of their pickup, Greg and his wife set up shop.

Here he is with a mahi mahi. On a good day's catch he'll get 20 to 30 either mahi mahi, ahi or ono.

Then he'll filet it on the spot.

And I'll bring home a bag of mahi mahi. How we will miss this. It doesn't get any fresher.

The Big Island

This last weekend we took a puddle jumper over to the Big Island and got a different experience from one here in Maui.

Our first stop was to experience the growing fields of the world-known Kona Valley and its coffee.

The Kona bean's unique flavor is due to the rich composition of the lava base.

We shared our breakfast with geckos with Australian accents 

and saw turtles basking on a black sand beach.

Then we went down to South Point, the southern-most point of the USA. If we looked real hard and kept looking, we would have seen Antarctica.

Unlike Maui, much of the water around the Big Island is that beautiful, aqua-blue found in the Caribbean.

We drove to the top of the Kilauea Crater, and although there are parts of it that continue to flow, we were only allowed access to it gaseous spew.

The Big Island is a much younger island than Maui, the lava flows much newer, and the many lava flows dominate much of the landscape.

Sometimes, for as far as the eye could see, mile after mile, was the barren blackness. We found a lot of it ugly, and a lot of ugly.

However, not all of the landscape was bleak. In the northern end near Hawi, we found rolling green hills reminiscent of Ireland (a tip o' the hat to the Irish alcove).

Flying home we saw from above another river of lava as it had flowed to the sea.