A day of relaxation and catch ups. I know I have said this over and over but this is truly one of the many reasons why we love long term travel...we don't have to rush out the door everyday to see everything we like to see at a new destination. We love down days where we can just do "boring" things.
Read MoreI am not sure what the reason was, but we all slept in very late, and a brunch was more in order than a breakfast! We had bought lots of very delicious blueberries from Lidl when we went shopping, so we decided to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast with our farm fresh eggs (thanks to the awesome hens!).
mmmm...mmmm...Blueberry pancakes
By the time everything was cleaned and put away, it was already a bit past noon :). Since the sun was shining, we decided it was a great day to go to the beach.
We went back to Carrowmore Beach, since we had seen a great alcove the day of the horse show when we walked on the beach, and we thought it would be a great place for the kids to play.
It was a perfect day! Fairly warm for these parts, and the sky was blue with enough clouds to cover the sun now and then. The sun, when it is not hiding behind clouds, is actually really strong here, and your skin can burn quickly if you are not wearing sun screen.
Carrowmore Beach, with a view of Croagh Patrick in the clouds
At first, Hannah and I just played on the main part of the beach, as Daddy and Kian went to explore further down.
If you look in the first picture below, you can see the alcove in the right all the way back in the distance.
To get to the alcove, we went mostly over sand and just had to climb over a few rocks, but it was not a tough task. As we had thought, the kids had a blast playing here. First, they had lots of fun "cleaning" the sand of the dead jellyfish that were stuck in the sand (these jellies were definitely not alive, so there wasn't a worry of them stinging the kids) but YUCK! I got totally squeamish every time they would shovel one up to throw it out of the way!! At one point they even tried to make a soup out of them...or at least that's what it looked like to me....I looked from afar and was turning slightly green!
We met with a nice family, coincidentally from New York City, with family in Louisburgh! As we chatted about this and that, the kids had fun playing in the sand, and with two little doggies (Jack Russell Terriers), Pearl and Ruby.
Kian and Daddy braved the cold waters and went in for a dip! Brrrr...! Hannah also got brave enough to walk into the water and fill up her bucket by herself :)
Even Kian's Lego dude had a great time at the beach.
We stayed on the beach until almost 5 PM, when we saw dark clouds approaching and heard some loud thunder! We quickly packed up and headed towards the path back...and were shocked to see how far up the water had come! We had noticed the water gradually getting higher as we played, but the high tide was coming in fast, and most of the rocks we had climbed on (do you remember the rock climbing pictures from the Louisburgh Horse Show day?) were completely submerged under water!
We had to climb a much higher and more difficult path to get back to the beach, but we managed to make it without any issues.
Lifeguard Red flag - conditions are not safe for swimming
We made it back home just in time before it started pouring. Since both of our moms are big fans of grilling in all weather, a little bit of rain was not going to change our dinner plans. We still fired up the charcoal grill and made delicious cheeseburgers.
Cheeseburger, hot dog, and homemade french fries :)
The rain stopped shortly after dinner, and we were able to watch a beautiful sunset over the ocean before the kids were sent off to bed.
Gorgeous sunset over the Atlantic with Clare Island to the right
Unless you have a wet suit, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, around Mayo, is not really feasible unless you plan on freezing.
Fortunately the family we are staying with are incredibly sweet and gave us a few vouchers for a swimming pool for rainy days.
Since we woke up to a rainy and windy day, we decided to head out to the pool. The kids were extremely excited. In Ireland, it is a requirement for everyone who goes into the swimming pool to wear a swim cap, even children. Hannah totally enjoyed this.
Hannah posing in her swimming gear
After swimming, we went to the Westport Harbour for some food. We looked at a couple of restaurants and decided to eat at the Creel, mainly because of the airy and family oriented atmosphere.
We all enjoyed our food, the delicious desserts, and the fast Wi-Fi :)
It was still very windy and rainy, but Hannah really really wanted to go to the playground. Kian was too tired so he stayed home with Daddy. Hannah lasted about 5 minutes on the playground before she asked to go home. She had a great time for those 5 minutes.
After playing at home for a while, we made a quick dinner of carrot sticks, marinated sweet chili chicken wings (purchased marinated, baked in the oven at home), and home-made cheesy bread.
Chicken wings, cheesy bread, carrot sticks
We sent the kids to bed fairly early, since tomorrow we are going on a 3 day road trip down the west coast. We are very excited to see some castles, caves, cliffs, and more. A good portion of our drive will be on the Wild Atlantic Way, so I am excited about the views!
Our family of four is chased summer around the world. Now we are a family of 5, back in the US, and planning our next great adventure.
