The Events of Thursday, May 19, 2011

                The black, dense darkness of the room suddenly became flooded with bright morning light as Daddy pushed up the darkening shades. I hopped up and slipped on my slippers while pulling up the white bedcover over my amazing big and comfortable bed. I raced down the hall to the bathroom. Without my contacts in, the bathroom’s doorknob looked blurry, but I felt my way and opened the door. The room was visibly filled with hot steam, leftover from Mommy’s shower. After I put in my contacts, I pushed the START button on the shower machine. It noisily buzzed to life, spurting out freezing cold water. Eventually, however, it warmed up, and I enjoyed a lovely shower. After I had dressed in jeans and several layers for shirts (you never know with this fickle Irish weather), I went downstairs to start packing up what I could of the food, as it is my job to pack up our food. Once Caitlin had showered and dressed, we all sat down to an everyday breakfast of cereal and bananas, as well as a special treat, freshly cut pineapple chunks.

                Our house in Fanore was a little white one, in a small neighborhood of houses that looked exactly like it. If it hadn’t been for the great views of the ocean and the two working wood-burning stoves, this spot would have been pretty bland. But, as it was, I was still a little bit sad as we drove away from our little ocean abode, past the misty waves crashing on the rocky shore.

                Our car, Destiny, is a black Renault mini-van that is so modern it looks like an SUV (with a bright red French license plate). Mom and Daddy take turns driving, and so far, they haven’t warmed any seats other than those up front. There are three seats in the middle of the car and then one in the very back. The “very back seat” is somewhat cramped, what with six small suitcases, two large suitcases, and uncountable bags of food and other supplies, as your next door neighbor. So, since none of us really like this seat, to make it fair, we rotate seats after every hour or so of driving. We started off today with Daddy driving and Mommy in the passenger seat. I was in the middle row on the far left hand side with Ben on my right. Caitlin was next to Ben and Abby was in the “very back seat”.

                So there we were all six of us (as well as the aforementioned luggage) in our little black Renault, named Destiny. The fickle Irish weather changes about every twenty minutes and it just happened to be raining when we started our drive. (Abby concluded that there is always a wet or windy Irish flag somewhere on the island). So, with our jackets on our laps and the windows steaming from the heat, all of the kids had their quiet prayer times while Mom and Daddy quietly discussed whatever parental units discuss.

                Once we had all finished, we pulled out the computer and started a “blog critique session”. It has become a habit to have these critique sessions during our long drives. The person who wrote the blog is on the “hot seat”. The author reads his blog out loud to the family. When something goes against the rules of grammar or just doesn’t make sense, someone else makes a comment (usually in as nice a way as possible). The author will consider the input and usually accepts, unless they can provide a good counterargument. Once we come to a conclusion that the majority of the family approves, then the author continues reading … until the next critical remark is made. It is very hard for this author to accept input. At times, it feels like you just made a masterpiece and then people come up and paint over the parts that you liked the best, so that they like it better. I can personally tell you that my family thoroughly butchered my previous sentences. The most common causes in our family for stopping the reader is passive voice, incorrect verb tense, run-on sentences, ending in prepositions, and (for Caitlin) commas.

                Today, Mom was on the hot seat, and then after about an hour of critique, she passed it on to Caitlin. These times of immense pressure and debate paused twice during our drive. First, we stopped for a quick shopping trip at Tesco, to get bare necessities for survival, and then for a picnic lunch at a lovely, grassy spot by a quaint stone bridge over a bubbling brook. Then, after about two and half hours of driving, at 2:30 pm, we arrived at our destination, The Quay Cottage (pronounced key).

                The description on the website of this vacation home read, “Nestled between the mountains and the sea in the West of Ireland, the Quay is a traditional old Irish cottage right on the water’s edge … Ideal for bird watching and seals can be seen from the property at certain times of the year.” We had been really looking forward to this lodging. So, we were pretty excited to see it. The white stone house with red doors and red window panes stood isolated on a mini peninsula jutting into Ballyconneely Bay. The tide was far out and slimy seaweed covered rocks surrounded the house with its little stone dock.

                The inside was just as welcoming as the outside; the first room upon entering was the dining room, with its fireplace, rustic-looking wooden table, chairs, and china shelves. We dumped our luggage here and went to explore the rest of the low-ceilinged house. Mommy and Daddy’s room was just as rustic as the dining room. The flower print pale pink curtains framed a perfect view of the bay and sea shells, flowers, candles, and other knick knacks decorated the bleached wooden furniture. After walking back into the dining room, we went through another low doorway and down a step into the tiny kitchen. Daddy hit his head here for the second time in five minutes. The poorly-equipped kitchen had a very old-fashioned oven and fridge with an itty-bitty freezer inside. Luckily, across a cobble-stoned mini-courtyard, inside what used to be the outhouse (not a privy, but just an additional and separate one-room building), was a modern microwave, washer, tumble dryer, and fridge with a large freezer.

                Back in the main part of the house, the sitting room had a wood-burning stove and a low sitting love-seat and two armchairs. In fact, the love-seat was so short, that when Ben sat down, his knees were higher than his head! In Caitlin and Ben’s room, we found long, but thin twin beds with pale yellow bed covers. The matching curtains framed the same view as Daddy and Mommy’s windows, but showed a little more water and less shore. Abby and I are sharing a double bed with light blue bedcovers and matching curtains. We also had a matching curtain blocking one corner, making it a “closet”. Two of the bedrooms have thick sheepskin rugs, making them seem extra cozy.

                Once we had gotten all settled, we donned our jackets, hats, scarves, and gloves and headed back out to explore the countryside of the West Coast of Ireland. Today’s attraction was Connemara National Park. One of the most distinctive and well-known features of this area is the bogs. As the bog plants die, they only partly decay. This is because of the high rainfall of over 1600mm per year falling over 250 rain days. Their remains accumulate under anaerobic (airless) conditions and compact to form peat. The deepest peat in Connemara National Park is five meters! This peat is used as burning material, lasting longer and giving less smoke than wood. After exploring the exhibits in the Visitor Centre, we watched an informative film covering the history, flora, fauna, and geology of the park. Then, after the video, we headed out on a hike to explore this park.

                Sruffaunboy Walk took us on a flat, then steep, trail, up a rolling green Irish hill, and around a horse corral housing another distinctive feature of the park, the Connemara ponies. Although a domestic animal, this pony is very much a part of the Connemara countryside. The Park maintains a herd of pure bred Connemara Ponies to assist in conserving this unique equine breed. As the path took us around the corral, we saw two Connemara ponies. One was short and fat with a speckled grey coat and a tangled mane. The other was a white horse with a tousled, cream-colored mane, which it would toss from one side of its long neck to the other, from time to time. We stopped at the highest point of the trail for some granola bars and water before continuing on with our hike.

                Because of the Irish fickle weather, we had brought three umbrellas just in case. Ben had somehow managed to become the “umbrella holder”. He hung the umbrellas from three of his belt loops and started to hula dance as we walked. Laughing, we reached the end of our hike. As a treat for going on such a long and treacherous hike, we played on the playground that was next to the Visitor Centre. The park had two large and especially fun see-saws that we all enjoyed. At times, we would bounce so high that we would jump a few inches off the seat and get the thrill of flying before bumping down again on the seat really hard. Ouch, that hurt. The park also had those mushroom spinney seats that spin you around, as well as gymnastic bars. I used to be quite the gymnast, but since middle school, I focused on swimming. So doing flips on the bars was like going back in time for me. All too soon, it was time to go. So, pretending to whine and protest like little kids, we made our way back to the car and drove home.

                On the way back, however, we made a stop in the nearby town of Clifden, looking for WiFi. None of our Ireland lodgings have had WiFi, so we had to completely rely on libraries and hotel lobbies during our stay here. Daddy found a library that let him on their internet computers for five minutes, free of charge. He confirmed our ferry ride from North Ireland to Scotland, while we waited in the car. While he was in the library, it started to rain and then pour. Sweet little Caitlin went through the pouring rain to bring Daddy an umbrella, but, by the time he came back, the rain had stopped, and he just carried the unopened umbrella in his hand.

                Back at home, Daddy made a pot of tea to warm us. The water came out an odd color of brownish, greenish yellow. So, he boiled it up and put in the teabag, which changed the color anyway, so none of us really noticed. Since only one of the six heaters was working, we were still pretty cold, even with our hot tea. So, we kept on our layers and started making dinner. Mommy sat out in the unheated “outhouse” with the microwave, heating up our dinner, since we couldn’t get the oven to work. So, after an hour of waiting and heating and reheating, we sat down to a hot dinner of spicy potatoes, chicken, peas, and bread, which we devoured in less than fifteen minutes. Oh, well. For dessert, Daddy had gone crazy with the good deals for cookies, so we each got a chocolate-drizzled coconut macaroon cookie and a slice of a chocolate Swiss roll. Yum!

                Then, while Caitlin washed dishes, we settled in the sitting room, reading and blogging and trying to keep warm. We attempted to start a fire in the wood burner, and thought we had the kindling all figured out, but then, we couldn’t find any matches or lighters. This house is really cute and quaint, but we were all cold because of the drafty windows and lack of heat. Mommy, Daddy, Abby, and I switched on our bed warmers and everyone got ready for bed.

                The tide was high now, and the waves lapped gently on the shore just a few feet from our windows. It was so beautiful and serene that I didn’t want to go to bed. Even at nine o’clock, because of our latitude, it was as light as day outside. Eventually, however, I climbed into my bed with its light blue bedcover and cuddled with my bedmate, Abby, and let myself drift into sleep, like a sailboat drifting out to sea.