Ireland

We were sad but we had to leave Galway and move on to our next destination, Tralee.  We took the expressway and drove South for a couple of hours and we decided to drive through the Dingle peninsula on our way to Tralee.  It was cold and desolate but beautiful.  

 At one point I decided that I just needed to see the beach so I pulled over on an access road and headed in the direction of the shore.  I found a trailer park, I wish we had taken a few pictures because it was weird, and I parked the car.  We walked over a few small sand dunes and found this great beach.

 As usual, there was always time for action shots.

 These are the times when we missed our friend NE.  He was always a great photographer.  I guess we did ok on our own.

 After our afternoon drive we found our lodging for the night.  A REAL CASTLE!!!!!

 Our room was located in the bottom floor of the hotel and it was kind of underground.

 This was our room.  Gallagher.  Awesome.  I have never stayed in a named room.  Very cool.

 It was Gretchen's job to remember where we parked the car.  I know you would think it would be my job since I was the driver but I decided that was the navigators job.  We parked "somewhere"  near this street.

Finally, we found a pub with some traditional Irish music.

I promise I only had 1/2 a beer as it was my job to stay sober for the drive home.  This was our table friend.  His name was Richard (Ok...I really couldn't remember his name...I just made that up) but I do remember that he was from Leeds in the UK.  He and his wife were retired and they were touring Ireland in their motor home that they brought over via a boat.

Finally, we made a friend to take our picture together.

Um...so we couldn't find the car when we left the bar.  It was probably due to the fact that I insisted we exit the bar from a different door than we entered.  Something about me being stubborn and refusing to walk through the crowd.  Anyway on our search for the car I found this in a window and I knew a photo was necessary.

We made it back to the castle.

We took this time to take "action" shots throughout the castle since most of the guests were in bed.

The Kings chair.

I may have been a bit too friendly with the knight.

Gretchen had the same idea.

There were two dogs that lived in the castle and roamed free.  We found this big guy trying to sleep and Gretchen was missing her dogs so she tried to cuddle with the castle dog.  I don't think he was interested.