Well, we haven't slowed down! July was full of visitors, playdates and adventures. The culminating adventure on this post, and for our time here in England, was our longest trip since arriving - a week in Ireland.
Emmett & Oscar
Before Ireland, Emmett and I spent nearly every weekday that we didn't have visitors with Emmett's friend Oscar. They played on various playgrounds, picnicked, ran through fountains, sang and danced, and scooted all over Windsor together. Saying goodbye before our trip to Ireland was bittersweet - we truly hope Oscar's family and his au pair, Beatriz, have a chance to visit us sometime in Colorado and that we can visit them in their homes either here in England or in Barcelona, Spain. Oscar and his family left while we were in Ireland to spend their month-long summer break in Spain with their families.
The Ascot Races with Emmy & Sam
Our first visitors of the month were our friends Sam and Emmy, who spent about 10 days touring England while their 2 year old daughter was with grandparents back in Minnesota. Emmett absolutely adored them both from the moment he met them (he had met them and their daughter about a year ago but I'm not sure he remembered). We spent a Friday evening with them in London enjoying some street food, then the following day they joined us in Windsor for a trip to the castle and then a bus ride to the Ascot Race Course for an afternoon at the horse races. The horse race was exciting. Sam and Spencer placed bets but decided they would need to be more knowledgeable about the contestants before being more serious about gambling. Emmett loved watching the horses and wished they wouldn't run so fast then just disappear. Emmy and I both enjoyed people watching - people really dress up for the races!
More Visitors, A Race & A Musical
The next visitor was my friend Samantha who I know from UW-Madison. Sam stayed with us for 2 nights and introduced us to a couple of her British friends whom she works/worked with at a British international school in Vietnam. It was fun to be with such energetic and thoughtful people! Again, Emmett loved Samantha and her friends because they allowed him to take center-stage for a lot of the time we were together. I wish we had taken a photo of all of us together!
The day Samantha left on the train was the same day my mom arrived to the Heathrow airport!! We hired a taxi to bring her to our place and Emmett managed to stay awake long enough to say hello to Grandma before his afternoon nap. My mom has been here since mid-July and will be staying with us until we depart! Even with jet lag on her second day here, my mom volunteered to watch Emmett so that Spencer and I could attend his race on the east side of London and have dinner with his fellow runners and coworkers afterward. Spencer met his goal of running a (nearly) 7-minute mile 5K and was the fastest of his team of 4 J2ers (J2 is the name of the consulting company for which he works). It was a late but fun date night for us. :)
The first weekend my mom was here, we asked Beatriz to watch Emmett for an afternoon and Spencer and I took my mom to the Picadilly Circus area where we saw our first live musical since being in England. We saw the Book of Mormon and thought it was hilarious and so well performed! At first I was hesitant to see such a "racy" show with my mom sitting next to me, but after the initial shock, we both really enjoyed ourselves. It has spurred some good talk about her experiences touring the mormon church in Salt Lake City and I encouraged her to read Under the Banner of Heaven, by John Krakauer, which has furthered our conversations.
IRELAND!
On Tuesday the 19th of July, the four of us headed to Heathrow airport with a carry-on each for our bucket-list trip to Ireland! We arrived in Dublin a few hours later, rented a car, and spent the night there before starting our first full-day journey on Wednesday morning. We spent 6 full days in Ireland, all of which provided glimpses at gorgeous landscapes and allowed us to delight in tasty food (and for Spencer and my Mom - beer). I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to eat gluten free - not like my experiences in England and in other parts of Europe. And we are grateful to Spencer's colleague, Daragh, a native Irishman, who gave us a list of recommended highlights to visit along the journey - we wouldn't have seen nearly the same sites if it weren't for his input!
Here is a map that marks all of the highlights we visited for each of the 6 full days (I had fun putting that together!). And I encourage you to look at the July photo album, too, though the camera couldn't capture Ireland's beauty.
Day 1 in Ireland:
We left Dublin a little later than planned due to a late breakfast and a lost Spencer (he ran out of phone battery on his way back from the grocery store so it took him an hour to find our flat... but he found it!!). We headed from Dublin via the Wicklow Mountains National Park to an area called Glenndalough. The visitor centre there was a perfect place for a quick picnic lunch and a chance to stretch our legs as we explored the monastery and river walk. Apparently it is the site of many pilgrimages (buddhists especially) due to the energy released from the surroundings. We wished we had more time to explore.
From Glenndalough we headed south/southwest through Waterford until we found an unnamed turn-off that would lead us to Knockanore - the original home of my great-great-great grandmother. My mom had a visit to this town on her life bucket list and it was fun to be able to take her there along our journey. Knockanore is home to its own brand of cheese, though we got there at 5:15pm, once everything - even the pub - was closed. As far as we could tell, there was a pub, a church and a school in the town itself, and the surrounding farmlands were stunning.
After Knockanore we headed through Cork (where we stopped at a grocery store for a late makeshift dinner) and found our lodging for the next 4 nights - an AirBnB cottage located just outside the town of Bantry. We had a view of the Bantry Bay and on clear days we could see across the bay to the peninsula. The cottage was beautiful; spacious, with toys for Emmett, and very private and cozy. We felt at home for the four nights we stayed there.
Day 2 in Ireland:
The forecast for our second day in Ireland looked slightly gloomy - rain and fog all morning. So we had a much-needed lazy, relaxing morning at the cottage (Mom, Emmett and Spencer ate fresh scones that had been left by the hosts!) then packed into our car midmorning and headed to our neighboring Beara Peninsula for a self-led driving tour along the coast to the tip and back. Emmett slept quite a bit of the drive, as he was sick and not sleeping enough due to the travel. We didn't have quite the vistas we probably would have given less fog, but we certainly enjoyed the green, peaceful, magical surroundings and the colorful small towns that we drove through.
We got to the tip of the peninsula which is home to Ireland's only cable car. The cable car carries its passengers to the island across the way called Dursey, which according to our sources has cool hiking paths and a village but not much else. We didn't cross over to the island but we enjoyed climbing the rocks, watching for dolphins, and feeling the wind in our hair at the site of the cable car. The rain had cleared by then and we started back east on the northern side of the peninsula. The views were spectacular, especially when the sun peaked out from behind the clouds.
Our favorite part of the day was crossing over the Healy Pass that led us back to the southern side of the peninsula. The narrow, windy road led up and over green mountains, speckled with sheep. We drove through trees and forests, then around grass covered rocks, along streams and waterfalls and finally had glimpses of the sparkling ocean again. The drive took longer than we had budgeted for time wise, so we hurried home and had a quick spaghetti dinner before crashing and sleeping hard.
Day 3 in Ireland:
We had promised Emmett that he could throw rocks in the ocean (his favorite thing to do while traveling these days) all the way back on Tuesday en route to Dublin. Friday morning - our third full day in Ireland - we finally fulfilled that promise. After breakfast we drove toward Glengarriff, a town just northwest of Bantry, searching out a cove with a rocky beach. Spencer spotted a good stopping point and we piled out of the car down a small slope, to a manmade sand beach with rocks along the beach and ocean floor for as far as one could see. We arrived at low tide so we had even more access to rocks. Emmett was in heaven. He found a broken sand pail that had been left behind by someone else, Grandma helped him find a good flat rock that he could use as a shovel, and he went to work digging in the sand. In the meantime, Spencer found some excellent skipping rocks and commenced to show off his exceptional rock-skipping skills. Emmett was intrigued and soon joined in at rock throwing. We had only planned on staying for 20 or 30 minutes, but ended up spending the whole morning at the cove. Another little girl and her mother joined at the beach with a proper shovel and bucket, and Emmett was excited to have someone to build towers with. Kelly (who was around 6) was very patient with Emmett, even when he destroyed the towers that she had decorated with seashells. Overall, this was probably Emmett's favorite morning of the entire trip.
We went back to the cottage for nap time, hoping that Emmett would catch up a bit on his missing sleep (and be in a better mood that evening). I stayed with him while Spencer and my mom explored a market and pub in Bantry. After Emmett awoke, we headed back to Glengarriff where we boarded the last ferry taking people to Garnish Island, a small island converted into a giant garden. From the windows of the boat we saw seals, eagles & nests, castles and large homes. The gardens were spectacular and we loved letting Emmett run (mostly) free. We only had an hour on the island before the last ferry back, so we were quick about our self-guided tour, but thoroughly enjoyed everything we did see. We had dinner in Bantry - delicious locally caught fish with mashed potatoes and veggies. Yum.
Day 4 in Ireland:
For our last full day in the Cork/Kerry counties area, we decided to head north to see a glimpse of Kilarney National Park. We had a delicious, traditional lunch in the town of Kilarney (meat and potatoes and veggies), then headed to a carpark where we had hoped to find a short loop to hike before Emmett's nap. We found a parking spot and ended up starting our hike late enough that we decided on bringing Emmett's stroller, hoping he'd sleep on our walk to a waterfall just a "2Km loop" away. The walk took much longer than we thought (I think it was 2Km just to get to the waterfall) and Emmett barely slept (again... ugh). But we still opted to drive the long way back to Bantry through the Gap of Dunloe - a drive that came highly recommended by Spencer's friend Daragh - and we were not disappointed by our decision. Again, the road was narrow and precarious, but Spencer navigated without a stitch and the views were breathtaking. It made me want to bike across Ireland and spend more time exploring the less-traveled areas.
Day 5 in Ireland:
On Sunday the 24th of July, we left our temporary home in Bantry with a final destination of Dublin, but with a few planned sightseeing stops along the way. Our first stop was in a small area along a lake called Gougane Barra. Daragh had told Spencer that many films set in Ireland are filmed in this region as the landscape is very stereotypically Irish. Again, we appreciated having the suggestion that we stop - the lake and the views were beautiful and we spent time stretching our legs by throwing rocks in the lake and walking around a charming little church in the area. From there we headed north along small country roads toward Limerick, where we changed course and headed more west (instead of straight east to Dublin) so that we could see the Cliffs of Moher.
The Cliffs of Moher are one of Ireland's biggest natural attractions so we were not surprised to see a full parking lot and people everywhere. We didn't have a lot of time if we were going to still get dinner and make it to Dublin at a reasonable time, so we quickly perused the gift shop and visitor centre, then headed up the walkway to the cliffs. It was amazing what a difference it made to see the cliffs under the shade of clouds compared to 15 minutes later when the sun made an appearance. They were certainly impressive and we wished we could have had more time to walk along the top ledge, but we'll have to add that to our list of things to explore when we go back someday. :)
Day 6 in Ireland:
We spent two nights in Dublin so that we could have at least one full day there. We found an AirBnB apartment across the street from the Phoenix Park which is home to the Dublin Zoo, so we decided to spend the morning there. We later learned that Phoenix Park is the biggest metropolitan park in all of Europe and later in the day we drove through part of it in search of a playground only to discover that it is several miles long and is not meant as a shortcut to get across town. Oh, and we didn't find the playground. But Monday morning we only got a glimpse of the park before heading into the zoo. We got there right at opening time and got to see the zoo keepers feed several of the animals their breakfasts. The lions were making lots of noise in anticipation for food, and the orangutans, having just been let out of their nighttime enclosures, quickly made their way up the tree structures and played above our heads on the ropes over the pedestrian path. Overall, we were quite impressed by the space and enclosures provided the animals and by the variety of animals we were exposed to. And of course, Emmett loved it all.
After a lunch at the zoo, I hurried back to our apartment to nap with Emmett - both of us had been lacking sleep all week - and I wasn't super interested in paying to tour the Guinness Storehouse (one of the biggest Dublin attractions, apparently) with Spencer and my mom when I couldn't even try the beer (when will all beer be gluten free??). So Spencer and my mom came back with stories about the dramatic tour they went on and about the lessons that were provided on how to properly pour a Guinness. It seemed they had a good time.
For dinner, Spencer googled what turned out to be an exceptional choice of restaurants. We ate at the Brazen Head pub, which also happens to be Ireland's oldest pub. For an appetizer, we shared an order of mussels cooked in a white wine sauce. For entrees, I had a delicious chowder, my mom had some traditional bacon (it looked like ham to me) with potatoes and cabbage and veggies, and Spencer had an Irish beef stew. The food was phenomenal - Emmett ate everyone's and couldn't get enough. We made it home for another late bedtime and prepared for an early departure back into Heathrow.
I would highly encourage anyone to visit Ireland. We loved it.
So this concludes our time in England. We have been packing, entertaining Emmett, saying goodbye to a few people and trying to use up the food in our cupboards for the past week and we head out of here on Sunday the 7th (happy 6th anniversary, Spencer!!). Spencer will be back for a few more weeks during August and September, but Emmett and I will be back in Colorado preparing for his baby sister's arrival. We have no regrets about coming here and are already talking about potential future adventures.
Things we are looking forward to in Colorado:
- seeing Bodie (our dog)
- friends & family
- a normal sized refrigerator
- our beds!!
- having a large yard and garden space for Emmett to play
- a separate washing machine and dryer
- easy access to Mexican & Vietnamese food
- our camping equipment & our bikes
- the mountains
Things we will miss in Windsor:
- friends
- the playgrounds (there are real see-saws & merry-go-rounds here!)
- all the daily toddler-friendly activities we could attend
- having a super small apartment to clean (& minimalistic living in general)
- daily runs up to and around a 1000 year old castle
- feeding swans (& geese & ducks) on the Thames River
- taking the trains to get around
- being able to walk EVERYwhere we needed to go
We feel inspired and grateful to be have had this life changing adventure. Thanks for keeping up with us!
Cheers!
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| The "ice creams" were COLD! |
Emmett & Oscar
Before Ireland, Emmett and I spent nearly every weekday that we didn't have visitors with Emmett's friend Oscar. They played on various playgrounds, picnicked, ran through fountains, sang and danced, and scooted all over Windsor together. Saying goodbye before our trip to Ireland was bittersweet - we truly hope Oscar's family and his au pair, Beatriz, have a chance to visit us sometime in Colorado and that we can visit them in their homes either here in England or in Barcelona, Spain. Oscar and his family left while we were in Ireland to spend their month-long summer break in Spain with their families.
The Ascot Races with Emmy & Sam
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| The horses passed by quickly! |
More Visitors, A Race & A Musical
The next visitor was my friend Samantha who I know from UW-Madison. Sam stayed with us for 2 nights and introduced us to a couple of her British friends whom she works/worked with at a British international school in Vietnam. It was fun to be with such energetic and thoughtful people! Again, Emmett loved Samantha and her friends because they allowed him to take center-stage for a lot of the time we were together. I wish we had taken a photo of all of us together!
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| Team J2 competing in the Great Relay Race at the Queen's Olympic Stadium |
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| On our way to see Book of Mormon! |
IRELAND!
On Tuesday the 19th of July, the four of us headed to Heathrow airport with a carry-on each for our bucket-list trip to Ireland! We arrived in Dublin a few hours later, rented a car, and spent the night there before starting our first full-day journey on Wednesday morning. We spent 6 full days in Ireland, all of which provided glimpses at gorgeous landscapes and allowed us to delight in tasty food (and for Spencer and my Mom - beer). I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to eat gluten free - not like my experiences in England and in other parts of Europe. And we are grateful to Spencer's colleague, Daragh, a native Irishman, who gave us a list of recommended highlights to visit along the journey - we wouldn't have seen nearly the same sites if it weren't for his input!
Here is a map that marks all of the highlights we visited for each of the 6 full days (I had fun putting that together!). And I encourage you to look at the July photo album, too, though the camera couldn't capture Ireland's beauty.
Day 1 in Ireland:
We left Dublin a little later than planned due to a late breakfast and a lost Spencer (he ran out of phone battery on his way back from the grocery store so it took him an hour to find our flat... but he found it!!). We headed from Dublin via the Wicklow Mountains National Park to an area called Glenndalough. The visitor centre there was a perfect place for a quick picnic lunch and a chance to stretch our legs as we explored the monastery and river walk. Apparently it is the site of many pilgrimages (buddhists especially) due to the energy released from the surroundings. We wished we had more time to explore.
After Knockanore we headed through Cork (where we stopped at a grocery store for a late makeshift dinner) and found our lodging for the next 4 nights - an AirBnB cottage located just outside the town of Bantry. We had a view of the Bantry Bay and on clear days we could see across the bay to the peninsula. The cottage was beautiful; spacious, with toys for Emmett, and very private and cozy. We felt at home for the four nights we stayed there.
Day 2 in Ireland:
The forecast for our second day in Ireland looked slightly gloomy - rain and fog all morning. So we had a much-needed lazy, relaxing morning at the cottage (Mom, Emmett and Spencer ate fresh scones that had been left by the hosts!) then packed into our car midmorning and headed to our neighboring Beara Peninsula for a self-led driving tour along the coast to the tip and back. Emmett slept quite a bit of the drive, as he was sick and not sleeping enough due to the travel. We didn't have quite the vistas we probably would have given less fog, but we certainly enjoyed the green, peaceful, magical surroundings and the colorful small towns that we drove through.
We got to the tip of the peninsula which is home to Ireland's only cable car. The cable car carries its passengers to the island across the way called Dursey, which according to our sources has cool hiking paths and a village but not much else. We didn't cross over to the island but we enjoyed climbing the rocks, watching for dolphins, and feeling the wind in our hair at the site of the cable car. The rain had cleared by then and we started back east on the northern side of the peninsula. The views were spectacular, especially when the sun peaked out from behind the clouds.
Our favorite part of the day was crossing over the Healy Pass that led us back to the southern side of the peninsula. The narrow, windy road led up and over green mountains, speckled with sheep. We drove through trees and forests, then around grass covered rocks, along streams and waterfalls and finally had glimpses of the sparkling ocean again. The drive took longer than we had budgeted for time wise, so we hurried home and had a quick spaghetti dinner before crashing and sleeping hard.
Day 3 in Ireland:
We had promised Emmett that he could throw rocks in the ocean (his favorite thing to do while traveling these days) all the way back on Tuesday en route to Dublin. Friday morning - our third full day in Ireland - we finally fulfilled that promise. After breakfast we drove toward Glengarriff, a town just northwest of Bantry, searching out a cove with a rocky beach. Spencer spotted a good stopping point and we piled out of the car down a small slope, to a manmade sand beach with rocks along the beach and ocean floor for as far as one could see. We arrived at low tide so we had even more access to rocks. Emmett was in heaven. He found a broken sand pail that had been left behind by someone else, Grandma helped him find a good flat rock that he could use as a shovel, and he went to work digging in the sand. In the meantime, Spencer found some excellent skipping rocks and commenced to show off his exceptional rock-skipping skills. Emmett was intrigued and soon joined in at rock throwing. We had only planned on staying for 20 or 30 minutes, but ended up spending the whole morning at the cove. Another little girl and her mother joined at the beach with a proper shovel and bucket, and Emmett was excited to have someone to build towers with. Kelly (who was around 6) was very patient with Emmett, even when he destroyed the towers that she had decorated with seashells. Overall, this was probably Emmett's favorite morning of the entire trip.
We went back to the cottage for nap time, hoping that Emmett would catch up a bit on his missing sleep (and be in a better mood that evening). I stayed with him while Spencer and my mom explored a market and pub in Bantry. After Emmett awoke, we headed back to Glengarriff where we boarded the last ferry taking people to Garnish Island, a small island converted into a giant garden. From the windows of the boat we saw seals, eagles & nests, castles and large homes. The gardens were spectacular and we loved letting Emmett run (mostly) free. We only had an hour on the island before the last ferry back, so we were quick about our self-guided tour, but thoroughly enjoyed everything we did see. We had dinner in Bantry - delicious locally caught fish with mashed potatoes and veggies. Yum.Day 4 in Ireland:
Day 5 in Ireland:
Day 6 in Ireland:
After a lunch at the zoo, I hurried back to our apartment to nap with Emmett - both of us had been lacking sleep all week - and I wasn't super interested in paying to tour the Guinness Storehouse (one of the biggest Dublin attractions, apparently) with Spencer and my mom when I couldn't even try the beer (when will all beer be gluten free??). So Spencer and my mom came back with stories about the dramatic tour they went on and about the lessons that were provided on how to properly pour a Guinness. It seemed they had a good time.
For dinner, Spencer googled what turned out to be an exceptional choice of restaurants. We ate at the Brazen Head pub, which also happens to be Ireland's oldest pub. For an appetizer, we shared an order of mussels cooked in a white wine sauce. For entrees, I had a delicious chowder, my mom had some traditional bacon (it looked like ham to me) with potatoes and cabbage and veggies, and Spencer had an Irish beef stew. The food was phenomenal - Emmett ate everyone's and couldn't get enough. We made it home for another late bedtime and prepared for an early departure back into Heathrow.I would highly encourage anyone to visit Ireland. We loved it.
So this concludes our time in England. We have been packing, entertaining Emmett, saying goodbye to a few people and trying to use up the food in our cupboards for the past week and we head out of here on Sunday the 7th (happy 6th anniversary, Spencer!!). Spencer will be back for a few more weeks during August and September, but Emmett and I will be back in Colorado preparing for his baby sister's arrival. We have no regrets about coming here and are already talking about potential future adventures.
Things we are looking forward to in Colorado:
- seeing Bodie (our dog)
- friends & family
- a normal sized refrigerator
- our beds!!
- having a large yard and garden space for Emmett to play
- a separate washing machine and dryer
- easy access to Mexican & Vietnamese food
- our camping equipment & our bikes
- the mountains
Things we will miss in Windsor:
- friends
- the playgrounds (there are real see-saws & merry-go-rounds here!)
- all the daily toddler-friendly activities we could attend
- having a super small apartment to clean (& minimalistic living in general)
- daily runs up to and around a 1000 year old castle
- feeding swans (& geese & ducks) on the Thames River
- taking the trains to get around
- being able to walk EVERYwhere we needed to go
We feel inspired and grateful to be have had this life changing adventure. Thanks for keeping up with us!
Cheers!
