Continuing on our Irish adventure...

Day 5:

En route from Dingle to Kenmare, we made our way to Killarney National Park.

One of the many beautiful stone bridges that I got to admire from the passenger seat

Inch Beach

Saint Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

I booked us a tour that would take us the through the Gap of Dunloe and across several lakes, finishing at a 15th century castle. The Gap of Dunloe is 7 miles long, and you have the option to hike it or take a jaunting car through it. What in the world is a jaunting car? Well, initially I thought it looked like just a typical horse and carriage, but it turned out to be a little bit more adventurous than that. The car itself is two-wheeled, and the driver stands at the back of it with the reins pretty much in your face the whole time as you bounce around behind a frequently galloping horse. Consequently, picture-taking was a challenge when we were moving, but we managed a few.

TJ loved it and was really happy the whole hour and a half we spent on the jaunting car, so bonus points go to this activity!

At one point the hill was too steep for us all to be in the car. I'm sure Susie, our horse, was happy to be rid of her heavy burden for a while. Our driver offered to let TJ and I stay in while the rest of our crew hiked up the hill, but I strapped him on my back and joined in on the fun.

So when Thomas has the camera, his favorite thing to do is take pictures of me when I am not actually posing for a picture. Aw, that sounds cute, right? No, no. These aren't sweet little candids. I'm usually looking extra disheveled and making a really unattractive face, which he subsequently gets a good laugh out of. This one wasn't too bad since I'm actually smiling. I won't be sharing the others from this trip though!

We made it through the Gap of Dunloe to Lord Brandon's Cottage, where we had a couple of hours to wander around and have lunch before our boat tour departed. I have no idea who Lord Brandon is, but the area around here was fun to explore.

Oh, and TJ loved meeting the sheep dogs!

TJ did a lot of walking and exploring! We tried to get a family picture below and, as you can see, TJ was not into it. Unfortunately, this is a foreshadowing of what we would soon experience on the boat.

This was TJ as soon as we put the life jacket on him, and pretty much the whole hour and a half boat ride. At least we were the furthest away from the driver so the rest of the tourists could actually hear the commentary. I'm sure they felt so lucky to be in our boat! He was so upset he wouldn't even eat a piece of cheese--and I had never seen him turn down a piece of cheese before.

The only time he wasn't crying was when he was sitting at the bow. Thank goodness we found something to pacify him finally. What's better than boating with Grandpa, right?

At the end of what felt like a three hour tour, the weather started getting rough. Okay, just the waves, but we knew it was going to be bad when the driver asked us all to move to the back of the boat. Ironically, as we were getting pelted with water and tossed around amongst the white caps, the lurching motion of the boat finally lulled TJ to sleep. This was the most peaceful 15 minutes of the whole boat trip for me.

Finally we made it to Ross Castle, and we were all more than happy to disembark.

Oh look, the tour's over. All smiles now. Episode #2 of "Tour Interruptions by Theodore" is complete.

And here's a pretty epic shot of TJ about to face plant, saved at the last minute. Dad to the rescue! It was a pretty adventurous day. I think we all loved the jaunting car, but none of us would choose to relive the boating experience. After a brief stroll through the grounds of Ross Castle, we were shuttled back to our car in Killarney and off to our next Airbnb in Kenmare.

Day 6: The Ring of Beara

I chose for us to stay in charming Kenmare instead of the more tourist-ridden town of Killarney, and it did not let me down! More on Kenmare later though. But one great thing about Kenmare's location is that it is actually on two different "ring roads"--the popular Ring of Kerry and the lesser-known Ring of Beara. Our Airbnb host recommended the Ring of Beara over the Ring of Kerry. Since the Ring of Beara is also smaller than the Ring of Kerry, the decision to tackle this one over the Ring of Kerry was unanimous. So on Day 6, we drove the loop around the Beara Peninsula. I'm sure the Ring of Kerry is beautiful, but it's hard for me to imagine it being any better than the Ring of Beara. I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but as with any scenic drive, almost every corner seemed to be straight out of a postcard. At some point you've got to put the camera down and just live in it. So anyway, here's what I have!

We stopped in the cute little town of Glengarriff for lunch.

And then made our way to the cliffs of Lambs Head.

Here we got out to do a little bit of hiking.

We were rewarded with some pretty breathtaking views here! We hiked around for just about 30 minutes before we had to get back in the car in order to finish the ring before dinnertime.

We got out of the car one last time to walk along this beautiful beach.

And then took a very interesting route back to our apartment. Instead of continuing on the coastal outer loop, the GPS took us up this crazy mountain pass. We kept seeing these weird stone structures with smokestacks, which we eventually learned were old copper mines.

The initial feelings of exhilaration started to wear off for me as I wondered what would happen if we ever came across another car coming toward us on this narrow road. There was absolutely no place to pull to the side of the road, as far as my eye could see. Then, right as I am having this thought, we pass a rather large animal skeleton on the side of the road, and I'm starting to get really eager to be done with this scene of The Land Before Time. But then this happens...

We came upon a deserted camper van. It was stopped in the middle of the road, with no sign of driver or passenger, and no way of getting around the van. The thought of reversing back through those winding narrow roads with no shoulders and abounding drop-offs, for who knows how long, made me more than uncomfortable. Fortunately, the people came back after a few minutes. The road turned to gravel here and apparently they had walked ahead to see if they should continue driving on...as if there was a better option? They must have never driven on a gravel road before in their lives, because they also drove insanely slow the entire time, and of course we were stuck behind them with no way in heck to pass. But hey, I guess it gave us plenty of time to take in the views from up here.

The Ring of Beara was absolutely gorgeous. From rolling green pastures dotted with sheep, to majestic cliffs and sandy beaches, there was no shortage of beauty here. As a bonus, there are no tour buses allowed on the Ring of Beara, as the roads are too narrow. We practically had all of these stops to ourselves. The driving was a little hairy at times. (The Road to Hana came to all of our minds). But luckily, between Thomas and Paul, we had some confident drivers who got us through it. It was a long day, but a great one. More to come though, as we still have a few more days left on our great adventure through the Emerald Isle!