As Dave and I prepare for our imminent family vacation to EGYPT,
we took a little time to think back to a previous family vacation—in many ways
the trip that ushered in the "modern family vacation era" as we know and love today.
The destination: IRELAND.
The year: 2008.
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2008 Dave poses
at the Dublin airport. It was raining
when we arrived—something that turned out to be a major theme of our trip.
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The two main purposes of this trip were to visit our cousins
Anne and Fiona, who live right outside of Dublin, and to spend a week biking in
County Kerry.
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Anna and Fiona Gannon at their house in Lucan.
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We spent a couple days exploring Dublin before Dave and I
took a trip to the country with Fiona and her crew. Naturally, our first stop involved rock
climbing. We spent the morning at an old
quarry called Dalkey, just a few kilometers from Dublin before venturing south
to the stunning Wicklow Mountains National Park.
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Fiona preparing to CRUSH her first climb.
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| Dalkey Quarry--not a bad spot! |
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| Ray, Dave, Fiona and Antho rocking out in the National Park. |
It was really a pleasure to see Anne and Fiona and get to
know them better. Fiona opened up her
social circle to me and Dave and we got to hang out with a proper Irish gang like we
were locals ourselves.
The next day we returned to the park with Ma and Pa. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the
countryside was the purple heather that blanketed the hills. Below are two photos with examples of classic
Ray/Dave faces.
We ventured further into County Wicklow to the Medieval town of
Glendalough with its ancient monasteries, towers and cemeteries.
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| Glendalough's 1000-year old Round Tower. |
A major highlight of the trip was the cultural scene we encountered in the pubs, which in Ireland serve simultaneously as concert venues, community
centers and social hubs. Below, we
are checking out a local (and inter-generational) band at a pub. It was on this trip that the Brothers shared their first legal
pints…an example of why we refer to this as a “modern family vacation.” :)
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| Nothing like some folk music accompanied by a Guinness. |
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| Here Dave wears Dad's hat in an attempt to look more Irish. |
And then the biking began.
Ours was a 6-day bike trip around the “Ring of Kerry” in the south of
Irleand. We started in Killarney and
made our way south towards the coast, stopping with a rest day on the
spectacular Dingle Peninsula. Since pictures
tell a better story than words, check out this photojournal of our journey:
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| The fam! |
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| Ray's profile...what a charmer. |
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| A famous Brothers Unite pic. Dave wrote this on Facebook when this photo was first published: | |
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| Dave's profile...also a charmer but slightly less so than Ray. |
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| Victorious! After conquering a huge hill. |
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| My favorite rural countryside shot. |
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| Just like the cars had to share the road with us, we sometimes had to share the road...with livestock! |
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| We made it to the coast! |
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| The vertical cliffside as seen from our fishing boat leaving Dingle. |
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| GET THE NETTTTT!!!! Dave scored. We were able to get a restaurant to cook it up for us and we chowed down that evening. |
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| These old homes are easily over 1,000 years old...no big deal. |
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| The sun! It came our for a few hours here, the longest break in the rain the whole trip. |
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| My steed. |
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| Mom reaching the summit of another hill. |
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| Finally! A country where people can pronounce our last name! |
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| The McGaughey family estate in Ireland....I wish. |
What a great trip, Ireland! And let us end with a Brothers Unite video by Killarney Lake. We took this in anticipation of the blog we would create, 4 years in the future.
