The Dingle Pennisula/Killarney

The next day, my mom decided to veg out at the hotel for the day while Mel took me and my dad for a drive around the Dingle Peninsula. It is a part of the Ring of Kerry, which is the landscape that everyone thinks of when they think of Ireland.

Our first stop was the beach! I love the beach, but this was a very different beach than the ones that I'm used to. For one, the tide was WAY out. For 2, there were mountains surrounding it. And three, it was COLD. 

Me & Dad on the beach

Along our drive, we encountered more sheep. I told you, I saw enough of them to last me a lifetime. This time, the little guy decided he wanted to take a break in the middle of the road. I have video (coming later once I get it from my mom's video camera) of Mel yelling at the sheep and telling it that it's a disgrace, pretty hysterical.

We stopped at a few "photo ops" along the way. This is known as Conor Pass - Wikipedia describes it like this "its the highest mountain pass in Ireland, a tight, precarious road, weaving its way around the sharp cliff faces and past the high corrie lakes." And it was no joke, I'm really glad we had someone driving who knew where they were going, and about driving on the other side of the road.

Because of the mountains, and the amount of rainfall they've had this year, there were actually a pretty good amount of 'waterfalls' along the road.

Dad, with the valley behind him.

After driving along the Ring of Kerry some more, we stopped at the "Beehive Huts." They were thought to have been built in 2,000 BC - pretty crazy. While we were there, we actually got to watch some archeological dig they were doing.

The entrance to the hut - they were small people

Can you imagine a family living in one of these?

My dad and I with the Beehive hut

After visiting the huts, we drove around the tip of the coast, and then back through the town of Dingle. We stopped there to grab some lunch and then headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we picked my mom up and then headed into the town of Killarney for some walking around and shopping.

Downtown Killarney

After the shopping spree, we still had some time to kill before Mel picked us up, so we stopped into a pub for some tea (for me and Mom) and a pint for Dad.

There was a Notre Dame fan there, who tried to tell my dad it was "rude of Navy to score 10 points." To which my dad replied it was "rude of Notre Dame to not take a knee with a minute left, and run up the score on Navy." And then the guy fell silent...awkward. I think the little old Irish man sitting in between them felt the tension, so he told a joke. One that no one understood or got the punchline, but we all laughed when he did to be polite.

Mom & I at the Pub

Dad with his pint

After our town excursion, we came back to the hotel, ate dinner and then re-packed our suitcases cause we were leaving Killarney the next day for Galway.

Sunset from my room

 And the visiual of the day's drive...