Ireland: Howth, Cashel, and Dingle

School's out for the summer!

 Dad and I immediately embraced our freedom with the car and traveled for a few days around Ireland. Our first stop was to Howth for a day hike and some good food. It was good Friday, the most depressing day in Ireland, which meant that alcohol was not allowed to be served. Anywhere. But we tried to fill our day with adventure so that we did not have to think about the fact that we could not get anything to drink at the end of the day.

 This is our pet dead mole.

 Lighthowth.

 Dad's artsy shot of the day.

 The cool beach on the bottom of this cliff which we did not go down to because of the massive amount of stairs we would have had to climb coming up.

 This picture is quite edgy.

 Look at the cute little house built into the side of the cliff! I'm going to move here.

 We stopped off on the side of the road and found a long line to this little place. And obviously we HAD to stand in it for 35 minutes, at least, to get some delicious ice cream treats!

 Right near the ice cream place were some tidepools! This was right before I slipped on a rock and my camera broke my fall...good one, Raquel. The camera is okay but it's cracked a bit on the side. Another reason why crack is not good.

 The next day we traveled to the Rock of Cashel which is a super cool old castle surrounded by more ruins, sheep, and cows.

 Look closely to find the baby sheep feeding from its mom! Also, I had to scale a wall to take this picture.

 Our next adventure was to Dingle! We went here because Murphy's Ice Cream is handmade in Dingle. I had strawberry sorbet and lemon curd. So, I can officially say that I have had dingleberry ice cream. Top that.

 I know I am just too good looking not to stare at, but please avert your eyes to what is behind me. This man has a weird home/cart on wheels, a donkey, a dog, and an accordion. He is pretty obviously homeless but these are the objects that he uses in hopes of filling his jar with money. #what

 Since the Dingle aquarium was too expensive, I found another way to fulfill my need to see penguins whenever possible.

 Further on the Dingle peninsula, the beautiful Slea Head Drive, there were ruins of old Famine Houses which were occupied by people affected by the famine. This is a view from the inside of one of those houses.

 Dad casually discussing the latest news with his goat friend.

  Baby sheep on the side of the road, quick pull over!

This beach area was voted by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It was alright, but the things that we ended up seeing along the way made it one of the coolest.

 So, the actual beach was not that exciting, there were some surfers catching really long breaks and pretty views of the hillside, but dad and I wanted to explore more. So we hopped over this fence and took the path around the cliff. We saw dolphins out on the water during our walk which we thought was amazing!

 But...we turned the corner of this cliff and saw sheep!!!

 I was able to get super close to baby sheep and big sheep and take pictures and hang out, it was so cool! I was in heaven and I didn't think the day could get any better.

 Sheep butt.

 So we started to head back when a group of people asked us if we had seen the sharks...and sure enough, two coves over there were two sharks swimming super close to the rocks. So we quickly bolted over to get a closer look. There were two 16 foot long basking sharks only twenty feet below us. They were circling which means they were probably in the middle of a mating ritual. But we sat around for three hours just watching these sharks chill in the cove. It was absolutely amazing and made the day just unbelievable.

 They are filter feeders which means they take in krill mostly and have these gills that filter all the stuff they don't want.

 The shark got aggravated by the kayakers who were approaching, and he's slashing his tail in this picture, pretty cool!

 He actually got out of the water because he felt threatened by this kayaker. And it was pretty scary knowing that this shark was longer than this kayak and could definitely tip it. But basking sharks don't eat people and usually aren't aggressive like this.

 The two lovely Ireland native we sat with, Padraig and Fiona, had a dog named Poppy who was just the sweetest thing and made sure to lick my whole face, glasses and all.

 The baby sheep: "Huh?"

 Padraig, Fiona, and Poppy.

Ireland: Wicklow and Glendalough

So I found this man on a golf course, he looks just like my dad!!! Oh wait, he is! My dad's here! This is the beginning of a great adventure for us. I have only three more days of school left. Two finals and one more paper. But I'm trying to balance studying and spending time with my dad and my godfather, Uncle Bernie. Out of the two options I'm very biased, but I am making sure I ace this next final. Yesterday, we drove the car down to Wicklow and stopped off at a golf course that ended up having cliff trails hugging the coast and along the course! It was so gorgeous and of course dad and I ventured off into coves and crevasses that needed to be explored. We found some cool stuff, too!

 The course! And thank you to the California love for sending blue skies and warm weather our way. I didn't even have to wear a jacket here!

 Dad started scaling this side of the cliffs and shortly after, I followed. Later we realized there was a pathway going up. But rocks are more fun anyway.

 Uncle Bernie! This was one of many little beaches/coves that we found while exploring along the coast.

 Crabgrass.

 Father with two of many golf balls we found in the rough rough (that's when you golf so badly you miss the rough).

 This is the little cove that dad climbed down to and ended up having the best treasure of the day!

 The layers of rock beneath me were pretty cool. There was a lot of precarious standing on edges of cliffs...

 So dad found this golf ball that had been sanded down by the ocean, and eventually became completely smooth! It has almost a chalky feeling to it. As he was trying to throw it up to me, it got stuck in the green of the cliff and when he retrieved it, the green had left an "Irish kiss"! If you look closely, there are a pair of green lips on the ball!

 This seal was checking us out for a good ten minutes, he didn't even go down! He just stayed there watching us!

 Dad and Uncle Bernie!

 On our way out of the golf course, we saw signs for a castle ruin, we had to go check it out of course. And I had to scale it, because what says on the Rocky more than me on rocks?!

 This photography credit goes to my talented father.

 We found a puppy named Rudy, she was so cute and playful! But let's be honest, who was the real puppy...

 Probably me...

 We found Glendalough and explored for a bit before the sun went down! There was a huge graveyard and then paths to a lake and other scenery. Dad and I are going to go back to explore the lake region but we didn't have enough time yesterday.

 This weird pheasant, rooster, chicken-like animal was spotted earlier by Uncle Bernie and dad, and once again yesterday. If anyone knows what it is, please let us know! Because trying to describe that by typing it into Google just doesn't work.

 Baby sheep!!!! We had to stop on the road to see them of course.

 This old mining part of Glendalough was pretty strange compared to the rest of the scenery I've seen throughout Ireland. I felt like I was on a different planet.

 Dad on the rocks!

 More sheep in the distance.

 Uncle Bernie and I on a bridge! Dad took this on the rocks in the middle of the river...thanks for not dropping the camera!

 Sheep that were too eager to see me. They were so intrigued by the clicking of my shutter on my camera. But they were adorable and I thanked them for letting me take pictures of them.

 Sheepies with a moon in the back!

 Overlooking the valley.