We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Today was such a success and also an unexpected second chance. Before I talk about today's activities, I guess I should talk about last night festivities first. We did not go to the Matchmaker Bar, so I'm sorry to report that neither Amy, Dearsley, or I will be returning to Charlotte with an Irish farmer.  We went into "downtown" Doolin, which is the small town we're staying in.  Our cabbie Tony recommended dinner, drinks, and music at McGann's pub.  That's exactly what we did and it was a blast. The food was good, the music was awesome and authentic, the drinks were plentiful, and we met a lot of nice people.  My friends were disappointed that there were more Americans in that pub that any other place we had been so far.  Anyway, it was a great night and we bought a couple of cd's to put on our iPods.  We also may or may not have drunk Skyped a few friends back in the states When we got home (sorry)! This morning when I woke up, the first thing I noticed was small patch of sun, and that has been rare during this trip.  That gave me hope for the day ahead.  We met up with the lady who owns the house we're renting, Ann O' Callahan.  Ann's family also owns a castle right down the road so she gave us a private tour.  It's called Balinaecken Castle, and it isn't open to the public.  It was so cool to be able to explore and climb up the small spiral stairs and look at at the top to see all the land and the ocean around us.  We got some fantastic pictures and pretended to be princesses in our own castle.  It was fun to be a kid again and explore. After the castle tour, we went back to Ann's farm because she had to bottle feed a new calf named Jake.  There were a couple funny things about this to me, 1. The fact that she put his milk in a wine bottle so it looked like Jake was enjoying a nice house red, 2. The fact that my friends were a lot more intrigued with the idea of feed a calf than I was.  Jake was more like a pet than a farm animal and he followed us around and just wanted to be petted.  It struck me as funny that I was standing in the middle of a cow pasture and wearing a Kansas Jayhawks shirt in Ireland, but I could've been doing the exact same thing back in Kansas.  Sometimes when I'm having a new experience, I think like the Wizard of Oz, we're not in Kansas anymore, but this time I could've been! Today's second chance involves returning to the Cliffs of Moher that we attempted to see yesterday.  Today's weather was fantastic so we went back and parked farther away and walked up and hiked at least a couple miles.  It was so worth it!  The views are majestic and pictures and video shot on my iPad can't truly do it justice.  When we were leaving we even saw blue sky, which is the first time that has happened during our trip.  Just a little bit of blue sky made the sights all the more amazing and impressive.  We climbed to the top of a castle and to the top of the Cliffs of Moher all in one day...awesome.  Now we're finishing out the day at McDermotts pub for some dinner and live music.  This trip is so great.  Off to Northern Ireland tomorrow!