Sunday morning, we arose at 6:00 for a shower and clean-up; disaster, as the hot water didn’t start to come on until after 7:00! Deb managed to wash her hair by bending over the tub and rinsing with ice cold water. Not a great way to start the day, but quite an eye-opener. Luckily, mark had showered the night before. We departed Bainbridge without our beloved morning breakfast and were out the door, loaded and driving away by 7:40. It was a grey but dry morning and a great day for a drive. We headed east to Leyburn and then southeast towards Leeds and our eventual flight. We arrived at the Leeds Bradford airport car rental agency. The car rental center did not open until 11:30, we were forced to lock up the car and drop the key in the key drop box, hoping for the best. In the terminal we finally tracked down Mark’s traveling bag, although its interior was a bit disheveled from its sojourn (and probable search) all was in place. We rechecked all three bags, plus Deb’s carry-on, which was too big for this plane’s requirements, and settled in for a breakfast in the lounge.
The flight was loaded by noon, and we departed promptly at 12:30 for the trip back over the Irish Sea. The flight was uneventful and we landed in Dublin at 1:30 to reclaim our bags. All were accounted for this time, although if Mark’s bag had gone missing on a single destination flight with no stops, we would have been extremely suspicious. After baggage collection, we wheeled our four cases over to the SIXT Car Rental counter to pick up our reserved car. As the cute young attendant, Emma, returned Mark’s driver’s license, she helpfully noted that the next time he came to drive in Ireland, he would need a doctor’s certificate stating he was competent to drive, as he would then be over the age of 76. Evidently, in Ireland, after you achieve 60 years of driving time, one must then have an outside opinion on skill. We collected our vehicle, this time a Renault, loaded up the bags, and set out towards Tubbercurry. The drive was nearly three hours once we had cleared the Dublin airport snarl with only one or two wrong turns in the maze of freeways. It was a pleasant enough drive, but as we were restricted to google maps on the car screen we never felt like we had any idea of our location
As the European time zones returned to standard time from daylight savings time last night, it became dark around 5:00 and so slowed us a bit. We arrived in Tubbercurry at our lodgings, Murphy’s Hotel, at 6:30. We checked in, hauled our bags up the extremely slow lift, and then back down to the restaurant to meet Zoë. Hugs all around and then she drove us the 4 minutes to their home. Hugs and screams from the children, Iris, Esmè and Arthur and a firm hug from Garth upon arrival.
Garth had prepared a roasted chicken with roast potatoes and carrots for dinner and we soon tucked in for a proper meal; this was of course after distribution of some swag for the kids! The meal was delicious and after putting the children down, we enjoyed some wine and conversation. Zoë retuned us to our hotel around 10:00 and we fell into bed (twin beds as it turned out) for the evening. It had been a long, tiring day but seeing the Highland Family (the whole reason for this trip) erased all our tiredness.
We slept in a log-like state until nearly 8:00 the next morning. We went down to the restaurant for our included full Irish breakfast of sausage, bacon, beans, fried eggs, white and black puddings, and coffee. The sausage was not as tasty as the ones we had enjoyed last week, but still very enjoyable. We then drove over to Highland's for the days adventures. We went for a Forest Walk at a nearby “forest,” this being a planted multi-acre ash and oak grove being reclaimed from bog ground. It was raining, off and on, but we were prepared.
Trails are graveled through the forest and the kids are well versed in the area, pointing out where the fairies live, where the donkeys usually live (though not present today) and showing Dad the mushrooms and fungus. It was raining off and on, the girls were all decked out in their wellies and raincoats, and Arthur in his wellies and rain suit, or “trash bag” as Garth calls it. We stomped through puddles, Deb told off color kids’ poo jokes, Garth and the dog Blue explored a little deeper into the woods. We ambled for about two hours, wearing down the children’s energy and draining the old folks.
Returning home, Garth had prepared some meatballs (his first attempt) so set those in the oven to cook and brown while he prepared red sauce with mushrooms. Zoë prepared the spaghetti, garlic bread and a salad, we opened a bottle of wine and had a wonderfully delicious home cooked meal. Next it was time to carve the pumpkins for tomorrow’s holiday. The carving was a long and complicated task - each child drew on their respective gourds, and then Dad proceeded with sharp knife and steady hand to interpret the drawings. Mark handled cleaning out the “guts” and Zoë helpfully located some matches to light the candles for a test run.
The kids finally went down a little after 8:00 and the adults finished the wine and talked for a bit. We headed back to Murphy’s and were in bed by. 9:45, a bit exhausted but happy.
