Irish Coastal Getaway

What a beautiful weekend we had in Ireland!  As you know, we were in Schull - to get there, you fly to Cork and take a bus (or three, ahem) south to the coast.  We stayed in Jon's family's cottage, which was cosy and homey and absolutely lovely.

We didn't arrive until late afternoon on Thursday, so spent a while settling in before heading to the house of a friend of Jon's family for drinks.  She was an absolute hoot and loved telling me all about the history of the area in her amazing accent.  (Did you know that the southwest coast of Ireland was home to a legendary pirate family named the O'Driscolls?  It's true, I'm told.  And the expression "by crook or by hook" apparently comes from having made the transatlantic journey from America into one of two harbors in Ireland without having been caught by the pirates.  Don't check Wikipedia on this, just believe the lady.  It's more fun that way.)

We woke up to a beautifully warm and sunny Friday, and wandered through the harbor and out along the coast for the better part of the day.  Jon took me out for a pub dinner that night, where we tried local seafood and Murphy's, which is the famous stout from Cork.  Saturday afternoon found us back in the pub to watch two 6 Nations rugby matches, and we had a quiet night in to finish up the holiday.

I took lots of photos from our gorgeous walk, of course.  Here are a few favorites; enjoy!

I hope that you all had a beautiful weekend, too, dear readers, wherever you were!  And now into March...