The Martin-Lawrence Wedding

We edited them down to these… they’re all on our happy marriage site!

http://martinlawrencewedding.com/album

Scroll through and enjoy.

So it’s been a couple days since I’ve posted, mostly because the last couple evenings we’ve been really tired when we get back to the B&B, and because I can usually find better ways to occupy my time before I go to sleep.

We’ve seen Maggie finally pet her sheep, at a ring fort.  She also got butted by a sheep at the very same fort.  Repeatedly.

Further up the coast we stopped in a restored windmill.  Apparently the EU decided to make the shell fully functional once again.  It was pretty neat, but the stairs are not for the faint of heart, as they were the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen (at least 60 degrees).  But the signs do helpfully suggest to use the handrails.

The Cliffs of Moher were worth the 8 Euro we paid to park.  Plus the gift shop was actually a decent value, by giftshop standards.  We saw a couple morons laying down on the edge, looking over a long drop.

In a small coffee shop/gallery, we had a long chat with a girl from New Jersey who lives here now.  She’d been here off and on for years, and is now engaged to a local.  She was very interesting.  Also, she’s starting to pick up the accent.

The Pulnabrone Dolmen is a stone table built out in the most barren land I’ve ever seen.  “Rocky” doesn’t even begin to cover what this place looks like.

Picture the moon.  Now picture the moon with a little grass here and there.  That’s this place.  It’s so desolate there weren’t even sheep placed randomly about.

The table was interesting, but all the pictures suggest it’s bigger.  You can’t touch it anymore, because somebody decided to ruin it for everyone.

We finally made our way into Galway, where I ate a kangaroo burger.  Not bad, but I probably won’t have it again.  Tasted like deer.

Today we hopefully play in a peat bog.  And very hopefully we won’t be swallowed up to become an artifact exhaumed several thousand years from now.  Though it has happened.

But those were “sacrifices”, right?

Right?

Anyone?

We drove around the Ring of Kerry, and it’s sub-ring, the Skelling Ring.  There is a great chocolate factory on the Skelling Ring that has oodles of free samples, and then also will happily sell you the same chocolate.

Along the way we saw a sheep caught in a fence, but by the time we pulled over to help he had freed himself.

Went to another stone circle, and some stone ring forts.  There’s no mortar used in the forts, which is somewhere between awesome and puzzling.  If it took them so long to make the forts (at least 6 months) and they also had to haul some of the rocks 14 miles or more, why not just pick up a few bags of mortar?

You can also climb on the walls of the stone rings, which is kind of scary because there are no handrails.  Another corner cut, I presume.

Maggie petted a cow.  It took her a few minutes to work up her nerve, since Irish cows are well-known for their unpredictable mood swings.  The first one wandered off, but pictures were taken of the second recieving pets.

I petted a kitty and cat dog too.  We’re both brave.

Yesterday we drove from Kinsale to Kenmare.  Along the way we stopped at a few places, including a stone ring dating back at least 75 years to the time of the druids. We also drove through tunnels dynamited out of the mountains, presumably by the same druids who needed the rocks for the circle.

Mags also talked to a cow for a while.  They don’t have interesting lives.

But by far the best thing we did was try and touch some sheep.

Now we could have just tried to pet the sheep by the side of the road, which we did.  These sheep aren’t very friendly, probably because when they went up to a farmer for some pets he shot them with a paintball gun.

So we went for the mountain sheep.  Pulling over on a narrow road, we bravely risked life and limb to climb a steep mountain.  Avoiding rocks, mud and sheep poop we made our way to the top.

The farmer had beat us to it, though.  All the sheep had been paintballed.  And they bravely snuck away before we could get to the top.

I did step into what could only have been quicksand.  Or mud.  But I’m lucky to be alive regardless.

Today we’re heading out for another stone circle, and the Ring of Kerry.  That may be where the friendly sheep live.

Spent the night in Kinsale last evening.  Went on an amusing Ghost Tour of the town, hearing about the historical things.

In Cobh, we made the mistake of petting a dog outside a barbershop, who then followed us around for the next hour.  There’s also a great display there dealing with the shipping that was once so important to the area.

I have pictures of Maggie in front of memorials to the Lusitania and Titanic, but we’re still having trouble uploading them.

Today we’re skipping the Blarney stone and instead heading towards Kilarney.  If they can’t rub Purell on the rock then forget them.

On another note, the worst part of driving on the left is you tend to forget to do so when turning onto another street.  This always fails to impress the locals for some reason.

Day before yesterday took us to Kilkenny.  We went to Kilkenny castle, but it wasn’t too impressive due to the modernizations made to the building (people lived in it until the 1970s.)  Still, it was big.  Must cost a fortune to heat.

Gotta run.

We’re in the final stretch, and looking forward to Saturday!  Hoping to see everyone who responded!

A few things to remember:

• The wedding starts at 1:30.
• There isn’t a receiving line after the wedding.  This is so others can go to confession.
• Phil isn’t Catholic, so this will not be a full Mass (no Communion).
• No rice is to be thrown at the church.  Especially at people going to confession.
• The reception starts at 4:00, but you can show up early.
• People who come to the reception early (after 3:00) can look forward to Salsa dancing!  Really!
• We’re not keeping score; because it’s about “having fun”, not “who won.”

See you there!