Thru Ron's Digital Lens

Gallagher's Seafood Restaurant Murphy's Ice Cream Shop John Benny's Pub Music Session Tommy O'Sullivan, Eilis Kennedy, John Benny Spending ten days in Ireland, the majority on the Dingle Peninsula, we have gathered some thoughts on the Irish dining experience. First, let us say that the pervasive impression that Irish food does not equate well with other culture's offerings just didn't hold true for us. We found that our dining experience was very enjoyable over all. Ron made it his personal quest to identify the best bowl of Seafood Chowder available on the Peninsula. After many tastings over the 10 days, his number one choice was the chowder at John Benny's Pub , followed very closely by the offering at Ash's Pub . Ann was up to her challenge of identifying the best slice of Irish Brown Bread . (Always served with soup and breakfast) Her favorite was served at a small pub in Ballyferriter. She claims her decision was based on their bread's swee

Bunnraty Castle Near Shannon Airport Leaving On Aer Lingus Flt 125 Hi to everyone. We got home without incident yesterday about 6:30 pm. Anne picked us up and we went to their house to share some goodies from Ireland with the boys. I'm sure we have never been away from our grandsons for this long. Anne had a nice dinner ready for us. Got to bed about 9:00 pm and then woke up about 3:00 am (jet lag, time shift). We laid in bed until a more reasonable time of 5:30. Our cat was all over us during the night, not at all happy that we had left her for 11 days. Of course we are now back in reality! We have 12" of snow on the ground and I am heading out for work in just a bit. Ann leaves for Oregon tomorrow around noon. (Ann's plane was canceled due to weather, so she didn't get away until the next morning.) However, we are already thinking about how we can go back to the Dingle area and perhaps set up a seasonal business. More information to come. I will be working very har

Farmers Work With Their Dog Finnbar , Tommy And Others The Traveling Trio On Their Last Day Well here we are on our last day in Dingle. We will be leaving soon to drive over to the Shannon area so that we can leave in the morning about 11:00 am. Yesterday was another wonderful day, made more so by the first full day of no rain and mostly sunny weather. We went to church at St. James Church which is the local Church Of Ireland church in Dingle. A small group, only the vicker and 6 others besides ourselves. It is a great little church, very simple but just what you would expect in Dingle. This church hosts music concerts 3 times a week during the summer. With the Sun out we took a drive out by Eagle Mt and down to Don Quon at the end of the peninsula. And then we found two archaeological sites just down the road from our cottage that were absolutely wonderful. While we were there our neighbors were out herding a flock of their sheep with their sheep dog, this was just a delight to

Famine Soup Church Irish Country Side Near Our Cottage Gallarus Oratory Rahinnane Castle Dona & Ann At Rahinnane Castle Ron & Dona At Rahinnane Castle Today dawned mostly raining, but Ron went out on his own early to do a photo shoot at an old church just down the road from our cottage. This is a Church Of Ireland church that was in use around the potato famine time. They were called famine soup churches, because they would feed the poor farmers soup, but at the cost of committing the recipient to change their religion from Catholic to Church of Ireland. This church is no longer in use, but is for sale (400,000 Euros) and has had tenants other than the church recently. While Ron was off taking pictures, Dona was busy making homemade Irish Soda Bread. She got her receipt from the library here in Dingle and said it was very similar to the one she uses at home. When I got home all wet and cold, she had warm soda bread and hot tea ready for me. Um, Um Good! After breakfast,

Diseart Celtic Cultural Center Diseart Center Grounds Diseart Center Chapel Harry Clarke Window Murphy's Ice Cream Shop Music Session At John Benny's This morning the weather is just like yesterday, in and out of rain. Staying primarily around Dingle, doing shopping, eating lunch at one of the pubs that is suppose to have the best sea food chowder in the area. One of the highlights of today's activities was a visit to the Diseart Celtic Cultural Center next to St. Mary's Church. The building is wonderful and the grounds are also special. This building was originally the Sacred Heart Convent and played a very important role in Dingle during the famine. The nuns in this convent were dedicated to serving the educational, spiritual and physical needs of the young people in Dingle who were ravaged by the famine. The building is no longer owned by the church, but there is still one nun remaining who will be allowed to live out her life at the center. In 1922, the nuns comm

Old Church On Brandon Point Dona At Brandon Point Connor Pass Ann & Dona On Connor Pass Wet & Windy Last night was a really wonderful night, a truly superb dinner at John Benny's and then the music session. There was Eilse, her husband John Benny and Tommy O'Sullivan. We found out that Tommy O'Sullivan has performed three years at Irish Fest in Milwaukee. Eilse was outstanding and signed two CDs for us, she told Dona that she should never leave home without her flute. Eilse is a flute, tin whistle player as well as singer. Got up this morning to on again, off again sun, which was very nice. We decided that we needed to head for Connor Pass since we never know if we will have good weather. By the time we got to the top, the rain was coming and going, but it was tremendous anyway. The views were wonderful. Next we decided to drive out to Brendan Point which was also a treat, but the best part was that on our way back, I thought I saw an old church off the road a

Dona At Beehive Hut Gallarus Castle Ann & Dona Taking Tea At Bric's Pub The Bar At Brics Pub The Fireplace The Sea And Rocks Weather wise this was a real wind blown, wet one! Because of that we didn't do quite as much site seeing, but still had a wonderful time. Ron went out early on his own to look for a castle that we had read about, called Gallarus Castle. Not a real old one, 15 th century, built by the Fitzgerald family and occupied by them until the 17 th century. Later after lunch we all went out and stopped at a cute little store and bought peat and candy. Then to St. Branden's Creek, where St. Branden, the navigator, was said to have left to sail to North America. This is where a fairly large creek comes down and meets the sea. The wind was truly blowing a gale at this time. There were warning signs that during high tide and high winds people had been blown into the sea and lost at this place. Next we went back to Gallarus Castle so that Dona and An

Irish Sea Gulls The Waves Rolling In A Typical Dingle Landscape The Cliffs Along Dingle Way The Blasket Islands (Sleeping Giant) Sean Daly Shows How It's Done Day four started with some clear weather and sunshine. It was our day to go to the Crystal shop and see Sean Daly work his magic. He showed us how he cuts the Crystal, polishes it and gave us an opportunity to buy as much as we wanted. And we wanted a lot!!! After visiting a few more spots in Dingle, we headed around the Dingle peninsula drive and it seemed like we stopped every 10 minutes to see one more spectacular view of the Atlantic and the rocks. We also were able to see the Blasket Islands even though the fog and mist was moving in and out most of the afternoon. Around 4:00 we found a nice pub in Bally Fueritor where we could get a bowl of soup and a toasted sandwich and a pint of Guinness. In Ireland, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is called Pancake Day. Everyone fixes pancakes for dinner before the beginnin

" Home Sweet Home" Welcome Let The Light Shine In Living Room From The Loft Living Room Double Bed Room (Ron & Dona's Room) First Bed Room (Ann's Room) Kitchen And Sitting Room Dinner Our Neighbor, Kilmelkedar Church Today dawned very foggy and rainy. Really took our time lounging around during the morning. Left the house around 11:00 am and went into Dingle. Ron managed to drive the whole way without scrapping against the bushes along the very narrow road! Today is just for shopping and seeing some of the shops and craft stores around Dingle. Spent some time at Dingle Crystal and have made an appointment for tomorrow morning to see a demonstration of Sean working. After that we plan to take the Dingle loop drive around the peninsula. I would like to tell you a little bit about our house. The main part of the house has four rooms that are in a straight line. First is a small bedroom which opens out to the main living room. This living room has a peat burning sto

2/17/07 We left Chicago on time at 6:00 pm with a full flight, kind of jammed in. The flight was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Dublin on time, but then things slowed down. Apparently there was a connecting flight from Boston that was late due to weather. The weather (ground fog) was a problem at both airports. Finally got to Shannon at 11:00 am. Long drive to Dingle getting used to driving on the left, the "round abouts", the narrow roads and the Irish drivers. Got to Dingle about 4:30, went to the Internet cafe to email everyone. Haven't gotten a phone yet, maybe tomorrow. Did some shopping so that we could fix dinner and breakfast for today. We left for our cottage just after dark, which was a mistake! However, after several misses we finally found our new home for the next 10 days. It is a wonderful cottage. More to come in another entry on the Cottage. After a time of unpacking and fixing dinner it was time to go to bed. We had been up for over 35 hours with o

Enjoying Dinner The Cake It is Friday morning and we are just about ready to take the bus from Milwaukee to Chicago to catch our flight to Ireland. Last night we had a nice going away party at Anne and Michael's with dinner and a wonderful strawberry cake that Anne made. See Ya In Ireland!!

Ann's plane got in right on time at 6:30 tonight. We all came home and had a St. Valentines Day dinner. Tomorrow will be a day of getting all of the last minute details taken care. This may be the last entry until we arrive in Dingle on Saturday.

Scott and Kelly had her mother and dad (Arlene and Paul) her brother and sister-in-law (Scott and Kelly) her nephew(Mikey) and Dona and Ron for a family Sunday Brunch. We had way too much to eat; Waffles, Ham, Sausage, hashbrowns and Mimosa. After food we had a great game of "Apples to Apples" and then celebrated Arlene's birthday. (If you look closely at the pictures you may be able to determine which birthday.) Pre-Brunch Champane And Talk Scott Hettig Mans Waffle Iron #1 Paul Mans Waffle Iron #2 Gathering Around The Kitchen Time To Load Up The Plates Good Food, Good Fellowship A Hot Game Of "Apples To Apples" Happy Birthday Arlene