March 30, 2014: Kilcoe >> Killarney

So an interesting day. We woke up and had a nice breakfast at our hotel, before loading up to attend mass at Kilcoe Parish. We went, and they were having a beautiful Mother's Day service (because it's Mother's Day here in Ireland), but I had to leave half way through due to an upset stomach. (Luckily it passed). Dad decided to give the priest our regrets, and apologize for not being able to attend tea at his house this afternoon. He gave us a loaf of bread. On his way out, dad got to talking with some locals, and discovered some potential (distant) relatives! A women name Geraldine thought her family tree might be connected to ours, and then invited us to tea. We went to her house, where we met her delightful family: her husband, and three girls, Katy (13), Chloe (9) and Amy (9). We got to talking and figured out we're all musicians. So while Grady and I got our violins out, Chloe played us a song on her tin whistle, Amy a song on her little accordion, and Katy on her traditional Irish flute. It was so cool! Then we all played an Irish air, Song of the Southern Winds. Later, we got a tour around their farm and fields. We city dwellers pitched in a little: we re-bedded the calfs' pen with new hay, and herded the cattle. It was quite the experience. Then they showed is an old traditional Irish house, that was in disrepair, but very cool to see, and go in. All this was followed by more tea of course. We ended the afternoon with a trip to another old cemetery, and Kilcoe Castle (owned by an Irish actor), before we said goodbye to our new friends. Sometime in the next 4 hours we drove to the national park town of Killarney, but I slept the whole way. Farm work is tiring. Once in Killarney we checked in to a hotel, and wandered around in the rain looking for a pub. Except we found an ice cream parlor first, so we ended up having a backwards dinner. :) We topped off a busy day with a picture slide-show in the hotel room.