Spasmodic OMOTIC

Yes dear friends, we are still alive.  A whirlwind three weeks find your not so intrepid travelers on their first major trip outside of our home area of East Cork.

The kids, all of them, have come and gone.  wish we had more time to prepare for their visit, but alas, calendars prevail.

Two of my beautiful daughters, Emma and Britta

Driving on the left had side of the road, which is often narrower for two lanes than Americans have for one, is now less "death sport" than just plain "scary as hell."  

Cramming three daughters, a grandson in a car seat and a son-in-law into a oversized 'bicycle built for two' and then careening down the road festooned with potholes the size of major moon craters, is not my idea of a 'carefree' family outing.  Add in five strongly held opinions as to where we should go and what we should do... Oh... it's family mayhem at its best.

OH BOY, do I like Irish Catsup!!!!

We finally divided forces.  Some took the train, others of us drove.  In our version of 'The Fox, The Goose, and the Grain' We dropped Pamela off at school, came back and picked up one group to drop off at the train, came back for the rest and drove into Cork, (30-45 minutes, depending on traffic).  Then we drove back from Cork in time to pick up Pamela from school, took her and the car group home because we could not all fit in the car at the same time, and drove half way back to Cork to pick up the train people and bring them home.  Dinner was late.

We bought air beds and duvees for everyone to sleep on.  Half of us snore, Crawling over sleeping bodies to get Pamela to school by 8 a.m. was pure joy!!!!

All in all, a carefree week in the land of Blarney.  More about the 'Blarney' experience next time.

Will leave you with pics of grandson at the FOTA wildlife park.  It's sort of an Irish wildlife safari except the people walk around the park gawking at the lightly fenced in animals.  Grandson's biggest thrill did not roar, squeak, quack or slither.  He loved the little train that circled the wildlife park.  "Bye Bye train"  "Bye Bye Train"!!!  "Hey kid look at the giraffes, they have two foot long tongues."  "Bye Bye Train... Bye Bye train."

Bye Bye train....

Bye Bye Train....

Oh well - so he's going to be an engineer, not a biologist.  I, however, remain your faithful OMOTIC.