Ireland

We have returned from our trip to Limerick, Ireland. Ethan and I flew there on a Monday, so our plane was really empty. We had a row of 4 seats to ourselves. Plenty of room for Ethan to sleep. He flew like he had been doing it his entire life, no issues at all! I was so proud of how well he did. He absolutely loved the in-seat tv with kids cartoons like SpongeBob and Dora. He did however, refuse to eat any of the plane food. Personally, I thought it was not too bad. We did learn that after about 5 hours Ethan gets a little air sick, luckily he had not eaten and really had nothing to throw up. And it did not really phase him at all. He got a lot of compliments on how well he did flying and how good all his questions were. For those who have not been involved in an Ethan question session, he asks TONS of questions and not simple ones, ones about how we actually fly and why things are and how they work. And to make it harder he knows a really answer from the kids semi-fake version!

Ethan and I arrived at the hotel a little before lunch time, local. Rob was lucky enough to not have to go into work until after lunch (but had to work until 8pm) so he met us at the hotel. Ethan loved the elevator and took no time at all to mess the room up! There were only a few tv stations, one which was a 24hr commercial for stailite tv and of course the clock channel which never showed the correct time. But, Ethan did enjoy some midday cartoons and even some in galiec. We were right in town, so plenty of things in walking distance. Lots of shopping, just not too much that was different from shopping here. That is except for the rugby stores.

About a five minute walk, more with Ethan, was a castle. King John's castle. This was one of the first things we did. Unfortunately, I learned that Ethan was deathly afraid of the statues of the people. He went running out crying and screaming out of the first room. He never did go into another with them in it. However, we did spend about 30 minutes walking around. He loved the center court yard, mainly to drag his feet through the pee-stone. In all the castle was a bust. Over priced for as little there was to see, and Ethan hated it. Here are some photos of and around it.

Ethan and I also discovered a park near by. One of the few with a play area. He had fun on this spinning thing that was propelled by kids riding the bikes on it. Unfortunately, kids there seem to not want to play with each other. Ethan tried hard to get others to play but no one really would. I watched kids come and go and all of them only played either by themselves or only with kids they came with. There was no one playing with anyone they did not come with. It was very odd! Later that day I saw a commercial on the tv that was encouraging kids to play togehter, so maybe this is an issue there. Either way Ethan enjoyed a break from walking around with mom and just playing.

The little girl by the steps Ethan almost had playing with him, until her older sister suggested they go play somewhere else.

In addition to King John's castle there was another one Bunratty half way to the airport. I delayed and debated whether we should go since it would cost more and to have Ethan be afraid would be a waste. But, our last full day I decided we had nothing better to do and we would try it. If nothing else Ethan was enjoying riding in the taxis. Bunratty castle turned out to be much much better. For starters Ethan was free and since I brought my student id I was only 10 Euros! Even better no statues! And the castle had much much more places to explore and go through. In addition, it also had 26 acre area of time set housing and shops. And thankfully shops where you can buy stuff that says Ireland on it!!! Plus it was not busy, mostly us, a few scattered families and a group of french students (maybe 40 of them). Everyone was really friendly and it was a good time. Here are some photos from Bunratty.

Ethan also used my camera while we were at Bunratty, here are a few of his photos.

It turned out to be a good trip. Would have been better if things did not close up at 5:30-6pm at night. Poor Rob would be just getting home and there would not be anything left to do but eat. Here are some final and random photos from Rob and my cameras.