Our Days in Dublin: The Fourth Sunday

Johnny and I woke to our usual Sunday morning pattern: Hurling!*

He crabs for a bit getting dressed and not being able to just chill out in front of cartoons on a weekend morning, but once we get on our bikes and get moving, he's all in.

Once there I try to chat with a parent or two. Today I met Odran who has Ronan who goes to the little school a couple of blocks from our house. He had chatted with Johnny over the past couple of weeks, so knew our story. His wife is from Scranton and they lived in Philly for a few years. Now they're back with an 8 year old boy and a 6 year old girl, both of whom love hurling (the girls' version is called camogie). I quickly inserted myself into their lives by directly saying that we'd need rides to away games if that was possible!

Here's a few photos from today and the promised video of the Kilmakud Crokes cheer!

One of the hardest parts is learning to put your strong hand on the top of your hurly. Note we do the opposite with both hockey and baseball! John's got it right above, but is regularly reminded.

A couple of good hits against a volunteer "mum" keeper!

Here's the Kilmacud Pitch and sign!

Once home Johnny and I kicked the soccer ball in the street for a bit while Maggie finished up studying. Then we headed to the Dart to meet Colleen's friend James and his pal Ben. They were to take us to Howth!

It was so gracious and nice of them. They met us at the Dart and first took us out to some beaches to look at the Dublin Harbor. We saw "baths" where people actually swim in the frigid water!


The background land on the left is Dalkey!

Then we headed to the tip of Howth where we saw the lighthouse that we look at from the Blackrock Starbucks!

And finally to the village of Howth, which was just darling. James took us to a pier where we walked out and saw seals showing off for bread (which the seagulls promptly stole), boats, people, lovely packed restaurants, and Ireland's Eye (where you can relax, birdwatch, enjoy the beach and "be oblivious to the happenings of the past"!). We walked around a bit, picked up some fish and headed back to their place where they made us a quick bite and, because they were entirely kid-friendly, the kids got to chill out with a little PS3 and some One Direction atmosphere (James' girls LOVE 1D)!