A Special Trip to Sligo

August 11:   Up early to catch the 7:09 a.m. train for the roundtrip journey to pick Maeve up at Connolly Station in Dublin, and come back to Sligo for her summer adventure with Mamo.  It is for sure that she is awake and rearing to go.  Last night all her bags were packed.  She is off to Sligo for a few days visit with Mamo by herself.  Mamo is excited too!

Matt, Maeve and I met up at Connolly Station.  They had taken the Luas to get over from Matt's work on Parnell Square. Our train back over to Sligo was on one of Ireland's new trains - made for a great 3 hour  ride back. Looks like it will be busy the next few days with little time or no time for blogging .....

August 13:  It is just 9:00 p.m.  Maeve is down fast asleep. I am ready to hit the hay too ....zzzzz.
We head back to Belpatrick tomorrow.  What a busy fun time we have had these past three days - this is very special for a Mamo to be able to spent this time together just the two of us.

The trip would not have been complete without going to Strandhill, for climbing sand dunes, and building sand castles - we brought so much sand home to Collooney with us in our shoes, pants, pockets, and anything else that would carry sand!  Yesterday, a trip to see Toy Story 3 brought back memories of seeing it with Caitlin and Christian earlier this summer in DC.  Grandchildren are the best!

We even had a visitor.  Taking a break from golf, Terence came for dinner last night and a game of snakes and ladders afterwards.  He taught Maeve a few tricks about getting forward which she used and then promptly beat the two of us easily.

My camera was broken so no pictures of the beach.  We made a side trip to buy a new camera - it had to be charged and of course the manual read so I could get it working.

Here are some pictures from today when we went over to Lough Key for a picnic lunch and adventure park.
HISTORY:   Lough Key Forest Park is located in an area of great historical interest and is comprised of vast woodland and numerous islands. There is reference to Castle Island in the annals of Lough Ce as early as 1184. During this time the park was called Moylurg and the Kings of Moylurg were the McDermotts.

The McDermott's official residence was on The Rock, now called Castle Island . As space was limited on this small island they had another residence on the mainland where the Moylurg Tower stands today. The McDermotts ruled this area until the 17th century when it was granted to the King family from England under the Cromwellian settlement.

On the way stopped at the Gaelic Chieftain sculpture just off the N-4.   The sculpture itself commemorates the Battle of the Curlew Mountains in 1599 - which was the beginning of the demise of the Gaelic chieftains ending tragically with their ultimate defeat by the English at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.

It was an outdoors day with lots of fresh air, just perfect for coming home to enjoy a pasta dinner (Maeve's favorite), getting into "jammies" and playing playdough games.

We will leave the packing till the morning!