Back From County Kerry

This weekend we traveled to County Kerry, the village of Portmagee, and the city of Killarney which is all located in the southwest of Ireland. County Kerry is the home of the 2009 All-Ireland Gaelic Football champions and is sometimes known as the place where you can find 100 different shades of green in the landscape. In a testament to that saying, as we traveled across the countryside we saw many, many beautiful scenes in the landscape. From forests, to mountains, to cliffs on the oceans, to islands just off the coast. All around County Kerry was gorgeous!
We stayed 2 nights in the "quaint fishing village" of Portmagee where, on Friday, we had a basic photography class with a relative of our director. The photo session was very interesting and informative. We learned some basics about cameras and photography, took some pictures, and had a basic critique session, it was a good experience. As Portmagee was very quaint our Friday not was moderately uneventful.

This was one of my photos from the photo session, the photographer said it was great!

On Saturday we boarded the bus in the rain and ventured to Killarney, a much bigger place than Portmagee with stores, food, restaurants, pubs, clubs, and people! On our way to Killarney we made a photography stop at a scenic overlook in Killarney National Park which, despite the rain, was very impressive! We made our way into Killarney for lunch after our stop and then we proceeded on to our guided tour of the Muckross House which is a huge mansion built in 1843. The house is famous for its size, gardens, and placement in what is now Killarney National Park. Queen Victoria visited and stayed in the house in 1861. I forgot my camera at this point of the excursion due to grogginess, but take my word for it, it was pretty amazing!

We were given free reign of Killarney for the evning and we spent some time in the pubs listening to traditinal music and other live music for awhile, some people extended their evenings to the clubs as well! This morning we left Killarney bright an early and ventured to the County Kerry Museum where we learned of the history and past of County Kerry! Yahoo! Yay! WOOOO! It was exciting to say the least. We ate lunch after the museum and set out for home. We made a stop in Galway for groceries and brought home some pretty amazing deals and delicious meals for the week. Tonight we are having hamburgers, homemade fries, and baked beans which are being cooked at this very moment and It is rumored that later in the week Alfredo and meatloaf may or may not be on the menu!

We are all planning on staying up late tonight and cheering for those darned Twins as they attempt to make the playoffs! Also, congrats to SJU football for finally beating Bethel since I have been a Johnnie...It had been a sad 2 years losing to Bethel, but they finally pulled one off, although it was a little too close for comfort... I hope everyone at SJU had a great homecoming weekend and celebrated the win lots! Cheer hard for those Twins tonight, you know we will be!

Hope all is well, I will have some pics up in my album tonight or tomorrow so check them out, I will leave you with these teasers for now. Enjoy!!!