Fitzsimmons/Brown Family Blog

It's 7:40 am and I have been up since around 7:15. We stayed in the parking lot of an "Apple" gas station. It's a truck stop and a huge building that houses a Burger King, Subway, The Bakewell, Costa, and a convenience shop that also sells booze. Really clean, great bathrooms; I know that may sound weird but after using as many public bathrooms as we have on this trip, you learn to appreciate these things; and it even has a shower. This place is great. Wish they had them all along our trip. Would have been less stress about where we were going to park at night. Oh and they have wifi too! Hee hee, hence my post early this am. I am sitting inside with a vanilla latte. Haven't had that in some time now considering I am usually too hot. Looks today to be another cloudy and damp, if not rainy, day.

Jacob is still snoozing in the car but we are not in a rush. We have all day to drive into Dublin which is approximately 2 hours away. We have a hotel booked for tonight so that we can get everything organized and packed for the flight home.

Nothing really planned for today. Maybe some last shopping.

Yesterday we went to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The Castle was closed because it was after 4 and they have evening banquets there, which would have been very cool to take in if we had done our research and planned for it, however the folk part was a little disappointing. I just felt that some of the items displayed in the houses seemed out of time and place. Now, I know that I really have no basis on which to state that but it just seemed weird. I was also under the impression that it was a "working type" village however there were only two women on site and one was talking to a family about local activities and school because she seemed to know them and she completely ignored anyone coming into the area and between them they actually blocked it from viewing. Oh well, moving on I guess.

I have learned today though that Jacob seems ok with small short ponies. He actually stood close to the fence to view them. And I learned the other day that he would like to pet a cow. I'm not sure but the cows he was looking at were huge. .........? Guess I'll have to take him to a petting farm somewhere as long as there are no tall horses.....lol.

This cold has caused me to lose my voice, which Jacob says is good cause then I can't yell at him, but it also means he has to do the communicating and we all know how much he loves that! Kind of funny really. I could really do without the cough though. Not to jinx it but things seem to be getting a little better today. Still coughing just different kind of cough. Voice is still rough. Sure has made it difficult for singing. I love to sing but don't have the best voice. Probably saved Jacob from an uncountable number of hours of ear bleeding singing to our limited song list on his phone. So what I am getting at is next time we need a bigger play list.......hee hee.

So mom, Marilyn didn't really have time to visit too much due to the business of her bar. Her and Mike just go, go, go! She said to make sure, when you come, to make it around late April early May or after August. Then she will have time. So get planning so you can get your tickets booked.