The gorgeous County Donegal - Part 1

Our last guests to visit came over July 4th week - Pat Soranno, Eric Torng, and their daughter Annika. Pat and Kath are long-time friends from UW Madison, so the 9 of us rented a great house in Country Donegal (NW ROI) for a week together http://www.donegalcottageholidays.com/lough-lilly-cottage. Unfortunately, I am writing this post a full year after the visit (while on holiday at Bob and Kath's!), and I didn't take notes while we were in Co. Donegal...so, I am having to rely on the pix I took to spur my memories. We had a great time, and I know I won't do the trip justice, but I'll try! Here's a map that shows where we stayed in Creeslough, and the various places we visited: MAP
First, are a few pix from hanging out around the house. It was sometimes a little hard having so many years between each of the kids (about 5), but we all made the most of it, and it certainly helps to be greatly outnumbered by caring, kind adults!

Eric is a golfer, so he spent lots of morning time during the week out on the great courses. Unfortunately, he was also experiencing some pretty serious hay fever. I never had any hay fever that spring/summer, even though I usually do in MI, but this summer while on holiday I have felt Eric's pain - terrible! Anyway, the house included a sand table in the fenced back yard that Jamieson enjoyed immensely (that was one of the first things we bought for him when we returned to Lansing). And, there was a nice running loop from the house that Jubin and I each did a couple of times. We cooked in most of the time, since we all have very different eating schedules and needs (Pat is gluten-free, the Soranno-Torng's are vegan, I don't eat fish/seafood, and Watson is on what we like to call the "white-diet" (bagels, pasta, yogurt, cheese)...), which worked great except that the dining table wasn't large enough to seat us all at once. The weather was good that week and we only got rained on a couple of times. Annika had a couple headache days, but was a real trouper, and spent the week practicing her photography. All-in-all a great success! Below are some highlights.

DOE CASTLE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doe_Castle - very close by, our first place to visit.

DUNE HIKE AND TRAMORE BEACH (BIG BEACH) - Bob "led" us on a gorgeous walk through the Tearmann Dulra Nature Reserve to a gorgeous beach. I say "led" because he got so far ahead that we couldn't see him and there were so many trails going in every direction (unmarked) that we ended up going the very long way to the beach. But, it was a nice sunny day and the destination was awesome.

MARBLE HILL BEACH - One afternoon we went to a beach that didn't require a hike and included public toilets and an ice cream truck.

HORN HEAD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_Head) - this was a gorgeous hike with many cliffs and views. Jubin and Eric stayed at the house this time around and by mid-way through the hike, Jamie was asleep in the backpack. We had a picnic lunch there, and then drove some cliff-side, slightly scary roads back to the cottage.