DUNFANAGHY - This town was close by to our cottage. We drove through it many times on our way to hikes and beaches, and stopped a couple times for crepes, ice creams, shopping (nice art galleries - in hindsight, we should have bought something there!), etc... One night, the gang encouraged Jubin and I to go into town for dinner together (so nice!) and another night we all went in for dinner at a pub. Unfortunately, the local music didn't start until after bedtime for half of our group...
ARD'S FOREST PARK - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ards_Forest_Park - One day we went for a very nice walk in this Park and had a snack in the cafe. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great that day (SO glad I bought that coat with Holly), but it was still fun.
Part-way through this week, Pat and I got word that an NSF proposal we submitted just weeks earlier was ranked 1st by the panel and NSF wanted to fund our project a year early! How awesome is that? It was extra great to get that news while with Pat - reminiscent of our hearing from NSF when we were at a conference in Puerto Rico together!
PRETTY DRIVE - Bob led us on a great drive showing us some beautiful cliffs and beaches, as well as a few loughs (e.g., Lough Salt), areas being mined for peat, and other areas of interest like the Shuggling Stone.
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| Lough Salt |
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| Not as many "marshmallows" in Donegal as SW ROI, but still a LOT! |
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| The white blobs in the foreground are blocks of peat that have been mined and wrapped. |
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shuggling_Stone |
This is a beautiful national park surrounding Lough Veagh. It rained on and off that day and was pretty cold (note the winter hats in the pix - in JULY!), but it never bucketed. We parked, took a shuttle bus up to the castle and botanic gardens and then went on a lovely, mostly flat walk on a mainly gravel path. The path went along beside the Lough and had gorgeous views of the castle, the Lough, a stream, and a great waterfall at the turn-around.
Unfortunately, Annika had a headache that day, so the Soranno-Torng's departed early, turning around at the above stream. And, Watson was sick of walks...so, after they left, we spent a fair amount of time coaxing him along with 20 questions and the like. Not the very easiest of days for some reason!
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| Mid-walk snack anyone? |
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| The view at the turn-around point. |
The Park had a nice cafe, where we got lunch and Jamieson was quite charismatic...
Then, we waited at the dock for the shuttle bus back to the parking lot - a welcome diversion for the kids (how is it that they have tons of energy to run crazy when waiting for a bus but not when hiking???). We waved to Bob and Kath, who walked the path back to the car park.
I am quite sure that I've forgotten very memorable and happy moments about the week we spent in Donegal...but, that week definitely has a fond place in my heart!
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