Having not been on a European vacation since Maggie arrived, we decided to get our feet wet by traveling with the McArdles to Ireland for 10 days. We spent time in Dublin, Armagh, and Roscommon, with day visits to Dun Laoghaire and Galway.
Dublin
After arriving Friday morning, we spent the next 3 days being tourists in Dublin – visiting the Guinness Storehouse, St Stephen’s Green (multiple times for the playground!), Grafton Street, and lots more through the Dublin Road Train tour. It was definitely a different experience visiting Dublin with a toddler – all the places (read: pubs) I’d visited in my most recent trips didn’t seem to be the best places for Maggie! We did find Dublin to be really child friendly though and even when we ended up in a pub, they were really welcoming!
Maggie having a blast touring Dublin
Dun Laoghaire
We had planned on visiting Dun Laoghaire for a day anyways, but when our great uncle Tom passed away, we headed down on the day of the wake. We only had a few hours to kill, and the weather was not on our side, but we still managed to walk the pier and get ice cream at Teddy’s. Though it was for a sad occasion, we were able to see family that we hadn’t planned on seeing and it was great to be able to catch up. Uncle Tom was a great man and will be very sorely missed.
Armagh (Northern Ireland)
After the day in DL, we headed up north to the McArdle farm. We spent the next few days here visiting with the cows, walking the fields, going to Gosford Forest Park, and doing some shopping. It was great to finally get to see the famed farm that we had all heard so much about!
Roscommon
On Thursday, we headed to Nana’s hometown of Roscommon to stay with the Fallon family. It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Roscommon, and while much has changed, seeing “Nana’s castle” and the Moran grave brought back lots of memories of trips to Ireland as a kid. We had a visit from our other cousin Ciara and her 2 little girls which was a great day (though poor Phelan was well outnumbered – 6 girls to 1 boy!).
The Fallon’s home was the perfect place to visit, kid-friendly, lots of space, and great hosts! Maggie hasn’t stopped talking about Charlotte and Juliette – if only they lived closer!
Galway
We popped into Galway for the day to see some family. Was great to catch up with 2 of Nana’s sisters and lots of cousins – Pat finally understood why everyone is considered a “cousin”, even if technically they’re 2nd, 3rd, or even more distant, the extended Moran family is amazingly welcome to anyone who might share a drop of blood! (We were too busy catching up to take any photos, but after brunch we wandered the city center a bit)
Fairy Day
The last day of the trip, we joined Steve, Goretti and the girls at a fundraiser Fairy Day – it was so sweet!! In honor of a local girl who was battling cancer, the fundraiser started last year and was a day of fun with fairies dancing, a magical walk through the woods, and lots of adorable little kids!
As with most vacations, it all went too quickly!! We’re missing everyone and already planning out the next time we can head over. Maggie proved she’s a champion traveler with only taking 2 days on both ends to adjust to the time change and was great on the flights.
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