We Chased Sheep!!!

Jesus shootin' the deuces...

We slept a little later this morning, pulled out of Galway around 10am, and headed northwest to explore the counties Connemara and Mayo. Kat was napping in the passenger seat so when I saw a turn off the main route that looked interesting, I took a right. Soon I was driving along narrow lane with a lake and mountains to my left and SHEEP IN THE ROAD! Finally, our number one item on the Ireland list was completed! WE CHASED SHEEP! We pulled off on the side of the road so that Kat could take some pictures (who would have guessed), and I shot some video of Kathryn hi-stepping (in her flip flops) through the field after the sheep... that girl.

Proof! Sheep in the road!

Rooster photo op. He's so pretty!

The most amazing part of today was the change in landscapes in a short amount of time. We went from the Burren to green rolling pastures, to mountains and lakes, to tiny flat seashores, to the bog... all in a span of 4 hours. It was incredible.
We rode for another hour or so and stopped again at the Connemara National Park visitor's centre. There we read some informational placards about the bog. We had been seeing these short stacks of brown things in the fields and thought it was cow pies...? (You should have heard us discussing it... some of the ideas we had were absurd) Turns out, it was the turf (aka peat) that had been cut and was stacked to dry. Dried peat is used by some Irish folks as a fuel for heating houses - like firewood.Who knew?! We started from the centre to do a short hike but it started to rain pretty hard (and I had recently discovered that my raincoat was not waterproof... only water resistant). After walking about 1/4 mile, we went back to the centre where I had a lovely bowl of mushroom soup and hot tea... Just what I needed at that moment:)

After we left the visitor's centre, we drove down the road until we happened across the bog! We hopped out of Rooster and spread about 20 feet apart. When Kathryn jumped, I felt the ground bouncing under me 20 feet away! We marveled for a while then headed back towards Galway...

Peat that had been cut and stacked to dry...

We did have a short incident where we both relaxed a little too much while driving down a deserted stretch of the road. We had just bragged to some Irishman the night before about how the driving was no big deal, we were pros, etc... Anyway, we were cruising along and I felt that something was a little "off." Right at that moment, a car came around the curve and was heading straight towards us! Needless to say, we had been cruising in the wrong lane for a couple of miles. Oh, well, not a big deal:) We got a little lost on the way back to Galway, but we found it eventually. Thankfully we both have impeccable senses of direction... It was a bit disconcerting to be driving through parts of the country where the signs were written ONLY in Gaelic...

Excited to be in Ireland!

Ate pizza for supper (cooked by a precious Italian man) then went to a pub known for its traditional music... Walked in and Kathryn immediately found prime seating... she was like a bloodhound when it came to finding good spots to listen to the band:) We sat down and a young Irish couple joined us. We were fast friends within a few short minutes:) They taught us everything we now know about Irish dancing, bogs, the Galway races, Irish breakfasts, and "bacon and cabbage with a pint of milk and brown sauce." The band was phenomenal, the company was ridiculously fun... another great day in Ireland! Off to hike Croagh Patrick in the morning!