We left last Wed for Dublin where we attended our first Senior Couples Social Day and Conference. The three couples from Scotland flew down and joined the 7 couples from Ireland, as well as Pres and Sis Donaldson and Pres and Sis. Thompson.
Thurs we drove out to a very old burial site which is older than the Pyramids, called New Grange. It is a large round, partially underground Celtic worship site. It was built in such a way that on the winter and summer solstices the opening is situated such that the light from the sun can enter the door, move down the alleyways and fill the entire inside with light. (Kinda like the tomb in one of the Indiana Jones movies). Inside it is kind of like a cave with lots of small openings and big caverns. We think, anyway, since we didn't actually go in. Because of misinformation from our GPS (stupid technology) we were late for our tour with the other couples and we didn't want to hold the group up for our other activities. I was totally bummed!
After New Grange, we went into Dublin and boarded a hop-on, hop-off bus to take a tour of Dublin. Our driver was a lovely, delightful Irishman, named Declan, who told us Irish jokes and sang Elvis songs to us in his Elvis singing voice, which was quite good. It was amazing how he was able to maneuver his huge double-decker bus through the narrow streets and around the massive amounts of road construction throughout Dublin!
We left from and came back to a massive cemetary called Glassnevin that holds over 1.5 billion bodies.
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| One of the ornate tombs in the cemetary. |
After the tour we returned to the Church for a delicious meal prepared by the Pettits, our Self Reliance couple, and a fun get-acquainted game of "Two Truths and a Lie".
The next day was filled with round table discussions presented by the more experienced couples (we are "youngest" Senior couple (having been out the shortest time) and still green). We received much good advice and mentoring from these more experienced couples. We heard the farewell testimonies of two of the couples who are going home in Jan. We also got the sad news that the Pettits were being transferred to the Swedish Mission to help them with Self Reliance. They did such a good job here that they have Self Reliance groups going in most of Ireland, and Sweden only had one person doing it, and he was just called as a Stake President, so he needed help. We had the opportunity to meet personally with the Pettits shortly after we arrived to learn about the Self Reliance program and several times since and we have surely grown to love them. We will really miss them!
We finished up around half 4, and after saying farewell to all our new "besties", we hit the road home. It was the trip from H--L! The drive usually takes about 3 hrs, if traffic is good; if not, it can take much longer. For us it took 5 hours. We were stuck in bumper to bumper crawling traffic for over two hours and it was pouring rain off and on. So much fun (NOT)! We finally reached our flat at close to 11 pm.
But we weren't done yet. The next day we hit the road for the 1.5 hr drive up to Limerick for District Priesthood meeting and District Adult meeting. We left at 1 and got home at 10. Then we got up the next morning and did it all over again for District Conference. We also took one of ours and the Elder's investigators, Agnieszka, with us. It was her first time being around so many members and she was quite impressed. We also had a visiting Seventy, Elder Merera. He and Pres Donaldson are good friends from when Pres Donaldson was also a Seventy. He was very good and also very humorous. I think our District picked up a new catch phrase from him: "Whaaaaaaaaaaat"???
While at the Conference we planned with another Senior Couple, the Hawks to do a partial tour of the Ring of Kerry the next day. So, the next day, P-Day, we met the Hawks in Killarney and took them down to show them around the grounds of the Muckross House, which we had toured the week before. With the fall colors, it was stunning.
Then we drove through the Killarney National Forest, past Ladies View and Moll's Gap into Kenmare. E. Hawks kept exclaiming, "Oh my gosh, this is stunning" every time we came around a bend. And it was.
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| An old abandoned church at a bend in the road, no village in sight. |
You can't beat the views on the Ring of Kerry!
While in Kenmare, Ray stopped and asked this old guy his name and found out a little about him.
His name is Graham Burton, he is 70 yrs old, has lived in a cave for the last 20 yrs, no running water, no electricity. He grows his own food...and marijuana, and has had 3 alien encounters! He is also a bit of a poet, as you can see.
The Holy Cross Church in Kenmare has inside 12 Black Angels, handcarved in the Black Forest of Germany that form the interior roof beams. Really beautiful!
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| An ancient stone circle. These stone circles are all over southern Ireland |
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| One of the prettiest little streets in Kenmare. |
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| A Pretty Irish Cottage By the time the weekend was over, we were pooped! But we had one more trip up to Cork on Tues for District meeting. So glad when all that travel was over and we could just stay home for a bit. Whew! HASTE YE BACK! |
