Anchill Island, Croagh Patrick

The day started so innocently...nice drive to Anchill Island which is the largest island in Europe....beutiful landscape and peaceful drive!!

Our friends who were on the road as we passed by.........momma and baby...they are all over Ireland and so special we came in the spring to see the baby lambs and goats.........

This is the town of Newport......I spotted this store and had to stop and take pictures!! For those of you viewing the blog - "Corcoran" is my mothers maiden name.  I had to pay homage to her side of the family.  I do have a couple more pictures. and will share with you later..........

The city of Newport.  In fact every town in Ireland has so much history it would take at least 2 years or more to see everything.........

The harbour in Newport.......

My journey started out...I had a desire to go where St. Patrick did his pilgrimage........the start of a long and painful journey....I met two lovely Irish woman (Josephine and Mary) they met me at the statue of St. Patrick.  This was the easy part of the journey..

The ladies asked me if I planned on making my way to the top....I said sure I'd try with them.  When I started the journey I wasn't aware I would need a stick to help me climb up and down.... Obviously I didn't know what I was getting myself into to............

I didn't realize the journey would take me to the top of this mountain with all the fog..............

These are my angels...........we have made it to the top of the mountain.  While some nice lade was making her way down the mountain (we were barely starting our journey to the top a nice lady gave me her stick so I would have it for my journey (she must have known what it would take and took pity)

We are at the top of mountain at St. Patrick's church.....the wind was blowing 50 miles an hour and you couldn't see a thing.  We did our penance and started our treacherous decent.  You have no idea the energy and pain it takes to climb this mountain.  For those of you who are curious, please google "Croagh Patrick" and you can read what the mountain is all about......I truly had no clue.......I thought maybe there would be a PUB at the top and we could all have a pint and tell our stories,........far from the truth......we ended  up praying.....I can share more pictures on my blog on April 23rd.........

This journey I took was a 7 hour trek.  I was simply spent by the time I got down.........and there was Gary standing by the car waiting patiently for me.......We are headed over to Dublin for our last night in Ireland we are not sure what we will stop and see along the way....maybe just a relaxing journey to Dublin...we have so much organization to do with our bags..........some people bought too much while they were in Ireland........Again, we have had a wonderful trip and we have seen so much....we feel so blessed!! Thank you so much kids for such a wonderful dream come true............Love Mom and Dad

HAPPY EASTER!!!