Carli Knits In Public: Very Busy Weekend!

Hi everyone!

This weekend has been very crazy! Brett got home about 3:30 on Friday. And we just relaxed, which was good as Saturday kicked our behinds!!!!!!!!

We got up early Saturday morning and did our usual morning routine...played with the Nut, breakfast about 7am, play some more, then naptime at 8. Brett stayed up and watched the Ireland vs New Zealand Rugby match that started at 8. Hazel and I slept until 10:30, got up, got ready and headed out the door at 11:45. We decided Friday night that we would choose the town of Bushmills as our adventure for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day out, sunny and warm. So off we went! We got to the Giant's Causeway at about 1pm and it was busy. There were tour buses and people EVERYWHERE, but it was to be expected as it was simply beautiful out. We headed straight for the Causeway, and chose the shorter route down...our first mistake. The path was paved and easy, and we thought we'd take the bus back to the top...the Causeway sits at the bottom of a cliff....it's actually the "beach" and jets out into the Irish Sea. But when we got to the bottom, our brains must have been clouded by the beauty of it all. We took lots of pictures of everything...even shorty sitting on one of the hexagonal (is that a word?) stones---

it was sunny out, can you tell?

Here's a picture of some of the rocks. There are just hundreds and hundreds of rocks that look manmade, but are actually the result of Volcanic activity!

Cool, huh? I posted all the pics we took on our Walmart site, so let me know if you need an invite to view them! We took 121 throughtout the day, which is entirely too many to put here!

So after playing on the cool rocks for a while, we decided to head back to the top. Now, whether it was becasue we hadn't eaten, or because we had too much sun, or maybe the view just peaked our curiousity, or (more than likely) just out of sheer stupidity, we decided that this...

was the preferred route to the TOP of the cliffs. Carrying a 19+ lb child, her stroller and diaper bag. Yah, I know NOT intelligent. Notice that this picture is taken at the TOP of the cliffs looking down. Obviously we made it...barely. Let's just say, when we take this trip again with any one of you visiting, Hazel and I will be taking our butts back up on the bus. With all the elderly folk who can't do the 1/2 mile+ trail and 4 billion stairs to the top. Either that, or anyone who visits and wants to work off all the greasy food they eat here by carrying Hazel to the top is more than welcome to her! I need to look into getting my fat tush to the gym....I say that as I sit here eating Shortbread cookies dipped in Nutella (a chocolate and hazelnut spread for those who haven't experienced the fabulousness that is Nutella...you can get it at Wal-mart...run and buy some, dip some animal crackers in it...get fat with me ;-) ).

Once at the top we got ourselves some sandwiches and water, then headed off to Dunluce Castle which was just up the Coast from the Causeway. It's the remains of a Castle that was built somewhere in the 14th Century. It's just beautiful. (But then again, this is Ireland, what ISN'T beautiful?) The remains are preserved enough as they are to see actual parts of the castle.

and that's only part of the castle! When we entered the castle, there were people doing Musket and Archery demonstrations...pretty nifty....

and just lots of cool things to walk around and see! There we lots of old Chimneys still standing and most of them had daisies growing out of the bricks which just made it all seem that much more magical...