Back when I lived in Santa Barbara, I remember I used to constantly have gift cards in my wallet. Some had been in there for years. I can distinctly remember my sister Evan saying, "if those were mine, they'd be gone in a second!!" :) I remember right before I moved to Ireland, I literally had to force myself to pick a few things out because otherwise I'd be out of the country and the money would go to waste!
Well, nearly three years ago now we received a lovely gift from two of Niall's Irish buddies for our wedding. And... we JUST used it!! The voucher included a 2 night stay in a lovely hotel in Strandhill (very small seaside town on the West coast of Ireland), a round of golf for 2, organic seaweed baths at the local spa, and dinner at a local restaurant/pub. The brochure had been sitting in our drawer for ages-- I'm not sure why we didn't get around to using it until now but let me tell you it was worth the wait! We figured we had better redeem it before the winter weather kicks in and before the new addition arrives. :)
We left on Friday afternoon and returned Sunday (just in time for Niall to watch the 5 pm showing of the Grand Prix, of course).
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| view from our hotel room balcony, overlooking the golf course |
Now, let me just take a moment to say neither of us looked this happy by the time we finished. Golf is HARD! We have 4 out of 6 lessons done now and this course made me feel like I should just quit now. We were both a little intimidated on the first hole and so relieved that no one was behind us watching our shots; we both lost the first ball! I couldn't stop laughing, which soon turned to cursing, and then finally caddying for Niall because I was so annoyed at myself. Let's just say I'll need be needing more than 6 lessons before I can consistently hit the ball straight!
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| upside: the course was beautiful and it never rained! |
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| unwinding after our horrific golf performance |
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| These things were so weird! There was a ton of seaweed in both of our baths. It was really slimy and stuck all over our skin; apparently it is an 'anti aging miracle treatment'.... hmmm... at least it was free! |
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| my dreamy date :) |
We couldn't believe our luck when we woke up on the second morning and it was even prettier than the first! Not a cloud in the sky and it was actually quite warm out. We headed down to the water to check out what the locals were up to...
We stopped at Shell's, the local hotspot, for breakfast. *side note* ... a couple of years ago I got my dear friend Cindy a book called 'The Surf Cafe Cookbook', written by an Irish husband and wife. To be honest, I saw it in a bookstore and just thought it sounded cool and the photography was really beautiful. Little did I know what a hit it would be! Cindy loved it, and when she and Nick were here they went to Strandhill to stay a night and visited this cafe that the authors of the cookbook own and run. To be honest, anyone staying in Strandhill couldn't miss it. There are really only a few places to go for food and this cafe was packed every time we went in! It was SO good. Now I want one of their cookbooks too. :)
After breakfast, we got our coffees to go and walked along the water to a local Sunday market. Now this is my kind of thing! Lots of local artists, farmers, and various foodies selling their goods. It was so fun and relaxing-- and I just have to say again, the sunny weather made it all the better!
We hiked up 'Knocknarea' mountain, a short and steep climb but totally worth the view! We had a nice 360 degree view from the top of Strandhill and County Sligo.
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| getting harder to hide these days! |
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| Back down the mountain for a last glimpse of the lovely Atlantic... loads of surfers out! This really made me miss SB. |
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| I couldn't resist :) |
Well, there's a quick recap of the Madden weekend... we arrived home refreshed and very grateful for our little Irish getaway. Back to reality this week, hope you all have a wonderful day!
