This is the end! Goodbye, Ireland!

Bob visited this one on his own, just before dark on the last night. It was ruins of an old stone fort.

Monument to the Spanish Armada ships that were shipwrecked off the rocky coast of Kerry in 1588.

This seagull visited every morning while I had my coffee. If I sat outside on the patio, it would sit right on the table near me. It liked to bang on the glass door with its beak to get my attention.

I think perhaps this dove was looking for a place to nest. This was right outside our bedroom window on the second floor, and it sat there for the longest time, cooing.

Dinner on the last night of the trip. Fish and chips one last time!

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Everyone was tired and a little giddy, lots of silly faces and laughter. We enjoyed the food and one last night of live music.

Returning the VW Caddy to the airport rental lot at Kerry Airport at 7 am on Sunday. Thank you for bringing us everywhere safely for these last 6 months!

Waiting for the airport staff to arrive and begin checking us in. Our flight was 9 am and we did not begin the check-in process until after 8 am. In fact, the airport doors were locked until almost 7:45! This airport was so tiny that we parked the car, checked in, went through security, waited by the gate, and walked onto the tarmac to board the plane all in the space of about 700 feet.

You know it is the beginning of the trip because they are all still smiling.

We flew from Kerry to Dublin, then Dublin to Stewart, then drove from Stewart (upstate NY) to Avon. The whole trip took almost 24 hours due to delays. Needless to say, we slept very soundly that night in Avon!

We are all so thankful for these past 6 months, for all the people we met and places we got to see, for all the history we learned in an up-close and personal way, for getting to experience life in a different country, for the beauty of God’s creation in Ireland and its amazing landscape, for cows, sheep, dogs, flowers, and all the other things that brought us joy. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we made some amazing memories! Thank you all for following the blog!

Some family and friends have asked us to continue the blog so that they can follow us on our new adventure in Tennessee. I think we will do that, but there won’t be as much to blog about since we’ll be busy unpacking and getting ready for the next school year. Stay tuned for one more post about our week in NJ, and then it will probably be a few weeks until we post again. Thanks again for following the blog!