Thank you, Mam! (and Ed too)

Did you ever have a dream so unlikely you hardly even bothered to put it in words? I did. I dreamed of traveling to Ireland with my family to celebrate my husband’s and my 60th birthdays. I might have mentioned this dream a time of two and, even though I have about a thousand pictures to prove it, I still can’t believe that magical trip happened.

It started in an unassuming fishing village called Ballina, which we only learned we’d been pronouncing wrong when, a week later, we ran into a resident late one night in Killarney.

“Ballina? Ballina?” he said, pronouncing it like a musical fairy. “Tourists don’t go to Ballina!”

But, thanks to one of our trip’s outstanding navigators, we did. Ballina, the salmon capital of Ireland, took our breath away. We sat on our balcony overlooking the River Moy, sipping Irish tea, nibbling scones and watching anglers cast. It felt like a living poem.

And, speaking of scones, we found them, warm and freshly baked, at Mam’s, a charming cafe located right down the road. Owner Jean Hanifin named the place after her mother, which causes some confusion among the locals.

“Someone will say, ‘I’ll meet you at Mam’s and then the other person goes to their mom’s house,” Jean told us, laughing.

The egg-eaters among us enjoyed a full Irish breakfast, and then we took off for a day of tramping through County Mayo’s gorgeous coastline. The weather added a medieval kind of energy to our adventure, as we stood on the cliffs in the wind and occasionally pelting rain and danced a little jig.

It seemed like an appropriate start to our tour of the Wild Atlantic Way.

As I stood on those rugged crags and looked down at the waves crashing below, I couldn’t help but wonder how humans ever made their way onto that majestic island.

They did though. A long, long time ago. On our way back from Donegal Bay and Sligo, we passed Céide Fields, so we popped in for a look. It turned out to be the oldest agricultural field system in the world. Somehow, nearly 6,000 years ago, an enterprising group of people made their way up those imposing cliffs and into those bogs, where they carved fields separated by stone walls. Aren’t humans amazing?

We met some kindly Irish people inside the visitors center and they apologized for the day’s weather but, honestly, I thought it was perfect. It made me appreciate the fortitude of the Irish people even more and, if your view is absolutely beautiful in a slashing rain, then you know that view is absolutely, genuinely, undeniably beautiful.

And it was.

We ended our day back in Ballina, where we enjoyed a fresh salmon dinner and a little smooth Irish whiskey.

I would like to thank all of my family members who planned this amazing trip, starting with Ed, traveling photographer and driver extraordinaire, who put together this first segment for us.

Except for the addition of incoming family members, I didn’t think the days could possibly get better

But they did…