FAMILY TIME

So for those of you who don't know my parents got to come visit me this past week! I'm not gonna lie,  I was pretty shocked when I found out they were actually coming all the way to Ireland, but I am so glad they did. They got here last Wednesday night. Thursday I didn't have class so I showed them all around Dublin (including Accents). Friday morning I had a design critique so that got to see that. It was kind of ironic because this is the first one they have gotten to see while I've been in college. Then that after noon we headed to Galway which is on the west coast of Ireland. We spent the weekend there taking in the sights and just relaxing. Here are a few photos from our adventures. Hope you enjoy!

St. Patrick's Cathedral- founded in 1191, this church is the national cathedral of Ireland. Here we are standing in the large green area where it is believed St. Patrick baptized people at one time.

Inside the cathedral.

This picture was taken with my studio classmates in mind who are designing a staircase for structures class...isn't this sweet! You weren't allowed to go up it but I think it goes up to the organ.

Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of the inside of this building, but this is Trinity College Library (so you should google it to see what it looks like). I'm not sure when it was built but it is the largest library in Ireland with 5,000,000 volumes. It is also home to the Book of Kells which is "an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier making it one of the oldest books still in existence." -Wikipedia

Random picture of me in these huge chairs we walked by in a hotel.

The rest of these pictures are from our trip to Galway. We took of bus tour on our Saturday there and we stopped at this birds of prey place. So this is me "holding" a barn owl.

The guy asked if anyone else wanted to have the owl land on them and my mother jumped up...she was pretty excited about it :)

We then headed up to this cave called Aillwee Cave- the entrance to which you can see here. It is located in the Burren Hills.

After the cave tour my mom and I hiked a little ways up in the Burren (love this picture of her). As you can see the hills are basically all rock. Anywhere that you see grass fields around here are where all the rocks have been removed. This is why the fences separating land are all made of stone. Because any grass would have to be moved in from somewhere else and would be quite shallow, these lands cannot be used to grow crops.

Areas where the rocks have been cleared...so beautiful!

LOVE this picture of my folks!

The famous Cliffs of Moher! We were blessed with a clear day so they were very visible. These cliffs are 650ft high and breath-taking to say the least!

A lookout tour at the highest point on the cliffs.

The path you aren't supposed to go on....that I am standing on, haha. I even got my mom to venture out on it. A little nerve-racking but well worth it to really experience them.

Look out tower again on the cliffs in the distance.

One of my favorite things about this place was hearing the waves crash against the cliffs...nothing like it! There is something about places like this that "stirs the soul". Only God could create something so beautiful, powerful and perfect!

The parents getting adventurous :) This was at some more shallow cliffs. Behind us were some people rock climbing on them.

This is Dunguaire Castle. It was unfortunately closed for the season so we couldn't get to go in but we did get to go right up by it. It was built in 1520 by the O'Hynes clan on the shores of Galway Bay.

Me and the Folks!