It is morning. I lay in bed in a stone house built in the 1800s.

Outside pink flowers spill over stone walls. My window is open and the cool breeze filters in. I can hear the faint sounds of chicken and song birds. My body is sore in a pleasant way from days with lots of walking. The house is still waking. I am content.

I think back to the past few days. So many highs inter-dispersed with so many lows. We’ve lived a lot in the past few days.

a few notable moments…

Enjoying eating the 8th best pizza in the world in New York City. (After a 20 block walk with tired kids.)

Staying at a lovely Hampton Inn near Grand Central Station where they greeted us with snacks and waters (so welcome after a multi-hour stifling hot cab ride from New Jersey).

Meeting an author of children’s books in an airport line and her signing a book and giving it to Chiara. (Link to book.)

Meeting an Irish gentleman in the same line who played with Chiara and helped the very long line go so much faster, as though we were among friends.

Getting lost in Central park with 3 tired and hot kids.

Eating yummy gyros from a food truck near the Natural History Museum. (Not actually visiting the museum – entry was expensive for the amount of time we had to go there, but going in multiple times for kids’ bathroom breaks.)

Teaching the kids how to navigate a subway system.

A long overnight flight with 2 of the kids not able to sleep.

The anxiety of thinking we might miss our connecting flight from Manchester to Dublin as we wound through the airport and kept hitting roadblocks, like long security lines and having our bags searched.

After the red eye flight, the other flight and a 2 hour+ drive, on very little sleep, having a tire pop on a road from Dublin to Lismore. Seeing Irish kindness in action as two different vehicles stopped to help us wedge our stuck broken tire off.

It has been 4 days of complete extremes. The best of times and the worst of times.

On Friday, we found our calm. Staying here at the Mill View Lodge on the beautiful grounds of Ballyin House in Lismore, a place where Sherlock Holmes’ author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited (and his mother owned). This place is truly a hidden gem in Ireland. We tasted traditional Irish coffee, gathered eggs, and held chickens.

We fed the donkeys that live here.

We were shown the secret path to the nearby black river, promising the kids a swim there tomorrow.

The boys have been making and drinking lots of tea from the mint and lemon balm plants outside our door. Oh, and we dealt with 2 additional flat tires on our rental car plus fixing the one that had the spare. Our host, Caroline, has been wonderful.

She facilitated everything we’ve done so far in Lismore and may be dropping by this morning with fresh scones.

The kids are excited to take a swim in the black river today and hopefully take a virtual reality (with VR headsets) tour of the local castle, Lismore castle. Fred Astaire and John F. Kennedy both visited Lismore Castle and it was the home to the ‘Father of Chemistry’.

We look ahead to a traditional afternoon tea experience at the estate on the property here, a farmer’s market, and a possible visit to Waterford, Ireland before we pack up for our next destination.

For now, I sit and write this. Chris is making breakfast of sausage, eggs from the chickens outside and fresh fruit. Alexander is doing online school. Chiara is listening to Daniel Tiger and doing an alphabet puzzle, Asher is building with little lego-like blocks. I look outside at the stone walls and pink flowers in our backyard garden.

For the moment, life is good.

Travel in this post:

St. Paul -> New Jersey -> New York -> Manchester, England -> Dublin, Ireland -> Lismore, Ireland

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