Ireland takes the Spartz girls by storm 2

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid. It was such a joy to spend some seriously high quality time with my niece. Here we are, at a gorgeous river right outside the Markree Castle, practically a ruin it felt, and was so old, where we had the misfortune to spend a night. The castle was a bit of a bummer but the grounds were very pretty and me and Mads had good times.





The West of Ireland is said to be magical. When we picked up our car from the airport, I asked "This is the clutch and this one is the brake, right?" after which we decided it would be best if my sister drove the first leg of the trip. While driving along, we saw a road sign that said "Drive slow." My sister is a bit of a literalist, so naturally, the sign irritated her because it wasn't clear. She said out loud, with attitude, "Drive slow, what does that even mean, how slow?" About ten seconds after that sentence escaped her mouth, the road was painted with big block white letters that said "Very Slow." You had to be there, but it must have been magic.



By accident we took the longest drive possible from Clifden to Galway. We were in the car a long time. For my sister, who had to drive the whole time, being in the car a long time is a very bad thing. Less bad in Ireland than in Minnesota, but still a little rough. Luckily we came across this beautiful beach to break it up a little.

Let me explain why Amy was stuck behind the wheel. You see, I hadn't practiced on a stick shift since the Spartz LeMans died in 1987. That coupled with size of the roads in Sligo County made me a high risk driver. I almost gave Amy a heart attack with my spacial ability challenges. In hind sight, the whole thing is really funny, but at the time, we had words. I'm sure I would have gotten the hang of driving but I couldn't make Amy see my potential so, we had a fight, and then she drove the whole rest of the trip. She was a champ. I probably would have killed us all.