Something borrowed, something blue

On Wedding Rock at Patrick's Point

Something old (me), something new. I was a minister on Friday, and married Michaela and Damien so good they are going to stay married. Quite a wonderful affair, outdoor at Wedding Rock at Patrick's Point State Park, perfect weather, a perfect day.

Beauch had secured a group camping area for the week, so I drove up on Wednesday. Mike Fiore wanted a ride to Calaveras Big Trees to go camping with the Sheffer Clan, and I agreed thinking Calaveras was in Half Moon Bay. Oops, that's Butano State Park, Calaveras is east of Sacramento. An extra three hours driving to make for a thirteen hour drive, oh boy. Once I got to Patrick's Point it was 10pm, and I could not find the group camp area for the wedding, so I put up camp in some empty area. It turns out the group camp was no longer shown on the maps as a group camp, but that is where we were camping, and I moved there the next morning.

Once I got resituated, we spent the day traipsing the area, and then had a rehearsal in the afternoon where we ironed out the movements of the wedding. We feasted that night with a barbecue, but only a few of us camped, as most had friends in the area, or were staying in a hotel or at the spectacular house Michaela and Damien had rented for the reception.

On Friday I hiked around with Scott, one of the guests, then we all got ready for the wedding. We all marched out to Wedding Rock, a somewhat challenging hike for a seventy year old, maybe. There were about 20 guests waiting, and Joel, Mike B's nephew, was posted higher up in the rocks, playing violin and setting the mood. Patience was the Flower Girl, and she came up the path, carefully placing daisies an exact distance apart from the prior daisy, even going back to make some adjustments to daisies that were suddenly out of place.

Mike walked Michaela up the aisle to where Damien and I and the Best Man waited, and once she was ready we began the ceremony. Michaela and Damien wanted me to begin with the scene from the Princess Bride, where the minister begins, 'Mawwiage is what bwings us togethaw today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam within a dweam.' So I did, but then brought us back to the solemnity of the occasion, and it all went very smoothly, short and sweet.


Michaela, me and Damien

We then had a reception at this nice coastal house with tremendous views, decks and a great room that was magnificent. George cooked us up a feast of salmon and all the fixings, and when we realized there were enchiladas coming, it was too late, we were stuffed.

I hope to have some video really soon to put with this, and I may wait for that video before I post. (I didn't)


The Beauchemin Clan

It is now Saturday morning and I don't have video yet, but I do have these pics so I am posting. I just booked a trip back east to visit my Mom for her birthday (86!), from 9/14-9/22. Training for the half-marathon is getting more challenging, and I need to get a 5-mile jaunt in today. No team training today as many are doing the Montana de Oro 8K tomorrow, but I did not need to spend $25 to find out I am slow and out of shape. I have been humping up Islay Hill every other day as part of a 3-4 mile walk, and 2 miles flat on the off days.

It is amazing to watch my gut swell with steroids in spite of all this walking. I bounced up to 170 lbs from 160 when the steroid dose was increased, 50mg every other day, so I have to watch the nervous steroid snacking thing. I will see the eye doctor this week, and the local oncologist, as my liver function numbers remain high. I went through Scotland and Ireland without a drop, and the wedding without a drop, and for what? Is life fair? Heck no.

This is guilty week for me, as Dana prepares to go back to full-time teaching and Mike is off to PCPA training. Dana does not want to go back to work full-time, but there is the quandary of retirement based on your three highest-earning years. Each time I sniff at a job, I find I am over-qualified or have too diversified a background. Hah, what do these people know? So I have to clean the whole house and do yard work to show I have some value, but it doesn't get me anywhere. I am just playing out the string.

Back to Reality

The beach at Lehinch

The Poulnabrane Portal tomb

The Burren landscape, in background

Tourism on the Burren

Dunguaire Castle

Modern thatched-roof estate

Laura flipping the bird

Ladies Day in Galway (for the races)

Mikey sings 'Nantes', camera refuses to tape

Downtown Clifden

Kylemore Abbey in the background

We are home at last, mostly recovered. It is Saturday afternoon, and my sleep pattern is pretty messed up, getting up at all hours, and finally giving up at 4:30 or so. My eyes are really hurting me, very dry - I woke up last night with the feeling I was being stabbed in the eye with a dull nut pick. I finally went surfing, yesterday morning, and maybe the ocean water didn't help my eyes, they were horrible after I got out. It was great to get back in the water and find out just how bad the engine has gotten - pretty bad. I caught a couple of little waves, splashed around, had some fun. Beauch and I went, and as we were suiting up the Jr. Lifeguard squad invaded the spot, 20 of 'em, oh well, we went anyway. I ran at least one of 'em over! Oops!

This morning I went with the Team-in-Training on a training run, or walk, of 4 miles, not bad. Now I will try to catch up the last of the trip.

Saturday night and Sunday we spent day-tripping the area around Kinvara. We went to Aillwee Caves, and they had a brids of prey show that was pretty cool, and we toured the cave. The terrain of the burren area is very barren, stripped bare over time and left to limestone and whatever can survive in the windswept rocky terrain. We also visited some burial sites and ringforts, and a portal tomb that is 6,000 years old.

Monday we made a short move to Lisdoonvarna, where we were all going to stay in the nicest hostel in Ireland. Maybe it is, but Dana and I went looking for a B&B for us. We found a very nice one with a great bedroom, tiny bathroom, and great Irish breakfasts, and the same net price when you account for the breakfasts (coffee, tea, eggs, toast, yogurt, cereal, 3 types of sausage, fruit, date breads, ham and OJ). The kids stayed at the hostel.

When we were in Ireland in 2001, we finished our trip with a bang, at a banquet at Bunratty Castle, and that next night Dana and I went to Lehinch, the Cliffs of Moher at sunset, and into Doolin for a great music session. This time we went to a much smaller banquet at Dunguaire Castle, and it was good except it was only a 3-person show about the writers that had come from the area. The Bunratty show had many singers and dancers performing songs that many knew and sang along with. We went into Doolin for the session music, got there early and had good seats, but it wasn't really happening that night, with just a few players, no guitar to match ukulele chords with, and lots of tourists. Disappointing.

In 2001 when we got to the Cliffs of Moher, it was sunset and there were maybe ten other people in the area of the old fort tower. It was pretty wide open, small parking area, very serene. Eight years later and the Cliffs had been turned into a tourist exhibition, with movies, exhibits, gift shops, cafes, and 10,000 people all so happy that it wasn't raining they went to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Disneyland, Legoland, Ireland - Cliffs Adventure.

There is a trail that traverses the cliff edge from the visitor center all the way to another tower lookout, about two miles plus. About 500 meters down that trail is a barrier noting the cliffs are dangerous and saying that from this point on is private property. There is also a memorial dedicted to all who have died at the cliffs but the tourists are going right over the barrier and getting their pics taken as close to the edge as they dare. Remember, it has rained for the last 28 days, so that cliff is pretty soggy. John and Laura right away go over and head for the far tower, and within a few hundred meters the crowds have petered out. I wish I had gone with them, but Dana's foot is bad and she is hobbling so we stay.

Tuesday we go out for our last meal to a recommended pub in Lisdoonvarna, change tables three times, and have dinner. When the bill comes, we find they don't take credit cards, and there is no ATM in the whole town, the nearest is 20km away, and we are about 30 euro short. Mike goes back to the hostel and scrounges up all the money he can from John and Laura, and we have just enough. As we are paying Dana spills the last of her cider on the fiddler, and we leave.

At the airport in Shannon we discover that we are to be the first group to go through US customs on Irish soil, a new method, so we wont have to pick up our luggage in Phila and go through customs and then recheck it. The downside is we lose our pears, and barely make it to our gate on time, when we started with 2 extra hours. Otherwise, uneventful flights, and when we get home our house is lovely and stocked up with stuff, thanks Cindy.

Kinvara

Sunday, the 2nd, in Kinvarra, 7 am
We are in a B&B in this coastal town about 50km south of Galway. We left Clifden Saturday morning, picked the kids up in Galway, suffered through a two hour traffic jam to get through Galway and here we are. I will try to remember what happened to get us here. but I can tell you for sure that it has continued to rain every day at least some, the wettest July on record (I overheard). The kids are checked out mentally, they are road weary and disinterested. It appears all they want are better gaming units, and Mike wants his girlfriend.

Last Tuesday, the 28th, Dana and I did go into Roundstone, a very quaint and artsy town. The kids were dropped off at the Atlantic and presumably spent the day on the internet and throwing darts. We went to the Modhran factory, where they make the Irish drum, pronounced bowrawn. We were greeted with a 'How y'all doin?' by Tex, the proprietor, and he told us everything we needed to know about bodhrans. We bought one, and somebody will be making a lot of noise with this thing soon. Eventually it will look good hanging on the wall with the other instruments in the house. We bopped around town looking in all the shops, and got the scoop on all things local from the antiques dealer, a guy from Boston MA. Go Red Sox! We ate a very good seafood dinner at O'Dowds, and headed home.

Wednesday I filled you in on the last post.

Thursday, 8/30
We got a pretty early start to Galway, where we are dropping all three kids off at a hostel. It's about a 1.5 hour drive. On the way we stopped at Recess to check out Joyce's Crafts Shop, and the home of Connemara Marble. The owner is a sculptor of this soft stone, and the marble is beautiful. I traded him one of my last jade pieces for a piece of polished marble, and it turns out a couple of bigger stones we picked off the beach are also Connemara marble. The shop has a ton of woolen pieces, so we want to check it out further when we don't have the impatient easily bored crew in the car waiting.

It is race week in Galway, the biggest week of the year, and additionally Thursday is Ladies Day, so the place is crawling with ladies dressed to the nines, all looking very stylish with fancy hats and stilletto heels. Vavavavoom! We get the kids dropped at the hostel, which looks pretty cool, right near the heart of Galway. They will be in a dorm room with ten bunkbeds, just what they need. Dana and I go off exploring (shop-a-rama). Galway has a nice pedestrian area, the way SLO should do it, and the joint is jumping. There is a gritty side to the city, and we are told that after dark it can be dangerous, but what city isn't? Dana and I get out of there and take the coastal route home. We stop in Spiddal and have another great seafood meal, salmon, fish cakes, brown bread, great veg.

Friday, it rained all day, and we just hung around reading books all day. That night we were committed to getting to the music at J. Coneely's early enough to get a good seat, and we do, sitting right up front, sharing a table with an English couple from the Cotswolds. It was the same 2 guys that were there last Tuesday, Fergal Scahill and Mickey Martin. Mickey says Fergal is the Senior Fiddle Champion of Ireland, but he looks about 30. Mickey plays bazookie, a flattened mandolin, and sings, and Fergal also plays guitar. They are awesome, Fergal with the mad skills, and Mickey is very entertaining, great craic and a laugh like Amadeus. The joint is jumping, and people get up and show their jigging skills. Two gals are dancing a swing style right in front of us, and near the end of the night one of them goes looking for a partner. She is denied by her boyfriend and settles on me, and won't take no for an answer. This turns out to be the big finale song, and it is fast and long. I am in a sweat trying to keep up. The other girl joins in, Fergal is up on the bar tearing up the fiddle, Mickey is up on our table, the girls are spinning me around and toying with me, and of course we don't have a second of it recorded. It's probably on YouTube under 'Pathetic American Tourist gets schooled by Irish lassies!'

Saturday we pack up Clifden, check out, and head for Galway. We stop at Joyces' Crafts and pick up some gifts we've been meaning to get, go through Cong where 'The Quiet Man' was filmed, stop on the road for lunch, and enter Galway, where the worst traffic of the year has the city in a knot. It takes us 2 hours to drive 5 km through it, with the kids jumping in the car as we are stuck in traffic. Bad timing, I wish someone had warned us. Mike and Laura are asleep within one minute, and John is on the PC. They may have had too good a time in Galway. John says they were denied entry to the pubs because the bouncer said they were drunk, but my guess is he was unimpressed with the waif-like nature of their appearance. They got booze somewhere, because they sure seem hungover now. Once we get out of the traffic jam, it is not too far to Kinvara. Our B&B is very nice, The Meadow, but the view of ocean and castle they used to have has been blocked in the building boom that has gone on here. A lot of these houses are going begging now.

The kids go into town to get something to eat, while Dana and I engage our hosts, Mary and Denny Duffy, in some talk about the area. Mary is a retired nurse, and Denny is a retired policeman, so they know everyone in town, and Denny is an Irish history buff. Later we go into town to check it out and get a prescription refilled. Seems I shorted myself a few days. Of course, I forget the bottle, so I make the 1/2km jaunt a few more times, and then pay 35 euro ($50) for 15 pills, all they have. I pay $20 for 120 pills in the states. The big difference is these are brand-name, and I get generic at home. Ouch. We get some food, go back and take a short nap, and then Dana and I go check out hte session music downtown. The first bar has an accordion and bagpipe player, who are competent, but then they are joined by a fiddler that is learning, and a bazooki player that started yesterday and is clueless. So we leave there and find the other session is jamming, packed to the gills, and so loud with talking that we can't hear the music.

Today, we have started with a big Irish breakfast, eggs, yogurt, toast, 2 types of blood sausage, scotch ham, breakfast sausage, coffee, tea, cereal, and tomatoes. Criminy. The kids have mustered, it is 10:30, I am going to post this and then we will go touring the local caves, ring forts, dolmens and cairns.