Gaillimh go Muileann na Buais (Galway to Bushmills)

Jean: Hey everyone! Great day today! Woke up rested and refreshed and ready to make the journey to Northern Ireland. Met up with one of Mandy's Duke Boardie friends last night for dinner and some catching up.

My poison ivy is getting better with the prescription medication i got yesterday and though itchy at times, its definitely not hindering my ability to see the beauty i see while driving around the country.

Before we got on the road we went to Centra, a version of Wawa or Sheetz that far surpasses either of them in America in my respects! We shared a breakfast sub with 2 Irish sausages, rashers, 2 eggs and hash browns....for 3.5 Euro....... AMAZING!! I am in LOVE with Irish sausage.

One of the main things i've fallen in love with here is some foods. The first day i found a strawberry jam that I WILL be bringing home with me. Its fantastic! I also found a granola with coconut and almonds. We both already loved Nutella, but we found Krave.....a breakfast cereal that is captain crunch filled with hazelnut chocolate.....OMG

On the way to Bushmills we passed through Sligo, where we stopped at the W.B. Yeats Memorial and gravesite which is surrounded a gorgeous landscape of mountains just seeming to come out of the ground. A lot of the mountains seem to just jut up out of the ground and not belong to any mountain range. It's pretty fantastic.

Mandy: Hi all! Great day today... After leaving Galway we hit the road for what we planned to be our longest day of driving, but

it turned out not to be so bad! We hit the Centra and purchased an amazing breakfast sandwich that was so bad for us, it sustained us throughout most of the day (um, hello...rashers, sausages, eggs, and hashbrowns on a baguette. NOM!).

Down the road we came upon the shrine at Knock, so we decided to make a spur-of-the

moment stopover to sightsee and pick up some souvenirs.

Back on the road, we went through Sligo, Donegal, and Coleraine before landing at the most A.MAZ.ING hotel in Bushmills, NI (well, technically Portballintrae). After dropping our bags we went for a walk down to the beach and throughout the town before returning back for an incredible dinner of mussels, caesar salad, and blue cheese/sun dried tomato ravioli for starters, ribeye steak and pan-seared red sea bass for mains, and Bushmills for dessert.

After grabbing a bottle of wine to take up to the room, we retired for the night. After each taking our turns soaking in the jacuzzi, we settled with the bottle of wine and... home and garden style TV (some things never change!)

Tomorrow we've a busy day, but very little driving, so Jean's particularly happy about that! We'll be visiting the Bushmills Distillery, Giant's Causeway, and the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge, then heading about an hour-and-a-half south into Belfast. Praying for good weather, since many of our activities tomorrow are outside (though somehow we've both managed to get some sun already).

OK, time to get off the computer and back out to our bayview balcony...that wine is calling me! Until tomorrow, enjoy our view...