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As you can see the adult teeth are coming right in so there won't be a gap for long! I need to get the girl some chapstick!  |
Now, back to Ireland and staying awake!
After we left Bunratty Park at closing time, we ventured over to the Woolen Mills, but they were unfortunately closed. We only had about an hour to wait until the Traditional Irish Night banquet so we all hung out in the parking lot. Some people slept. I am not saying any names, but they did. I tried to keep them up, but they couldn't stop themselves! I had my 5 hour energy drink around 2:00 so I wasn't feeling it to badly! We rallied the troops and headed back into the park for the banquet.
We entered the Corn Barn to a couple playing some beautiful Celtic music. We were greeted by the Fear an Ti (man of the house) and offered a glass of mead or Irish cream liqueur. We were seated at our table and chatted with the couple that were already there. They were actually staying at our same B&B. They were a bit odd, but very friendly!
The Fear an Ti talks to the crowds and introduces the singers, musicians, and dancers. From there on out, we watched a wonderful show with traditional music and dancing. In between the songs, the Fear an Ti would tell stories and things. The best part was when he wished Mom a happy 70th birthday! She was so tickled!
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| I love love love Irish music! |
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| Mom's face when they announced her birthday! |
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| The brush dance |
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| The dancers were amazing. I never get tired of watching their feet! |
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| One of my favorite pictures! We wanted to buy Jemma a dancing costume, but they aren't really sold anywhere. When the girls make this level of dance, their costumes are custom made and can cost several thousand dollars! |
Our first course was a garden salad and then we could choose Irish stew or a poached salmon with white wine dill sauce. I had the salmon which was fantastic. I also tried a bite of the stew which was excellent. Dessert was homemade apple pie with fresh cream which was beyond yummy! The last thing served was traditional barm brack. This is a yeasted bread with raisins. It is sweeter than bread, but not as sweet as cake. It is actually a Halloween tradition that was used as a fortune telling game. Inside the bread was baked a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin, and a ring. If you had the piece with one of the items it meant something. The pea meant that the person would not marry in the year. The stick, "to beat one's wife with" meant that the person would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes. The rag meant that one would have bad luck while the coin meant good luck or fortune. The ring meant that the person would be wed by December. At our feast we were told that there were only rings in the barm brack and to see who got it. Jemma dug through that bread like nobody's business and while she was looking away, the Fear an Ti slipped a ring onto her plate! She was ecstatic!!!
Some of the last songs were ballads and with full bellies, the melodic music was putting some to sleep and others were getting very sleepy! We were glad they picked it up at the end with a show stopping finale!
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| The big finale! |
We made it back to the B&B and good nights were exchanged. I, for the first time ever, slept the whole night through. Not a bit of jet lag! Yippeeee! My plan had worked! Others claimed to have slept all night, but a little birdie told me some didn't go to sleep until almost 3:00! No matter what time everyone went to bed, the first day was filled with lots of fun and laughter!
