May 17—All the Way to the North Atlantic

On Wednesday, we continued our foray northward. Not sure exactly why, but it felt right. There were fewer photos taken today, probably because we've gotten a little used to seeing one beautiful field / wall / stone building after another...

(Click on the thumbnails for a larger view, and then on the enlarged image to return.)

	Not long after the car was warmed up, we came across the Portumna Castle and Gardens. This is a huge, magnificent estate, and the entry fee was quite inexpensive. The reason is that the restoration has just barely begun on it and there wasn't much to see.
	First, however, Mike felt the urge to mark the territory as his.
	Only in Ireland would tourist attractions think to have loaner umbrellas for their patrons.
	The Blue Man Group heads toward the castle entrance.
	Yup, pretty magnificent. But they'd only recently gotten the roof restored so that it wouldn't leak.
	We noticed that the Irish women were a lot better looking the further north we went. Either that, or we really were starting to pine for the women we'd left back home. In either case, this barmaid was such a stunner that none of us could hold the camera still.
	Simultaneously sad and beautiful, the lace that adorns this nearly-empty glass of Guinness makes grown men cry.
	We somehow got lost among the back roads driving out the peninsula west of Sligo. But we came across an interesting, centuries-old cemetery, and here we are peeing inside—er, peering inside.
	Toward the latter part of the trip, we took to playing cards (set-back, or pitch, or high-low-jack-game, depending on where you were brought up) at night. These shots were taken at the pub/B&B where we stayed in Strandhill, a resort cummunity at the tip of the Sligo peninsula (you know—where the Rathcarriek Knocknarra Forest is). Strandhill is booming, with everything under construction, much like most of Ireland these days.
	This is a stealthy shot of a babe doing the dishes in the house across the street from our B&B, taken just before we turned in. Yes, ten days is perhaps a bit too long...