Finally - Swimming in the North Atlantic!

I thought that I should report back to you to tell you that I finally got to swim in the ocean. While we were up at Portstewart we met a friend and her children down at the strand. We played in the sand and then her 8 year old and I went and splashed in the ocean waves - the weather was not warm but at least it wasn't raining!

No time to write a blog

We have been very busy with company - that is our excuse for the lapse in blog entries. We just returned from a week stay in Portstewart on the north coast. For part of the time we had company so we rented a car to tour them with Derry, Donnegal and all the tourist attractions on the North Coast. When we were at Dunluce Castle we were treated to a group of experts in medieval fighting and got to try on armor and experience professional jousting.
On Monday we had to take company down to the airport so our mode of transportation back up was the train/bikes. We took the train to Portrush and biked to Portstewart and then today we biked to Coleraine and took the train from there. Jen arrives tomorrow morning - so exciting!

I Saw three ships come sailing in

Our last couple of weeks have been so busy that it has seemed like a blur! I didn't want to forget to tell you about going to Belfast Maritime Festival. We went down to the harbour to see a number of tall ships which have been used if filming movies like Saving Private Ryan and Shackleton's adventures. The sister ship to the Titanic was also there along with a ship doing an reenactment of the ships used to send the Irish to America during the potato famine. We had coffee and great desserts on a Danish tall boat and were full of samples from the food marque - even had homemade bramley apple ice cream. We took home great cheeses and a loaf of Guinness bread (made with 27% Guinness) I will miss living so close to the sea!

I should have had a touring business

Our friends tease us that we should have opened a bed and breakfast. Now I'm thinking that I could also be a tour guide. Our friends from Red Lake wanted to go to Scotland and left it to me to plan their itinerary. Well, I'm comfortable planning tours of Northern Ireland but I broadened my horizon with the Scotland trip. It was sort of fun finding tours, trains, ferries, accommodations and sites of interest in Edinburgh. The sail and sail from Belfast harbour involves 4 transfers so I decided to make the trip with them and show them around Edinburgh for a few days. I also got to spend time with our friends the Friesens. I win the prize for their most frequent Canadian visitor. While I was away my 2nd cousin from Winnipeg arrived and Randy got to cover again for me - must learn not to double book my services! Well, tomorrow my cousin from England arrives for 5 days and we are planning a stay at Portstewart at a guesthouse there. I'll update later.

Company coming

It seems like company comes in waves! We picked up our friends from Red Lake Ontario on June 28 and they stayed with us for 8 days. We did all the touring routine and added a few extras to make it interesting. We had a two day excursion to Galway and saw the Burren and Connemara. The scenery was amazing. Yes I did get to see the sun go down on Galway Bay. We have the pictures to prove it!

Great concert

We went to a concert of a group called the Leading ladies at the Lisburn Civic Centre - the variety was amazing! We were entertained for over 2 hours and the Pond Park senior choir also sang a few numbers. The fun thing was that when we got there we were surprised that we knew so many people there - from living here a year we have met a lot of friendly people and it's starting to feel like home. Strange thing is that we are leaving in just over a month and when I looked at the pictures of the block party that our neighbors had for Jen when she was leaving for Prague it made me realize that we have many good friends at home and I'm starting to long for the prairies!