Ireland, Day 4

- Postscript to the day at the Cliffs of Moher. Robin took Jack back to the car, stopping along the way to get a coin that got mashed into a pattern in a little machine. Later, Robin told me that you could choose different patterns, and Jack chose a castle, but got one of the Cliffs anyway -- ironic since he didn't enjoy standing in the whipping wind to see the Cliffs. So Jack was all, "Where's my castle?" And he was sad for a minute, and then brightened and said, resiliently, "Maybe the castle looks like the Cliffs?" And Robin said that might be it. And Jack was happy.

- Since Tuesday was a touring-centric day where the kids stayed home, Wednesday was a day for the kids. So we zipped off to Galway to go the Aquarium and have a picnic at the playground. I'm a little torn to come up with stories since all went pretty much as you'd expect, so I'll just go with a stream of consciousness rambling:

Kate and Jack fell asleep in the car on the way there. We brought the stroller and Kate wanted no part of it, so we pushed an empty stroller around the aquarium for an hour, carrying it up and down stairs and such. Jack was mildly freaked out by a huge crash of water near the entrance, moreso freaked out, I think, by Izzy or Anna shrieking two feet away from him when the crash occurred. Kate loved everything -- climbed up the glass to point at the rays, whacked against the glass where there were fish swimming around. Jack (all of us) were suitably impressed by giant eels the size of the kitchen counter. There was a very cool skeleton of a fin whale, which its sheet indicated is the world's second largest mammal and the history was that it had beached itself somewhere in Ireland, possibly suffering from an ear infection, back in the '80s I believe. Sad, but at least the whale now brought enjoyment to visiting tourists like me.

Then it was off to the playground, and a picnic. Great fun for all and we were all ravenous; I think we had food just in time for the kids and Emily, who were on the verge of getting cranky. Then there was lots of playing, which was nice. Walked along the Salthill Prom, which I remembered doing back in 1993. Pleasant. Then it was home, jumping on the trampoline (Jack loves it and Kate finally got into it, too, crawling around a bit). I should mention, Jack wanted Abbey to come on the trampoline with him. He loves her. I'd offered to go on with him, but he said, "I don't want big people on the trampoline." Niamh said she'd go on; I asked if Niamh was big people. He said, "Yes. I want Abbey." We went out front and he yelled for Abbey, and she came over from playing with friends to go jump on the trampoline with Jack. Fair play to her. Then it was breakfast for dinner (pancakes and bacon, any time a good time), and a nice bath and bedtime for the kids. And a big glass of wine or two.