The day after Easter was our big family trip that we had been planning for a couple of months.
We flew out of SLC in the afternoon and flew eight hours to Amsterdam. It was 10:30 a.m. when we arrived. We were hoping to get out and see the tulip fields, but our plane left SLC late and our time got eaten up, so we were not able to leave the airport. We ended up wandering around the shops and buying a few treats.
Rick loves different cheeses and bought a few which sadly we didn't end up eating😕
But we for sure ate the sweets!😉
I bought some beautiful tulips to take to our airbnb home in Ireland.
I thought it was a whopping deal of 10 euro, but when I got to the checkout they were 50 bucks!
At that point I just gulped and said "ok".
They really did make TWO beautiful vases for our kitchen and living area throughout the week.
Our view of the amazing tulip fields of Amsterdam! Such bright colors.
Seeing them from the air was a little consolation that we did not get to see them from the ground.
After arriving in Belfast and getting our cars we drove into a small town called Moira where we had rented a very nice home from airbnb. We each had our own room and there was a large kitchen and plenty of living space. There was a nice jacuzzi in the backyard that sadly I only used once.
The first night there it was pouring rain. We drove into Moira, but the pub that we were going to eat at stopped serving food at 8pm. It was shortly after 8 and so they suggested an Indian restaurant just steps from their place. We ate at the Masala Hut and the food was REALLY flavorful and delicious! The service was really great, as well!
This is the Kilwinning church where they were most likely married.
A man named Ivan stopped and spoke with us about the graveyard and the area.
He was very nice and it was a good start to putting on our "Irish Ears." HAHA!
Next we drove over to the Drumgooland Church where historical records show that the Paxtons were baptized. We never found any records for Eliza but found some for her siblings. We know they didn't start saving records until after she was born...thus no records.
Brach and Kendra and their kids also came on the trip.
They were staying in an airbnb really close to the family history sights and joined us in the graveyard.
Right away the kids caught a couple of frogs that Aunt Kathy had spotted.
Oh my goodness! Those kids are so cute!
Brach, Kendra and Chloe inside the Drumgooland Church.
Brady and his frog.
We found two significant gravestones in Drumgooland.
Two brothers Paxton and their wives. We are still trying to figure out how they fit into the family.
Afterwards we stopped for a bite of lunch at Square One restaurant.
The adults enjoyed their food but sadly the kids did not...except for Rafe who had the BEST noodles and carbonara sauce!
For dessert we had scones with cream and jam...YUM!
Next we stopped at the Drumballyroney Church and had fun looking through the graveyard there.
It was full of names that are part of the Trusdale family.
From the graveyard we kept hearing a donkey braying.
Grandpa, Brach and the kids went to go find him and had a good time interacting with the donkey.😁
This was a fun old telephone booth that we had to take pictures in.
Also, Rafe wanted to stop on this bridge for a picture.
He's so cute!
And another of Rafe with the sunset behind him.
I love this picture!
Just as the sun was going down we pulled back into the small church at Kilwinning so the Bomans could see it. Here's a cute picture of them in front of the church.
Afterwards, we drove south to see their airbnb. The kids were excited to show me their rooms! This place had a jacuzzi outside, and the family had fun using it!
We left them there and headed back to our own place in Moira for the night.
We had a good night's rest, ready for the next full day!
We left the house around ten the next morning to make our way north.
Our first stop was The Dark Hedges. A place where the movie Game of Thrones was filmed.
This was the entrance.
On our way to the hedges we stopped at this beautiful blooming tree to take some pictures.
While we were there Rick found someone's personal cards on the ground. (credit, ID, and health)
We had no idea how to get in touch with said person. Rick noticed a phone number on the health ID card and called it. He was able to talk to someone from there who in turn contacted the owner. Luckily, they were still in the parking lot and were able to come back to meet us. Funny story...When the man of the wife called, one of the first things he asked Rick was, "what are you wearing?" to be able to find us. What was funny was the man started giggling because of the question and giggled through the rest of the phone call.
Anyway, long story but we were able to meet up with the owners (who were from the Netherlands), and they were so thankful to receive their cards back. We even took a picture together.
This is not the picture🤣
This was a cool fallen tree that we had to get a picture of:)
We walked about fifteen more minute through the hedges which are a row of cool trees marking the entrance to an old manor home. It was a really pretty walk.
This is the picture with the Dutch family
How cool is this old broken tree!?!
After the Dark Hedges we drove up to the coast to the Giant's Causeway.
We didn't spend a whole lot of time here but enjoyed walking along the rocks and enjoying the view.
Trent and Kathy loved finding stuff in the tide pools.
Greg and Brad...
After our time at the Causeway we drove a few miles to the east to get to Carrick a Rede Bridge.
I had wanted to come to this bridge the first time we were in Ireland but it was closed because of Covid.
We were able to join up with the Bomans at this point, and we all had a really nice hike to the bridge. There were some beautiful coastal views along the way. We sure loved being with the Bomans.
These kids are so fun!
Here we are on the bridge.
And here is a picture of the bridge behind us.
After that we were ready for some dinner so we stopped in a pub called Fullerton Arms in a little town called Ballintoy. We enjoyed dinner and dessert. One notable thing that happened here is that Rick accidentally scratched the bumper of the car while he was parking. In the long run it cost us $2,000!😡
Just about every night in Ireland (and Scotland I might add) Trent and Rick had Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. By the end of our trip they were ready for a new dessert! HAHA!
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