Sept 1- Not a typical date

We went out on a date the other night (this is rare enough to make a blog of it). First, just a few pictures from the week...

I found Silas doing the Big Book of Things to Spot with his baby.

"Now find - Mommy, what is this?"

"That's a woodpecker."

"Now find - Mommy, what number is this?"

"Five."

"Now find five woodpeckers."...

Silas sat talking to the horse for a long time.

Unauthorized use of stickers. Would you believe it if I told you this happened while Daddy was home with the kids?

And now, our date. Daniel found an old Friary on Google Earth, so we went to check it out.

Would have been a peaceful-looking picture, except that they wouldn't look up. This just looks spooky - like three headless sheep.

Founded in 1351, Ross Errilly Friary was considerably enlarged in 1498 and became one of the largest Franciscan foundations in Ireland. Today it is the best preserved in the country. The buildings here give a vivid idea of what life was like for Franciscan monks in the middle ages; the cloister for meditating, the church for prayers and services, and the domestic buildings for cooking, eating, and sleeping. In many ways, Ross Errilly has all that was required of a perfectly equipped medieval monastery.

The church and bell tower are to one side of the small central cloister and the domestic buildings to the other. Amongst these are the kitchen (complete with oven and a water tank for live fish), the bake house, and the refectory or dining area where the brothers had their meals. The dormitories are on the upper levels. An unusual feature is the second courtyard or cloister. The monks were expelled seven times, once by Cromwell's soldiers in 1656, but each time they returned. They finally abandoned the friary in 1753 and the buildings fell into ruin.

This was a neat one to explore - all the shapes in the architecture really stood out to me. I kept thinking, "geometry, lots of geometry, I was never very good at it, couldn't keep all the formulas straight, I liked trigonometry proofs better..." I never said I was cool in high school. Anyway, these are my pictures of the friary - lots of 'geometry' among them. And, I apologize, Daniel is right, a few of them are crooked.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The fish tank in the kitchen.

The kitchen fireplace...

..and chimney.

After the friary, we drove around Lough Corrib area for a while.

Cargin Castle, built in the 13th C, restored as a home in the 1970's.

We've learned that all the castles we see here were originally painted white inside and out.

Lough Corrib

Hmmm...that's not good.

Then we drove down to the promenade in Galway city and walked for a bit.

Peace and quiet.

We used a public toilet on the prom - one of those high-tech ones. Pay 20c, the spaceship pocket door opens, you enter and it closes behind you; it's all wet since it gets totally sprayed down on the inside after each use. Crazy. I was a little nervous since I saw a CSI episode once where someone tampered with one of these and intentionally drown a person inside. I remember thinking while I was watching it, "Does such a thing even exist?" I got my answer and got to use it. I'll add this to my list of interesting life experiences.