After a not-so-restful night of sleep (Samantha is a kicker and the road noise didn’t go away) we packed up our flat again. By this point we (Liz) have gotten pretty good at consolidating all our stuff into a few small bags. The day was overcast and cold – like so cold that even I, Erik, wore pants, and I was glad to do it!

We drove about 90 minutes to the Cliffs of Moher on one of the best named roads in the world – the Wild Atlantic Way. Imagine the Pacific Coast Highway, only narrower and more dangerous. It weaves and wends over mountains, hugs the coastline, and tour buses try to get you with each turn.  Level up! For me, the driver, it felt like we were driving for eight hours, and when we finally arrived, I was glad for the break!

As we exited the car it became very clear that everyone was going to be cold and miserable unless we took some action. We had packed for this trip thinking “mid-June in the northeastern USA,” not “Nebraska in November.” It was about 45°F and the wind was howling about 30 mph. I really wanted to do some dangerous things today, and if the entire team was cold and mopey, that wasn’t going to happen. Liz to the rescue!! Everyone got a winter hat for a functional souvenir, and we were in business!

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We entered the visitor center and learned about the geology of the site, the animals that call it home, and O’Brien’s Tower. Katie found a short CGI movie about the wildlife and decided to watch it three or four times. After we had exhausted the indoor areas, we ventured out to the cliffs, and they were spectacular! Breathtaking views and people doing stupid things near the edges made for a wildly entertaining time. At the end of the day I was glad the kids didn’t witness someone falling to their death.

As we explored the cliffs there was an opportunity to walk along a nice stone wall or directly along the edge, or as my friend Stephen from Dublin calls it, “the Fun Side and the Safe Side.” Since Liz loves me and know that I enjoy an authentic experience, she encouraged me to walk along the Fun Side while she and kids explored from the Safe Side. For the record, at no point did I do anything sketchy that would have ended in a loss of my life.

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We piled back into the van and started the next leg of our journey which would take us another two hours south to Rooska East in County Limerick. On the way, and much to my surprise, everyone needed to eat again. We stopped in a little village called Ennis and found our Irish favorite – Supermacs! After filling our bellies, we took a short walk around the town, where Sam became a Clare supporter. Each county in Ireland participates in the Gaelic Athletic Association which oversees and promotes traditional Gaelic games like hurling, camogie, and Gaelic football. We went into a sporting goods store, and they had the best looking ¼ zip jacket we’d ever seen, so we bought it. As we were in County Clare, that’s what all the apparel was branded with. For the rest of the trip Sam was the most legit Lilla in Ireland.

Now we had to find this farmhouse we were supposed to sleep in. We knew it was a little off the beaten path, but we didn’t realize quite how far. As we were driving, the sat nav kept bringing us to narrower and narrower roads, but of course they were still two lanes. As we were driving I was secretly thinking that if another car comes at us in the other direction, and at the 80 km/hr posted speed limit, we’re going to have a big problem on our hands. Spoiler alert – that didn’t happen.

After driving for what seemed like too long we pulled into a small driveway to turn around. As I popped the car into reverse I traditionally dressed Irishman approached the car to see what we needed. I explained that we were lost, and then he told me things with a very thick and difficult for me to understand Irish brogue. There was a lot of nodding and smiling.

Finally we found our lodging for evening, which was a beautiful farmhouse situated high up on a hill. As we entered we could smell the burning of a heating stove (it was still cold) and we were surprised to see that it was fueled by peat briquettes! After getting ourselves settled, we immediately left, because it was of course time for dinner. We headed back down the super dangerous road, used my amazing parallel parking skills, and found ourselves a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner.