The BIG 2nd Anniversary...after only 8 years!

I know, this post is way overdue. The point is, I am doing it. I am going to confess to a bit of cheating - I am mostly going to copy this verbatim from my journal. These are my personal thoughts - I am not posting this to win a Pulitzer. Ok, here goes.

Happy Anniversary! February 29, 2008
What an unexpected day. Last night we drove into Derry. We stopped at the B&B in Rick Steve's book - one of the few good things about the book - the other being current prices and open hours. The B&B is called Saddler's House. It was a nice place - tiny lou - but it was close to the wall. The people were SO friendly. The gentleman who met us; showed us around, asked us about where we're from, told us places to eat, etc - he was very chatty. Then we went to Flaming Jack's (hehehe) for dinner. After dinner, we walked all around the wall of Derry - it was so nice. Just me and Bryce on the wall - looking over the city. When we got back to the B&B, the woman came out and asked us about our dinner - etc. They were so nice. This was the first place with hot chocolate in the room (everywhere has tea in the room) - and kit kat's!

This morning we woke up snuggling - Bryce was so sweet. We ate breakfast with an American woman from PA and a Scottish guy. They had LOTS to say. We were planning on walking round Derry to see some monuments, shops, etc - but it was SO rainy and cold, we decided to try out luck moving on. It rains about everyday, but it's usually stop and go - sun and clouds - wind and calm. So, we hoped it would calm, stop raining, and we could walk around the other things we wanted to see. We made it to Portrush and realized the weather was getting worse. We stopped at a coffee shop that had sandwiches and Internet. Bryce was so disappointed in the way the day was turning out - he had so wanted to get me flowers or SOMETHING ... It was fine. It's nice to know he was thinking of things - Oh, he thought about going on a boat ride, too, but the weather was too nasty. After lunch he tried to get me ice cream at a treat shop but the man didn't have the ice cream because he thought it was too cold - and it was! But I love good ice cream :)

We went to Dunluce Castle and got blown into the ocean along with the servants and dinner in the 1630's.

(Here's the story: This castle is built on an island with a bridge out to it. One night during a terrible storm, the edge of the cliff where the kitchen was - fell into the ocean along with several servants and the nights dinner.)












(Here is a picture of Bryce holding onto his hat - which, although it is very tight, it felt like it would blow off - on the bridge to the island bit of Dunluce Castle.)

















(Here is a picture of me pretending that I am sitting in a beautiful bay window on a spring day reading a book. Did I mention it was freezing out?)


It wasn't rainy, though.













We decided to move on to Giant's Causeway. It was SO crazy windy and rainy that we spent several minutes in our car before it got blown over (you saw how little it was in earlier posts, right?) and we moved into the info center :) There we filled out and sent postcards. We finally decided to brave the wind since it wasn't currently raining. WOW! What an adventure. We got blown down the trail, into the rocks and into the ocean :)

Really, the wind pushed us down the trail and it felt like it was going to take my feet out from under me! It did start raining and with the wind it drenched my whole backside. After we went thru one particularly scary pass, I thought we should take some photos and work our way back up. So we did - try to to take some photos.

(As you can see from the waves, it was a bit windy)

It was so scary and windy - I slipped once on the rocks and got muddy and wet - but I was alive:)





(Basic story about the Causeway: The legend is that the Giant, Finn MacCool, was building a trail across the ocean to Scotland to his love. The geologic perspective is that when all this basalt cooled, it formed these crazy, almost hexagon shaped, columns. Pick your favorite story to tell people. Note in this picture how the shapes of the rocks are extending in a path out to the ocean.)

(Also, note the foam on the rocks.)




(I like to call these pictures: camera one and camera two. I was sitting on these columns that I was attempting to climb over - and yet trying to take some good pics. I was so nervous because of the wind that I kept just firing off shots so I could hurry and get down and safe. I just love how these turned out. First the waves in the background are getting blown backwards because of the wind. Second because in the first frame the wave is just reaching the columns and in the second they are having their second big crash. Beautiful. Too bad I was too scared to enjoy it at the time ;)

Some of the foam from the waves blew up into my mouth a couple of times - eww! We were now back on the path (the one pictured here) and getting pelted in the face with rain flying at 100 mph - OUCH - luckily Bryce grabbed my hand and we were able to push up thru it together.

Once the wind and rain subsided a bit - I started to laugh. "Happy Anniversary!" I said, "This is a romantic walk along the beach!" We had a good laugh at ourselves.

We went back, soaked thru to our skin, and drove to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge just to check to make sure it would be open the next day. The sign said it opened March 1st so we are praying there isn't too much wind.

We went to a restaurant in Ballintoy that also had a B&B. We sat next to the heater to warm ourselves. While we were eating, a group of guys, who apparently had just gotten off work - some kind of construction it seemed - came in and started playing pool and having a pint of Guinness. A man sauntered over to the jukebox to pick some songs. After several minutes of serious contemplation, a Tina Turner song came on! I couldn't believe it! Maybe he pushed the wrong button. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Next song: "Complicated" by Aviril Lavigne! This was too much. I was trying not to laugh and wondering if his comerades were going to come raz him or even beat him up for what he was playing - but they didn't even seem to notice! I got out an old recipt and started writing down the songs he picked. It got better. After some techno and that one song - "I wanna stand with you on a mountain..." - my jaw dropped to the floor.

"You raise me up" by Josh Groban! Who is this guy! I kept waiting for a Lisa Loeb song next. When I finally got my turn at the jukebox, I saw there wasn't any Lisa Loeb - maybe that was why. I was able to play "Sweetest Thing" for Bryce. I think this is one of "our songs" because of the "blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl" line. Love it.

We went up to our room (beware gorey details;) and got into our jammies and snuggled under the covers. We talked about fun memories and things we love. We watched a program on TV about a little region in Ireland. These cute little kids were telling folktales, acting out Viking stories, and singing traditional songs. It was so fun!

I do love my Bryce. He tried hard today - because he loves me. I love that he tries. I love that he likes to snuggle with me and say nice things to me. I love that he sang "I love you in the morning" to me this morning in bed. He is wonderful and I'm glad he is mine forever.