Day 8: Ireland

Today we woke up just before 8 am and were served an amazing breakfast at the Brigown B&B in Ballina (salmon & eggs for Mike, French toast for Stacey). The B&B owner is known throughout Ireland for her cooking ability and even hosts a radio cooking show – this is why we picked this over others in the area. We showered after breakfast and left for Ceide Fields. Ceide Fields is a Neolithic archaeological site on the North Coast of County Mayo. We took a guided tour, and then explored the visitors center. It sure was a cool and windy day, but the rain held off. What didn’t hold off were the uninvited guests – crazy biting gnats that make you itch (aka biting midges)! They bit us like crazy while we were trying to take pictures outside (and the itch lasted for a while!) After leaving the visitors center, we headed to the North Mayo Irish Heritage Center in Crossmolina where I had the staff research my grandfather. For 30 Euros, they were able to provide me with a document that showed a record of his birth, just outside of Ballina. We left Crossmolina and stopped at a beach of the side of the road, where I managed to get the car stuck in the sand. I asked Stacey to get out and push, which enabled us to get out. We then went to Foxford Woollen Mills, took their tour, had lunch (egg & mayonnaise, soup), and visited their jewelry and souvenir shops. We drove from Foxford back to Ballina (10 minutes), and then continued up to Inishcrone to the beach on Killala Bay. We parked the car and walked along the beach. It was very foggy, so we traveled back to the B&B, parked the car, and walked to dinner at Crockett's On the Quay. We had salmon cakes as an appetizer. I had Guinness and the fresh catch, monk fish, while Stacey had Heineken and steak. For dessert, we shared iced Baileys with coffee flakes. We walked back to the B&B early for some shut-eye.