Stopped in for a quick hi to Padraig before heading out to Roundstone, a pretty village on the ocean. We pointed out for Summer the restaurant where she ate her first restaurant meal, O'Dowd's, when she was 10 months old. Vegetable soup poured over mashed potatoes, it was. I can tell you for certain that I have no idea what or where Charlie's first restaurant meal was. It's a first-child thing.
Our objective was to obtain a personalized bodhran (pronounced bow-rawn), a traditional goatskin drum, for each of our kids. In the end, Summer didn't want her name on her drum. That goes with her personality. It's like she knows that real musicians wouldn't paint their names on their drums. Charlie was happy; we let him bang away on his bodhran all morning. "Dance, Mama!" he commanded.
We had a picnic at Gorteen Beach, where the water was crystal clear and we found a "unicorn horn" sea shell.
In Clifden we shopped, sent emails home, and drank our Guinness outside in the sun. We drove the Sky Road and then passed some real Tinkers (Irish gypsies, 'Travellers") living in pop-top campers. We spent some time at the Clifden playground with a family from Kansas who are living in London while the dad is on sabbatical from his theater professor job. There was also a family from Marshfield, Mass. there.
I had no camera with me all day (GASP), but here's a nice picture of Charlie from a few days ago.
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