Ireland Day Two, Cork

When we're on trips, we like to go to church. The nearest LDS church was in Cork, about a 40-minute drive from Kinsale. The little branch was very friendly, and it was a humble group of people, kind of reminded me of our little branch back in Waterloo. We stayed for primary since it was in English, but there was not one "young woman" in their branch. We weren't the only visitors and I happened to run into someone there from Toronto who knows a friend of mine from work. Small world, huh? There was a lesson on geneology and when I inquired about finding some of our ancestor's information (on the Quigley side that seemed to stop right in Ellis Island), one of the sister missionaries told me it's because Ireland may have destroyed or at least kept all the records of Irish who went off to America locked away. It may be a rather long while before we find out where in Ireland our ancestors were from.

After church, we went into Cork for lunch and some shopping. We ate at the Strasburg Goose, three courses for 12 euros. I had the roasted red pepper and potato soup, pesto chicken pasta and the chocolate fudge cake. Really, really good! Oh, and do you see that pitcher? They actually let us order tap water. We loved this little restaurant.

We walked around some shops and found a good pair of shoes for Portia (she'd left the pair I meant for her to wear the whole vacation at home and instead wore a pair of Crocs that wouldn't do for a lot of walking). Bianca found a lovely Audrey-Hepburn-looking dress in blue and white strips, to go along with her new short hairstyle.

That night, as it was cold and rainy, I decided to start a fire. They had left a whole bunch of Irish peat to use for the fireplace and thought it would be a good Irish experience to burn a peat fire. Portia and I played Kinds in the Corner, while Bianca practiced her viola. I didn't get to bed until the fire burned out.

I decided to continue on with my tradition of showing the places we travel through doors. Unfortunately, I only got one door today. But it's a nice interesting one, with a sun and some fishes and an all-seeing eye.

The Door of the Day