Kayla’s feeling a little punky this morning, but Kat hits the chemist for meds. My voice is pretty rough, but seems to be improving. I feel fine, so this little hitch is mostly just annoying.

After workout, I fry myself a rasher of Irish bacon, toast a slice of brown bread. Mmm—hits the right spot! We’re all up and about, in various stages of ready for today’s adventure at Glengowla Mines in gorgeous Oughterade. It’s a cloudy start to the morning, but they’re saying light wind’s not as fierce and the temp’s up a bit. I’m going with Fresh. And layers for wardrobe.

Most eat some lunch before our proposed one o’clock departure.

Then off we go under skies with layered clouds. Our group follows Kat’s group. Those right turns for us Yanks are tricky, but Jason’s got a handle on it. It’s only about a 35 minute drive, but so changeable, in roads and in weather. Wide-ish, which are pretty easy, to skinny and windy which are definitely a challenge. And why is the speed limit 100 km on the windy and skinny and often 80 on the wide-ish. A mystery.

The mountains rise up with their peaks hidden by the clouds. But those clouds part here and there to hopeful blue. The lake below turns a dreamy blue in its mirror response. Just gorgeous, the spread of blue, the rolls of green with their gray stone fences, the rise of round-peaked mountains.

Big tour buses pass—breath-holding time. Tourists gather at pull outs to take photos of the wonderful views. Sheep dot the fields.

That hopeful blue above pushes clouds away, the sun shines, the green—so many shades—rolls on.

And so do we, arriving at Glengowla in a timely and no-incident manner. And the day’s turned bright, warm and breezy.

There’s a gift shop to check out, and where the mining group will check in. Lots of fields and black-faced sheep, flowers, a little playground, a place to pan for little bits of gold (fool’s, but still adorable). The old entrance to the mine, like the mouth of a small cave. I need a picture of Griffin in his Minecraft hat there.

And right at the mouth of the cave, wild foxglove grows.

Off the brave below-ground group go. Kayla and I, firmly above ground, go for a long, lovely walk. Sheep—some shorn (so at a distance I initially mistake one for a pig!) some wide balls of wooly white. More foxglove along the roadside and buttercups dots of sun in the fields. It feels so good to walk in the sunshine, talking in our weird voices.

We round back, and the wind suddenly blows fierce again. We walk against it, push back until the trees break it. And there’s a big, beautiful bush of fuchsia.

Into the gift shop, to browse and consider. I must have this cute scarf dotted with black-faced sheep! And a greeting card of a sheep playing a fiddle. Also bag my first Christmas gift of the trip. There will be more!

We sit, chat with the girl at the counter who’s thinking of trying the University of Maryland. Kayla deletes a couple hundred spam texts from my phone as I (to her eye-roll) often forget to do.

The adventurers return, with tales of the underground. It seems the mine was initially started to mine lead for bullets for the American Civil War. Three guys would go down, one would hold a chisel (if I have this right), one would twist it, the other hammer it. In this way they’d drill three holes. Then set the black powder and fuse. The lucky one to light it would have to then run—but not fast enough to blow the candle out on his helmet—then cover his ears to keep his eardrums from exploding along with the rock.

No thank you.

The guide also points out a spider’s next down there, one that holds live baby spiders that won’t hatch for awhile yet. A second no thank you to spider’s nest.

The photos taken were more than enough to convince me Kayla and I made the right choice. But for the rest, a grand exploration.

Griffin pans for gold, and picks a little rainbow black-faced sheep as his souvenir. Colt picks a small, smooth arrowhead shaped piece of obsidian. I’d say they both chose well.

And back we go through the gorgeous scenery. This time we’re the tourists who pull off for photos. I give Jason top prize for his shot of a sheep who with its colorful painted markings qualifies as a rainbow sheep.

Just beyond the fence is a stand with a bucket. And a sign that invites you to toss a coin into the bucket and make a wish. Tougher than it looks! And clever of the farmer.

Along the drive, we’re told, Kayla has activated the text to voice on her phone, and stunned and delighted Griffin by being Carl The Talking Car who says hi, Griffin. How did he know my name??? Oh, Kayla told me all about you. So they converse on the drive, and he bids Carl goodbye when they arrive with promises to talk later.

We discover our little village has two choices for a meal tonight. Pizza or Chinese—both take-aways. So why not both? Plus if I make more pasta, there’s still plenty of sauce left. Menus are studied, orders are taken. Kat, JR and Savanna head out.

I boil spaghetti. Mix it with the left-over sauce. We get the table set up, the kitchen set to rights—sort of. I make the mistake of sitting out on the little deck, and soak my jeans. Easy change into yoga pants for the rest of the evening.

Food arrives, is divvied up for our Chinese-Italian feast. Dumplings, rice, beef whatever, pizza, pasta and other Asian dishes chosen. Also milkshakes for many.

We’re nothing if not eclectic.

More cleanup with the dishwasher full to the brim. Logan fades early. I’m not going to be far behind. But we have cake! I’ve eaten an ice cream cone and have no room for cake. But I have a lighter and a candle. Kayla pulls up another app and we sign a very rapid happy birthday to Kat. Griffin says he likes the slow one better. So we reprise in the traditional way. He agrees that’s much better.

Blow out the candle, cut the cakes—one lemon, one chocolate.

And it’s off to bed for me.

Today, the sky’s gray, but the clouds look thinner. A check of the weather calls for cloudy but not (fingers crossed) rainy for our trip to Galway City. We’re got a car and driver for this one. Getting into Galway is tricky, I know this from previous visits. Then dealing with parking for two cars would be madness.

The lovely people at Ashford have arranged for us to be picked up at eleven. So a day of lunch out, shopping and other adventures awaits.

Time to work out and get myself dressed for it.