Highlights: A Family Visit

This past week my mom and sister came to visit us. It was lots of fun and we saw so much in the seven and a half days they were here. They arrived on a typical rainy Tuesday, and somehow managed to quickly acclimate to the five hour time change without too much jet lag. Bright and early on Wednesday, we caught the 8:00 train down to Dublin, a city I had only crossed through on my way to change train stations with Dave on our way to Galway, and a city my mom and sister had never set foot upon. Two hours later we found ourselves walking out of Connolly Station towards the visitor’s center to hop on one of the double-decker tour busses to see the city. After an hour and a half of whizzing by over two dozen attractions including Trinity College Dublin, the Guinness factory and the Jameson factory, and the president’s house to name a few, we listened to our growling stomachs and headed towards some traditional Irish food (this marked meal one of my sister’s 5 fish and chips baskets over the course of 7 ½ days). Finding ourselves revived, we each picked a location we wanted to return for an up close visit. I chose Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and my sister picked Dublin castle. We found out both required an admission fee, so we instead took pictures around the building. My mom picked the Church of Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, only to discover that it too had an entrance fee. However, we decided to bite the bullet and pay our admission to tour the historic building. We walked into a building paying homage to its patron saint, and providing an architectural feast for our eyes. The structure of the building was more a piece of art than the mortar and stone holding it together. Stained glass windows with millions of precisely cut pieces formed biblical stories while also letting in the colorful rays of the midday sun. As spectacular as it all was, we had to comment on the oddity that while this church continues as an active worship place on Sundays, it also holds a gift shop feet from the alter and tours of the building as though one is walking through a museum rather than a house of God. That peculiarity aside, we spent much time walking about and gawking at the flags hung for the knights of the Order of St. Patrick (still in existence) and got to touch the reserved pew seats for members of the Guinness family and the pew seats for the president of the Republic of Ireland. Time started getting away from us, and before we knew it, we were back at the train station to catch the 4:50 train back north to Belfast. The next day, Thursday, Dave took the day off and we rented a car and drove up to tour the Bushmills Distillery and walk around Giant’s Causeway. Dave was a champ driving on the wrong side of the road with a stick shift in his left hand and following all of the mildly confusing road signs as though he had grown up driving that way. The Bushmills tour was fascinating. We learned about them starting the distillery in 1608 after King James I granted land and a distillery license to a wealthy landowner, and how they have grown through the years to become one of the most popular whiskeys in the world. After lunch at their bar, we parked in the park ‘n ride lot and commuted the less than ten minutes to Giant’s Causeway. 60 million years ago, the north coast of Northern Ireland was an active volcanic region. The cooling basalt spewed from the mouths of the volcanoes formed columns that cooled and hardened into hexagonal shapes, creating a honeycombed effect. Today Giant’s Causeway is also home to the windiest point in the whole island of Ireland (and we felt the winds to prove it!) and lots of God’s majesty on display for visitors. Our way home was quite scenic as we took the coastal route which provided up-close views of the rolling hills and the steep cliffs along the coast falling into the sea. Up again the next morning with the sun, we headed to the Titanic Experience, a memorial/educational museum about the building of Titanic and its eventual demise into the deep. It was incredibly moving to read some of the stories and look at some of the letters written by survivors. We lunched there, and then headed to city hall for a tour of the Victorian hub of the city. My sister got to sit in the Lord Mayor’s chair, and we watched a fellow tour participant try on some of the council member’s robes. Saturday was another early day, as we hopped on a tour bus of Belfast to see the sights of the city. Highlights included the beautiful Belfast Castle open for tourists & weddings; a now-decrepit courthouse that has not been used since the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement; and the Peace Walls which are still standing and in use. An interesting note that I learned on the bus ride was that the scales held by Lady Justice outside the decrepit courthouse were stolen in the midst of The Troubles in an effort to symbolize that people felt like justice was missing during those turbulent times. The afternoon found us trekking up a green hill on a nature hike before we made our way to the historic Crown Bar, still maintained by the Northern Ireland National Trust (similar to the America’s National Parks). Sunday brought with it church and a visit to St. George’s Market, where we enjoyed scrumptious lunches and entertaining music. Monday was a bit low-key, with the only major event consisting of our dear friend Bruce taking myself and my mom and sister on a personal tour of the city, capped by a visit to Clonard Monastery which was used as a bomb shelter during the Belfast Blitz in WWII (the monastery was also where Bruce & his wife, Janet, took Dave & I for Good Friday). My mom and sister got a proper Belfast send off in Bruce & Janet’s backyard with a rare North Irish sunny day and barbecue with some locally raised beef and rhubarb picked only a few hours before we ate dinner. Saying goodbye Tuesday morning was rough (I blame the tears on the pregnancy hormones), but thankfully the internet provides means to Skype or FaceTime, and in six short months we will be back in the U.S. to see them again. The visit was so special with my mom and sister getting to see where Dave works, the parks we walk through, the church in which we worship, and the city in which we live. I will miss my Euchre partner sister (we won 6-3 against my mom and Dave) and my fairy godmother mom (I’ve never seen someone get dishes so cleanly washed so fast). Now we look forward to more guests as this Friday a friend of Dave’s from Calvin will visit for four days, and then at the end of August Dave’s parents get to spend some time with us, too. The week with my mom and sister was truly an opportunity to laugh, to love, and to realize that we truly live blessed lives.