to enlarge it and see what is probably the most important thing I learned over
there. Updated October 3, 2006 Email Me
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HOME MY LIFE ALASKA TRAVEL IRELAND 2005 BELIZE
I'll use this page to keep up to date on what I've been doing. Check back often or whenever you hear from me that there is something new on the site.
Click on the links below to get to the Arizona 2006, Kauai 2006, and Roatan Honduras 2006 pages.
The first batch of Belize photos can be found here.
I got back from Ireland and New England on May 11, 2005 and the Ireland and New England pages have been up for a couple of weeks.
I have removed some photos from the IRELAND 2005 page and have added some new ones. The narrative below has been edited a little also.
The NEW ENGLAND page will be edited every now and then also.
Click on this photo
to enlarge it and see what is probably the most important thing I learned over
there.
My first Ireland experience happened in April 2005 and far exceeded my considerably high expectations. There are so many people who had a part in this but Maggie McQuaid allowed me to continue to turn her map of Western Ireland into shreds and also lent me her electrical power converter that kept my camera and Flashtrax hard drive batteries charged. She also gave me some great tips on places to see. Pam Sandell gave me her insight on some practical and social situations that she could not have depicted more perfectly. Kathy for tolerating me and even encouraging me when I decided to leave for a month to do this. But especially all of the wonderful people I met over there. Maggie says that the Irish people have "mastered the science of conversation" but she, as much as anyone, knows that it is much more than that.
The Pope died while I was in the overwhelmingly Catholic country and the jokes were better there than I imagine they were anywhere else. If the US Federal Communications Commission worked in Ireland it would need no influx of taxpayer dollars but, if using the current US standard regarding content on public airwaves, would have a constant source of revenue from fines. Talk radio is big over there and some of it is in Irish which seems to be holding its own as a primary language. I hope the Irish speaking people are being as creative as the ones I listened to.
The Irish music world is alive and so surprisingly diverse that I couldn't possibly describe it all. The traditional music scene lives in many places and was a highlight for its excellence in some cases and its picture of other aspects of Irish life in others. For anyone who knows the band "Dervish" who performed in Anchorage in March, 2005, I found their pub in Sligo and spent a few hours there listening to some other really good musicians just jamming. Doolin in County Clare has traditional music in three pubs every night and is a place everyone going to Ireland should spend some time. Access to interesting areas like "The Cliffs Of Moher" and "The Burren" is easy from this beautiful and laid back little corner of the west coast. The town of Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula were spectacular as was Connemara, and County Donegal where there is great saltwater and freshwater fishing, incredible beaches, and the tallest mountain in Ireland. There are also some people there who love to show off how excellent Irish Whiskey is and I'm going to owe one of them until I get a chance to buy him a few drinks that he can handle..
I also found three great books about traveling around Ireland that made me laugh and cry. Pete McCarthy wrote "McCarthy's Bar" in as humanistic a way as anything I've read. I found myself going to places he depicted and was never disappointed. Not even as much as he was in the town of Cong where I had a great time. His second and last book, "The Road to McCarthy" took him to McCarthy, Alaska amongst many other strange places for someone who likes his Guinness. Both of these books are worth reading.
As is "'Round Ireland With a Fridge" by Tony Hawks. Like Pete McCarthy, Hawks is an Englishman who had a totally different reason for traveling around Ireland than McCarthy but they both wrote from a perspective of people who love Ireland, Irish things, and the Irish people
Enough for now. Go look around.
Kathy met me in Boston when I got back from Ireland and we spent a week driving around NEW ENGLAND and then three days with Kathy's sister Betsy and brother-in-law Bob at their home in Providence, Rhode Island. So we got to see much of rural and some of urban New England on the trip. Loved the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Acadia National Park in Maine. Also had a great visit with an old friend from my navy days at a very beautiful part of this continent. He lives across the street from the Rachel Carson National (something or other) with the ocean on the other side. Kathy and I spent our last day with the family beginning the day with a walk on a pedestrian trail that had the Blackstone River on one side and an old canal on the other. The canal, it is said, was built by immigrant Irishmen. And a damn fine canal it is too. Without it, the Industrial Revolution that Rhode Islanders insist began in Pawtucket, there would have been no way to bring that good Canadian moonshine to the industrial areas and keep the other immigrants who were building the place working.
Click on the NEW ENGLAND to see the photos. Here is one photo to get started:
The beautiful Blackstone River on the right and the canal on the left. As
in so many places in the northeast, the rock formations turn rivers into things
of incredible beauty and some of them are still impossible to navigate without
portaging.
LORETO, BAJA SUR, MEXICO 02-03/2005
Kathy and I got back from Mexico on March 11 after eleven relaxing days in Loreto, Baja, Sur. Those pictures are on this Loreto, Mexico page for now.