Ireland Trip- Falconry Kerry, Killarney National Park, Muckross House

 Next we went to Killarney, which is near the famous Ring of Kerry and Killarney National Park. We got some "toasties" for lunch, which are really just grilled cheese sandwiches:

Then we went to Falconry Kerry, where we got to fly and hold a Harris Hawk in the crazy outside wind:

It also flew between a few of our heads and was fighting really hard to not let the wind blow it away!

Then we went in a little barn to hold some owls! We held a Spotted Eagle owl first:

This Great Gray owl was really cool- it actually looked at you and was really fluffy and soft to pet. It was name Gandalf, and that seemed a fitting name:

The last owl we held was a Tawny Owl, and was actually a nocturnal owl. It wasn't trained as well, so it had to stay on its leash and didn't really fly to us, but it was cute with its dark eyes:

It was so cool to hold those birds! That ended up being the favorite part of the trip for a lot of the kids.

After that, we went to Killarney National Park where we walked to Torc Waterfall. Being in that forest felt a bit like a fairy land!

We also walked over to Muckross Lake, where it was so windy the kids thought they would blow away!

We drove over to the Ladies View, which is so called because Queen Victoria's ladies maids loved the view, but it wasn't that much to look at this time of year:

Then we took a jaunting car (horse drawn wagon) over to Muckross Abbey. It was old, falling apart, and beautiful:

One cool thing about it is that it has a tree growing in the middle of a courtyard- they actually built the Abbey around the tree!

The kids loved the jaunting car ride!

Then we did a quick tour of Muckross House, which was really just a big hunting lodge and a place where Queen Victoria stayed for a few nights when she visited Ireland. It had some really pretty gardens and grounds:

Then we headed into Killarney for some dinner and shopping. We ate at Bricin Boxty House, and it was my favorite meal of the whole trip! The boxty was like a crepe made from shredded potatoes, and the creamy filling was delicious with it!

Some of the kids were thrilled to eat steak, and some just wanted their usual chicken tenders and "chips."

We got dessert there, and it was really good too. Some of them came with this cute little berry in its wrapping on top:

Something interesting in Ireland is that their silverware has more steel in it than ours- we found that out from how all the silverware, and even the trunk latch, kept sticking to Ryan's watch band!

We did a little shopping in Killarney as well, and Ryan was thrilled to find a Duck Shop!