View of Louisburgh from nearby hill.

Anyway, Louisburgh…you could walk across the entire town in 5 minutes. It has one little market shop that is open from 8am-8pm. The cute little cafes don’t open until late morning around 10 or 11am (finally a place that doesn’t pressure me to be a morning person!!!!) The pubs are open all afternoon and late into the evenings and serve great food with entrees like roast turkey and ham, baked salmon, or seafood chowder.

The main street (Long Street) in Louisburgh.

We stayed in a little yellow house right next to the post office. Our neighbor on the other side was a super sweet man who even brought us homemade bread one morning!

Our “hosts” – the owners of the little rental house – are the cutest and sweetest people in the world. Dolly and Graham. We will never forget them. This was our first airbnb.com reservation and it couldn’t have been more perfect. Since we were without a car most of the time, Dolly was quick to deliver brochures of things to do right around Louisburgh. Graham even took our whole crew on a coastal drive to two beautiful beaches! We love and adore them very much!

On the adventure with Graham as our driver and tour guide! His cute little finger photo-bombed us and I love it!

I took the big kids to the library 3-4 times a week to get books and DVD’s for schoolwork and entertainment. Mary, the sweet little Librarian, always let them check out more items than allowed. She always looked at me and whispered in her perfect little Irish accent, “It’s really no trouble at all if they want to get an extra item.” We all loved her!

Thankfully, there was also a playground within walking distance. We went there almost every day. It didn’t take long for my kids to make some friends and set up playdates when to meet at the playground again! It was so fun to sit back and watch them interact with the local Irish kids. Sometimes there were language barriers with the thick accents, but they usually worked it out without my assistance.

We made a few trips to a nearby town called Westport. It was much bigger with a lot more to do. We spent a whole day at The Westport House. The history of the beginning days of this house was pretty interesting…Grace O’Malley, a famous pirate queen, built one of her many castles at this same site in the 1500’s. Her direct descendants, the Browne family, designed the house as it is now in the 1700’s. It still had the original furniture and paintings from when the Browne’s decorated it. It was beautiful! The grounds were breathtaking. Waterfalls, swans, mossy bridges…it was like walking in a dream.

We also rode on a little tour train taking us around the grounds of The Westport House and some other historical landmarks in town.

The first two weeks in Ireland has been amazing! I am working on another post that will share my favorite things about the culture here. Brandon and I are really surprised that this amazing country isn’t more populated. But, then again, I’m glad it’s not. Ireland wouldn’t be the same without the miles and miles of beautiful green country sprinkled with sheep. We are all in love with Ireland and we’re excited to see more of it the next two weeks.

That’s all she wrote – stay tuned!