Day 9-Epic Countryside Adventures

Hey guys, sadly this is our last post from the lovely lands across the Atlantic. Today was a scenic end to an awesome trip. We all awoke...on time of course! We awoke to a lovely breakfast cooked by the hotel kitchen of either Bacon, Sausage, and a Tomato, or a vegitarian dish consisting of eggs and spinach. Both options were delicious and a good start to the morning.

We hopped on the bus and headed out of town to start our tour of the Ring of Kerry. Killarney is part of a peninsula and the Ring of Kerry is the outer layer of that peninsula. The Ring is 110 miles long and it took us the length of the day to tour it. The day consisted of multiple picture spots where we all got lovely pictures of the gorgeous Irish countryside. One of the stops wasn't a picture spot, but actually it was a small village, Kerry Peatbog Village. It was a quaint and peaceful place...then our bus arrived. We stormed the walls and torched the buildings in respect to the actual time period. By storming the walls and torching the buildings we mean we stopped at the gift shop and took a stormload of pictures. There was a live person in the exhibit, though, and she played the accordian. There were also these Irish Wolfhounds which are the size of a wolf, but are dogs. They were awesome looking. There were also miniature ponies that looked depressed, but we tried them smile. This was also the site of Robbie's purchase of his epic green Leprechaun Hat. It was nifty. Drew said this about the tour, "I slept alot." Most students slept some on the bus ride and missed some of the tour, but most enjoyed the beautiful scenery while they were awake. Another epic part of the tour was when Braveheart was playing, and epic battle music began playing while we came up through snow covered mountains.

Lunch was at a cliffside cafe overlooking one of the bays. The food was way overpriced, but since it was the last meal we would buy, and the only restaurant in the area, we ate there. Food was extremely delicious though, and the gift shop offered wonderful deals. We then finished our tour of the Ring of Kerry and got back to the city at around 4.

Eric gave us 2 hours and 45 minutes to explore the city. Mick spent the time listening to some sermons on cd; Drew walked around with Nick and actually met some locals. Ben and Evan found an army surplus store to shop in. Will, Lance, Ryan, and Daniel all stayed and chilled at the the hotel. Daniel said he actually watched Star Wars Episode III.

We met up at 6:45 for dinner. We went to a local hotel and dined at their restaurant. It was a vegetable soup and a beef dish. Dessert was a piece of apple pie with cinnamon on top. It was quite delicious. Eric gave a sweet message after dinner saying, "You guys reminded me why I love doing what I do."

We came back to the hotel and took a group picture, one with everyone including Byrnes, and another picture with just HCA'ers. We then presented gifts to our chaperones. Mr. K and Mr. Rob gave Irish Blessings to each parent that came. We gave Eric an HCA Football (aka soccer) shirt, right off Aaron Lucas' back, that each person in the group had signed. We gave Mr. K an Ireland Flag that everyone signed and a British flag that said "Class of 2010". Mr. Rob got an Irish Jersey that he can wear on casual days at school because it has a collar. We also gave Mrs. Klempner a scarf as a thanks for keeping Mr. K sane.

The students all stayed in the lobby and are hanging out for our last night together. Our wake up call comes at 3:30 tomorrow, and we leave the hotel at 4:30. We were told to pack tonight. Our bus ride to the airport will be two hours and we should fly out around 10. That is where your iteneraries come in handy to find out when to pick us up. Thank you again for reading everyone, and we hope this blog has been beneficial to your sanity on your kids being gone. We all miss you and look forward to seeing you soon!!!!