I had a bit of a shock just a minute ago when I realized this will be the second to last blog post about our journey. It’s funny, we’ve been home about a week now but having the blog end makes the whole trip ending seem more real. But before signing off with our final thoughts of this whole experience, here is just a bit about the last few stops of our trip: Kilkenny, Donegal, and Kinsale.

Donegal was a lovely little town with some great shops and a great castle that we toured:

Donegal Castle: 

I thought these two models of how Donegal Castle has changed over the centuries were really interesting and show how the focus shifted from security to comfort: 

Kilkenny was another medieval village with a lot of character. It also had another great castle.

Kilkenny Castle: 

The grounds of the castle are now a great park. There’s also a small little cemetery and right outside of the cemetery fence was this little marker:

We continued from Kilkenny to Kinsale which is a small coastal village. It’s known as the gourmet food center of Ireland.We stayed at this great B&B called Tierney’s Guesthouse. Our room was the window right in the center:

Like many Irish towns, Kinsale has medieval roots and you can still see that in it’s tiny narrow streets.

We decided to go on a walk to this big fort…. we never made it but we did see some fun things along the way: 

Low tide: 

Well, that brings us almost to the end… check back soon for our final goodbyes.

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Boston: Sept 7

After a year of planning and many more years of dreaming, I am finally sitting in an airport waiting for a plane to take us to Ireland. What a surreal feeling!

For those of you who don’t know the back story, here’s a quick preview of what’s to come and how it came to be.

In my freshman year of college I met a girl who had worked on an organic farm in Japan through a program call WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I immediately thought it sounded incredible and decided then and there that I would WWOOF one day.

Basically, WWOOF is an international organization that connects organic farm hosts with eager volunteer workers. All room and board is provided in exchange for work on the farm. Not only is it an excellent way to travel cheaply but you also get the life changing opportunity to live with and learn from someone from a completely different culture than your own.

While I’ve had the idea to WWOOF for a while, it became real about a year ago when my boyfriend Jacob and I decided we should go together. About six months later we were choosing hosts and buying plane tickets. And now we sit waiting for the plane to arrive.

During our WWOOF adventure we will be in Ireland for three months spending a month and a half at each farm. Our first destination is in Powers Cross in County Galway and the second farm is in Glensallagh in County Cork. I’ll go more into farm details later.

Yesterday, we flew out of Seatac airport on a red eye flight to Boston. Once there, we had a 12 hr layover so we hopped on the subway and spent a few hours exploring historic downtown, walking through old graveyards and having lunch at a great place in Little Italy in the North End.

What struck me was how relatively young our country is compared to the rest of the world. Pretty soon we will be visiting castles and ancient graveyards!

Anyway, our flight to Shannon leaves at 7:30 p.m. so we have a few more hours to kill. We’re spending the time catching up on some Z’s. Currently, Jacob is curled up on three seats next to me snoring.

Pretty soon we will be en route to new experiences and three months of a new life.

Bye, bye PNW. For now.

Other quick travel anecdotes:

-Boston’s weather was muggy and wet from tropical storm Lee.

- We met a couple at the Seattle airport who were also on their way to Boston and would then be heading to Ireland after a few days. We met them at the airport bar. They’ve been to Ireland a lot and were really excited for us. They plan on following the blog.

Here are some photos from Boston including one of the oldest graveyards and Jacob and me having lunch in Little Italy. The statue in the photos is actually of Irish immigrants who flocked to Boston and lived in squalid conditions or were shipped back to their country to starve during the Irish potato famine.

http://movies.dailyastorian.biz/observer/jake2011/

Damian shot his photos with the instagram ap on his phone which I think added a really cool effect. His photos are included in that slideshow.

Here are a few extras if you need an even bigger bride of Jake fix. 

This year, I also covered the Ocean Park Old Fashioned 4th of July Parade. In all my years at the beach, I think this was the best 4th parade yet. The streets were completely lined with people and the parade itself was filled with great entries.

If you’ve never gotten to experience a beachy 4th, I would highly recommend it. Nothing beats sand between your toes while watching some beautiful fireworks. Maybe my photos will convince you.

Also, here’s a link to some of my photos that were published along Damian’s in the Chinook Observer. http://movies.dailyastorian.biz/observer/july42011/

Also, I can’t believe it but I graduate in 1.5 months! Once the magazine goes to print and I’m all finished with undergrad I’ve decided I will devote much more time to blogging and keeping my sites fresh and updated, especially when I head to Ireland in September.

But without further ado, Here a few shots from a gorgeous summer sunset at North Head Lighthouse last July.

I’m very sorry for my prolonged absence. After finishing up my internship this summer with the “Chinook Observer” I went back to school and got caught up with classes and my new position as photographer and food blogger for Flux Magazine. If you’d like to check out the food blogs I’ve been writing check here or here’s a photo story about PNW fungi I did. But I understand that is still a lame excuse for not posting since September. So in an effort to make up for this absence I’ve decided to post a few photos I did this summer of the first day of school at Ocean Park Elementary. I was really happy with the results and had a great time enjoying that first day of school feeling I haven’t gotten to experience in a few years.

I know it’s November and the first day of school happened two months ago but whatever. They are still enjoyable photos.