Northern Ireland, week 2

On Saturday, we hung out with our friends James and Gillian! We drove south again, though not as far-just past the border to Carlingford. We had a picnic, went on a walk in Rostrevor Forest Park, and stopped for tea and just hung out. It was so good to see them!

So picturesque

The biggest trees I've ever seen!

We had Indian food that evening and had tea back at their place. We drove home and woke up the next day to go back for breakfast! Later on Sunday, we celebrated Connor's 6th birthday!

 Later Sunday evening, we went to Tescos. We went to Tescos a few times, but this was really the only time I felt like I wanted to buy every single thing I ever loved and eat it all. Glad it was only one night. Their food is just so good, especially all of the chocolate things! They have at least one isle of just chocolate and candy, along with another isle of cookies and 'biscuits', plus even more sections of yummy things, such as chocolate eclairs and scones and cream!

 The next day we had brunch at Eden Cafe with Colin's mum. The cafe had a few kids in it and these girls are so stylist at such a young age.

 On Tuesday, Jude and I met up again for some shopping. We went to a couple charity shops and then went into Belfast.

I love graffiti.

An earring I plan to make.

Where did we go? We went back to Avoca of course! We had lunch and we had the absolute best couscous salad in the world! I found and made a similar recipe this week, but it sadly, it doesn't even come close. I think it had crack in it- it was so good. I can't even explain why! I wish I had the real recipe! We also went back twice to see if they had it and they never had it again while I was there. SO sad :(

The bathroom at Avoca had tons of old magazine ads pasted on the walls- super cute!

Loved this rolling pin wall.

 This dresser was in the Cath Kidston shop.

The most awesome bag!

Across the street is the old bus stop I used to catch the bus at when I lived in NI.

On Friday, we drove north and met up with Sarah and Steve (and Riggins). I also LOVED seeing them! I wish we all lived near each other! Sarah and Steve are getting married in September and I could not be happier for them!

On Friday evening we took Riggins for a walk. He loves to chase HUGE sticks trees. 

We went out for Pizza and Ice Cream along the N. Coast. Beautiful, but cold night. As a side note, I will never go to N. Ireland again without a pair of boots. As I was packing, I thought to myself "should I bring my boots? No, I wont need them". Boy was I WRONG! I wish I would have had them!! Now I know better!

That night we got ready to run the half marathon. I felt nervous and just wanted it to be over.

Mary Peters joined us at the start. I did not know who she was, but Colin was very excited that she was there :) she is the one in blue. 

At the start, feeling nervous.

We got started and Colin and I were the last in our pack of maybe 200 runners. Everyone just flew out and I planned to go slow at the start. It made me feel kind of bad, like I wasn't going fast enough. We did end up passing a few of them, but it made the start kind of weird. It was a pretty hot and sunny day. It was in a very rural part of N. Ireland and soon swarms of flies were swarming our heads (and everyone else's) SO gross and distracting. Not even a mile in 2 very large cows came running through the hedge just out in front of us- they escaped from their farm! but then ran back through the hedge before we could get a picture!

One of the MANY hills.

This part was my favorite part of the half. It was shaded and the trees were so amazing! This was probably about 2/3 of the way through. Overall, the half was SO much harder than I expected, because of the hills and heat. I was so glad that they gave out mini water bottles at the water stations. I kept one with me and kept dumping it over my head to try to cool down.

I don't have any pictures of the end of the race, although I DID finish :) Overall, I didn't really enjoy it. I couldn't wait to be done, especially the last couple miles full of hills. I am glad I didn't walk at all and I finished under 2.30, which was my goal. I ran 11-12 min miles the whole time and didn't go over 12 min miles, even on the hills. I had some anxiety during the race, but I did a pretty good job of talking myself down and working on focusing on the moment and not freaking out about the next 2 miles, 8 miles, etc.

Sarah and Steve came to cheer us on and I loved that! We went on a walk afterwards, which I think was good for our muscles. We also stopped for a treat in Port Stewart.

Colin found his favorite drink in a little cafe!

Later that evening, we met a bunch of friends at the Ramore! 

We got to sit at the chef's table. Mostly because there were so many of us and they had no space

After our delicious meal, we all shared a giant Baked Alaska. I had never had one, but enjoyed it! Each time we've gone to the Ramore in the past, we talk about getting one and this time, we had enough people to split it. It's chocolate cake, sorbet, vanilla ice cream covered in meringue and then baked!

Came with a giant sparkler candle!

We finished our meal to walk out into a giant Band parade. We soon realized we were trapped in the town so couldn't go anywhere for a couple hours. One of our friend's Neil, got his car locked in a parking lot, so we ended up waiting a couple of hours for someone to come and unlock the gate and let his car out. It was such a fun evening!

Colin and I were both super sore!! We stayed the night again with Steve and the next day started our final few days in N. Ireland and then our last days in England.

During this week we also went to see our friend's Neil and Suzy, who just had baby Henry. We went to our other friend Neil's house one evening as well, as well as hanging out with family.

Up next- our final week.