HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY FROM IRELAND!!!

(streets in downtown Galway, so much charm in each building and shop)

(during the parade)

(along the river after the parade, enjoying the sunshine)

(all of the local schools had their bands in the parade, cutest little outfits)

(Along the parade route, people even sitting on top of telephone booths)

(The view of the parade route from where we were standing)

Well, we made it to Ireland safely! We flew into Dublin early yesterday and drove across the country to Galway. It was an amazing drive and gave us a great chance to see some of the country (and lots of sheep). As you can imagine we were exhausted when we got here so we made it a pretty early night last night. This morning we were up early (about 6:30am) and had breakfast and then headed into downtown Galway for the parade and all of the festivities. Today has been the perfect day! I don't know how we can ever top this St. Paddys Day. The Parade was great, about 50,000 people turned out for it and it is such a festive scene. Everyone is dressed in their green with Irish flags and hats and faces painted. It is just such a fun atmosphere. We chose to spend today in Galway as opposed to Dublin because everyone we talked to said that Galway was very traditional Irish, where Dublin was flooded with foreign visitors and was more of a "show" and we are SOOO glad we chose Galway, it has been perfect! The Parade was great and then we did some shopping, Sherri bought a Claddah ring from the original store that invented and made them, pretty cool, and then we spent some time sitting next to the river enjoying the sunshine in downtown, it is about 60 here and perfectly sunny!! We are back at the hotel now after a quick lunch and later tonight we are going back out to watch the sunset over Galway Bay and then going to a local Pub for their traditional Irish Music night. So far the trip has been great, the people here are amazing, everyone is so nice and helpful and we could not ask for better weather. Sherri is battling a cold so that has been the only down side but she has been taking lots of medicine and is trying to get better (please pray for quick healing). Tomorrow we are off to the Cliffs of Moher and Adare and then the Dingle Peninsula the day after that. We will post more in the next day or two.