The only distance between you all and us...was just a small pond called the Pacific ocean and a small plot of land called states!

Not showering after 5 days...looking pretty good!

Our happy place!

Looking over the majestic cliffs.

Picture this one vertical...and mom stop screaming...I am alive and well!

Panchos and bikes...what? Why?

This was ten minutes after a complete down pour! But high kicks for sun!

Quasi...Nice hunchback amy! Dry clothes...think about it?

Doolin...gasp!

Greetings from Galway. Yes we made it all the way to Galway since the last time we talked to you and even bigger YES...we have free internet at the hostel, hence another blog entry.

We left Tralee on Tuesday and headed for Doolin, which brought nothing but gasp after gasp after gasp out of Kelly. She had finally found her picturesque Ireland....ahahaha. It really is beautiful. For those of you unfamiliar with Doolin, it is home of the famous Cliffs of Moher...not pronounced "Mo--Haaair" as we have heard many tourists refer to it, but moore, like the popular surname. Doolin also is the home to traditional Irish music and has remained faithful to the name as two of our favorite musical nights happened in Doolin. One of which, we each received a free pint of Guinness from a lovely couple, Sue and Bruno from Ohio, who became our insta-grandparents. They also encouraged us to write a book and if we do so, we have decided to dedicate it to them. We really just stopped in Doolin for the night because we had a ferry to catch the next morning to the ARAN ISLANDS.

And what a rocky ride out there it was...thank goodness we do not get sea sick because if we did, we would have been done for, as our view out the window changed from sky to sea constantly throughout the entire trip. We stepped onto solid land on Inishmore (the biggest of the 3 islands) and introduced Quasimoto (excuse our spelling as we don't write about the hunchback of notre dame everyday) to the islanders. Quasi - was Amy putting her humungous pancho to good use as it was used for her and her backpack. As we walked to our hostel, we prayed for good weather for the 3 days we would be on the island, for as we walked we noticed the lack of civilization and wondered what in the world are we going to do here for the next 3 days, but were excited about our bike ride :)! Luckily we woke up to blue skies, bikes = sun theory still intact, but we didn't get too excited as we had been warned about the unpredictable weather of the Aran Islands. We were introduced to this weather while renting our bikes... BAM, pouring rain and theory killed! Rain was so bad, the Irish boy renting us the bikes actually said "Who in their right mind would be renting a bike right now? I am getting drenched!" - great sales man! But nothing rains on our parade...we saddled up with other crazy tourists and hit the trail. Within 10 minutes we were back in the sunshine taking pictures and enjoying the incredible views...but within the next couple of hours we got caught in the middle of similar down pours. Drastic weather changes! Bests of the day were visiting Dun Aonghasa, an old fort at the top of dramatic cliffs. Comparable to the cliffs of Moher, but smaller. We enjoyed laying down, crawling out and looking over them...what a rush.

Side note: Amy and I figured out that we had gone 3 days without showering and looking at each other and smelling each other we thought we looked and smelled darn good, (more smelling on kelly's part as amy cant smell anything)...so we thought why not keep going? No shower contest! Looking at the showers and living primitively was great motivation! 5 days.

The next day we still had another sight to see, the black fort. Our expectations were not as high for it as the previous fort, as Dun Aonghasa is the tourist attraction of Inishmore. We hiked the hill of rocks, thankful we decided to split up the two destination between two days, so we didnt have our bikes. As we reached the top we were both in awe. The cliffs were just as beautiful if not more, but devoid of people. We loved our privacy...our own personal cliff and fort for the whole afternoon! It definitely made the top 5 list of best moments in life for both of us. Can't complain about that! And did we mention...it was a day of complete sunshine! Apparently the island hadn't had that in 6 days. We felt so blessed, it was beautiful and is now "our happy place".

With all of our love and great experiences on the aran islands, we were both ready to escape island fever and head back to doolin. We had a near stranded experience as our ferry was delayed due to weather. We filled our time at supermacs, one of the three places in town we hadn't gone, where everything was fried except for ice cream, which we ordered and later regreted. Thankfully it had settled before we got back on the ferry!

Our night back in Doolin was spent at O'Connors, listening to some great music, where we quickly became a groupie. It was exactly what we had read about...people joining in, Kelly was asked to sing (kindly declined, but thought about doing a beautiful version of poker face by lady gaga j/k)...she just figured people would prefer fiddles and flutes over kareokee! Lets be honest we are in ireland, however we did become fast friends with Christy, and old irish man, who was playing the flutes and spoons for the nights entertainment.

Currently we just arrived in Galway...back in civilization (bittersweet). Our favorite city so far though! More to come...but last but certainly not least, prayer requests...
Please continue to pray for both amy and kelly's post Ireland endeavors as we are both still searching. Specifically for Amy, she was planning on staying with her mom while she got her feet under her again, but recently found out her mom got a job in california and will be gone before amy gets home. We both are learning alot from each other and continue to see God's faithfulness in everyday prayers. We are just excited for those bigger picture prayers to be revealed. We are content in knowing that all we are experiencing and thinking would not be the same though, if anything were different and are at peace in that. So thankful for each other and YOU!