That Dear Lovely Isle of Inisfree.

It's hard to imagine there being a drought anywhere in this world after spending time in Ireland. We woke up this morning to a gentle rain. If I had my druthers, we would probably have sat around with hot tea, by the fire, and enjoyed not being outside today. But, after fueling up with a (less than superb, compared with the other B&B's we've been at so far) breakfast, we headed out to our first destination.

We made our way to a closed coal mine that now has former miners as guides through the mine. Can I first say how thankful I am that my

job consists of sitting in front of computers in an air-conditioned office? Those miners spent their entire workdays laying in a 3 foot high tube of stone and coal, first using picks, then later air hammers to dislodge the coal. What a rough life! Our guide was very nice, and worked there right up until it closed (he had been there for 20 years).

We went from there to check out some other interesting sites, and ended up crossing an Eagle center off our list, since they wouldn't re-open from lunch for a few hours. We got back to the B&B and rested for a bit before heading down for a lake cruise and Castle tour.

Lough Gill, which is laid out before our B&B - absolutely stunning views, has a special place for literary people, as W.B. Yeats was from this area, and wrote about several places around the lough. The boat captain quoted a lot of Yeats poetry (I'm sure, by heart), and gave some history of the area. It was a very relaxing cruise.

After the cruise, we took a tour of neighboring Parke's Castle. This was very interesting, as the renovations and refurbishment were under strict guidelines to use the same methods of construction as originally used. We also got a pretty complete explanation of thatched roof methods.

After the tour, we went back to town for dinner, and then back to the B&B to upload pics, plan tomorrow, and journal. I'm glad to be caught up, and I'm looking forward to an early night tonight. I'm hoping the noisy crew above us last night (who left this morning) will not be replaced by equally noisy neighbors (knock on wood). That's all for tonight - sleep awaits.