The MacJohnson's Grand Adventure: No troubles in Northern Ireland!

Greetings from Northern Ireland! Well, our return to Canada is only 2 weeks away, and we are on our final sightseeing tour of the year. This time we have come to the Emerald Isle - and oh how beautiful it is! We are again travelling with close Canadian friends, this time the Bresetts from sunny Mission, B.C.

Here is a few photos of the amazing Antrim Coast, right on the northern side of N. Ireland.

Isaiah is really enjoying having a friend to play with who is actually a boy! Isaiah and Jude take photos very seriously as you can tell!

Here is the lovely Kim, enjoying our walk along the coast.

A very cool place was at Carrick-a-Rede, where this rope bridge, suspended 90 feet above the waters below, led us out to one of the rocky islands. It swayed and worried a few, especially when Sophia decided to start jumping up and down! Here is our group starting to cross it as I look down from above.

Emma on the coast, with her Scottish hairdoo covering her eyes!

Next stop was the precariously perched Dunluce Castle. It was a very strong castle in its day, withstanding sieges and attacks, until one day in 1639, the kitchen suddenly collapsed into the sea, taking several servants with it! Not long after, the McDonnell chieftain was captured and taken away, the castle was abandoned, and it began to fall into ruin.

Here all of the kids stand on a section of the wall. Isaiah is all for putting your good side forward!

A nicer pose by the boy.

Here Maggie and Emma have actually climbed up on a section of the wall that is very precarious. Not a great idea, so they were quickly told to come down.

A view of one part of the castle through the window of another part.

Kim and I enjoying a moment right where the old kitchen collapsed into the sea.

Looking out past the castle towards Scotland.

In the car park Sophia, Jude, and Kasmira found a new friend!

Finally the amazing Giant's Causeway. This is a large area on the coast, 4 miles long, where the landscape is literally covered with these large hexagonal basalt columns of various heights. These are possibly formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago with the volcanic rock cooling so quickly they cracked into these regular columns; more likely, is the legend of the giant Finn McCool who had made a bridge of these all the way to his beloved on the Scottish island of Staffa.