our island holiday

On Monday morning we packed up the car with three kids, three dogs and two adults, leaving just enough space for a change of clothes and our swimming gear and we headed off west for our first family holiday.

 The trip to our holiday home at Inish Beg was only really an hour or so long, but we made it an adventure in itself with car bingo games and sucking sweets. We also made a couple of stops on the way. The first at Drombeg to have an explore of the stone circle and settlement there. Over Christmas we all read The Boy with the Bronze Axe about Skara Brae on Orkney so it was wonderful to be able to take the kids to a similar settlement.

 In one of the pools there we found loads of tadpoles which was a great discovery especially for Benny who had been learning about them in his last week at school and had never seen real ones before. He spent the rest of the car journey drawing the life cycle of the frog to show us what he knew about it.

 Of course there were a couple of boggy bits and of course certain members of the family fell into them, using up the spare clothes we had brought half an hour into our holiday!

But it was sunny and warm and the blue skies were beautiful as we arrived in Baltimore. We spent an hour in the park there stretching our legs and playing pirates.

 

We found a little restaurant for lunch and visited a pirate exhibition the high light of which was the real, live pirate's parrot!

After stocking up on breakfast supplies and a bottle of wine we headed off to Inish Beg to find our holiday home. We can't recommend it enough if you are ever looking for a place to stay in west Cork. Our house was on the edge of the estate with a lovely big garden and paddock, perfect for the kids and dogs.

 We explored the house and relaxed in the sunshine, before heading off to the pool on the estate. That was lovely too. We had to book it in advance but this meant that for the hour time slot we had it completely to ourselves.

Refreshed and happy we headed back out for dinner in a lovely hotel on the edge of Baltimore. We had such a nice dinner and played crazy games of eye spy and ate and drank until we were fit to burst. It was late when we finished our meal, so late that Joa fell asleep in my arms while we were paying the bill. So we popped the kids into bed and Garry lit a roaring fire and we enjoyed our bottle of wine and a film.

 

The following morning we started slow and lazy, as holiday mornings should be. We decided to take a short ferry trip to Sherkin Island, only a 10 minute boat ride from Baltimore.

It was so much fun, Benny in particular loved the ferry ride. It was long enough to feel the sea breeze and be caught up in the excitement of being on a boat, but not long enough for them to get bored.

The sunshine was glorious and we walked a small way around the Island.

 The kids were getting hungry and cranky so we stopped at a pub for some soup and chips and the older 2 spent some of their holiday money from Bubs on Sherkin Island fridge magnets (the ultimate holiday souvenir!)

 Feeling a lot better we headed back to the pier to wait for the boat to come to take us back to Baltimore.

 

The journey back was just as much fun and just as breath taking as the way out, and for some of us it was very tiring all together...

 We returned to Inish Beg and drank tea and read our books. We also took it in turns to take the kids for short walks. I went with Benny to the main house in the estate to book the pool for the next day and to order some videos so we could have a cinema night. We also checked to see if the hens had laid any eggs but we were too late for those.

 Garry took first Rebe and Captain and then Benny and Maggie into the woods across from our house to look for the perfect sticks to make bows and arrows.

 Then he found some string in the car and helped the kids make the bows and showed them how to fire the arrows

 By this time Joa had woken and I walked with him to the estate and we looked at the sheep on the way and checked the hens (again).

 We headed back to the same lovely hotel that we had dinner in the night before. It was just as lovely and so much fun with Benny proudly ordering a 'point of Guiness' at the bar for Garry and everyone having a knickerbocker glory for desert.

After dinner we came home to have our cinema night. We had popcorn and orange juice (or wine depending on how old you were) and then we toasted marshmallows on the fire. Before the film ended both Benny and Joa had fallen asleep and were carried up to bed. When Rebe was tucked in too Garry and I watched Braveheart and finished off the wine and a sneaky bar of chocolate.

The next morning we extended our check out time to give us an hour in the pool. Then we packed up and managed to get this beautiful picture of all 8 of us before heading slowly home again.

 We stopped off in one little village for burgers at lunch time (at Rebe's request) and then found a really lovely beach for a good play and run around.

 

As is compulsory on holidays, we made one final stop for ice cream, rounding off what was for me the most special, stress free, happy holiday I have ever had. It was a very special time for all of us and I know we will all remember it forever.