Sarah's house!

Wednesday we drove along the eastern coast of Ireland from Dublin, into Northern Ireland (UK) to our friend Sarah's house in Kilkeel. Sarah is an old friend from our days at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis. Sarah's friendship and her faith in God have had a special impact on my life and my faith. She was a bridesmaid in our wedding, and we were really sorry to not be able to make it to her wedding to Samuel two Christmas's ago. So when Rollie mentionned a year ago that as part of his sabbatical we should go to Ireland to see Sarah, I didn't hestitate to say "yes".

Sarah and Samuel's house, on the family estate

So after 24 hours in Dublin, we drove north along the Irish Sea coast into Northern Ireland. The countryside was beautiful and the slow pace was a nice change after 4 days in major cities. Very narrow roads with stone walls along the sides, sheep and cows in the fields, and small coastal sea villages. We arrived at Sarah's around 4pm and spent the next few hours talking and catching up until Samuel came home from work. He teaches Religious Education in the local school and does Drama as well. We had never met Samuel and really enjoyed his company and seeing and hearing how God had worked in their hearts and in their relationship to bring them together. Sarah moved to Northern Ireland when they were married and we talked a lot about her experiences as an American moving to Northern Ireland and becoming part of Samuel's family and community. We had (and still have) so much to learn about the history there. So Wednesday night Sarah made us fajitas for dinner and the 4 of us spent the evening talking after baby Caleb (4 months old) went to bed.

Thursday morning we slept in and while Rollie was still sleeping, Sarah and I talked in the kitchen for a couple of hours, enjoying our girl time and a chance to just talk and catch up. Then Sarah and Caleb took Rollie and I hiking in the Mourne Mountains and we had a picnic after we reached our summit. Kilkeel is nestled on the eastern coast of Northern Ireland between the Irish Sea and the Mourne Mountains. This isolates the villages along the sea a bit, and makes a fairly private community referred to as the Kingdom of Mourne. The hike was really pretty, winding through some woods and then up a windy hillside covered in heather. After our hike back down Sarah drove us through the town a bit.

  

Before going out to dinner that night Rollie and I walked the 5 minutes from their house down to the beach. Cold and windy and beautiful.

Then Samuel's mom came over to watch Caleb while the 4 of us went out to dinner in a nearby town called Warren Point. We had a really nice time talking. They introduced us to some popular Irish desserts, pavlova and bamoffie pie. Yum!

pavlova is a light dessert of crispy meringue, whipped cream, fresh fruit

bamoffie pie is a crunchy pie crust, sliced bananas, and caramel sauce. Oh my YUM!

since Sarah and Samuel loved us enough to take a large quantity of candid pictures of themselves while we were in the restroom, they earned a spot on our blog :)

We went back to their house and watched a movie called "50 Dead Men Walking", about the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 80's. Samuel helped us to understand a bit what it was like to grow up with car bombs and shootings being a reality instead of being a movie that you watch and forget about later.