Kiss My Blarney Stone

So this morning we woke up in our beds made of clouds.  I could get used to staying here.  Especially when you factor in that this is what breakfast looks like...

After breakfast we hopped in a taxi and headed over to the Blarney Castle.  See...

I've always been told that you can't come to Ireland without going to Blarney, climbing to the top of the castle and kissing the Blarney Stone...

The weather has been a little bit on the crappy side today, but not too bad...

I figured we would go kiss the Blarney Stone first, but then we saw a tour group of 100 people right behind us so we decided to go walk around the grounds first instead.  Blarney Castle sits on about 100 acres of land, so there was plenty for us to see and do...

I think this might have been Mom and Dad's favorite part of Ireland...

It was just so beautiful and quiet here...

Brad even made a friend...

Once we ditched the tour group, we were pretty much on our own.  This was some famous rock, that is basically being held up by nothing...

They even say that it rocks when the wind blows...

So of course we had to do bits...

We thought about going to this place...

Nope! We did walk along it long enough to find some "battlements" (Dad called them that, absolutely no idea what he was talking about) to stand on for photos...

O'Battlements!

Then we headed over to Blarney House.  It wasn't open.  Blarney...

Next we stopped by a cute little cafe and had a cup of tea by the fire to warm up...

Then it was time for the main event. The Blarney Castle...

With the tourists gone it was just us and a gaggle of Old People...

No, not them, actual old people, geriatric even...

So we started our climb up to the Blarney Stone.  It's about 100 steps up this windy tiny TINY staircase...

It's super fun for claustrophobic people, which Mom found out the hard way.  About 15 steps in, she called it quits...

We walked her back down before Dad, Brad and I walked all the way up to the top.  What an amazing view!

Mom made the right call though, she wouldn't have made it up there, it was waaaaay too tiny for her, she would have freaked.  I almost did...

But the view was worth it.  And I must have missed an instruction, because in order to kiss the Blarney Stone, you have to lie on your back at the top of the castle...

And then duck your head all the way down backwards, while holding on to a railing...

Oh and did I mention that there is nothing to stop you from plummeting to your death...

But thankfully that didn't happen...

All in all another great day.  Now we are off to go relax at the hotel.  We are turning in early because we are heading back to London tomorrow.  Cheers!