Bull island

It was only 5c when we left the house for today’s adventure to Bull Island. The kids were in hats and gloves and jackets all bundled up for the cold. By the time we ridden the LUAS to purchase donuts to eat on the DART and gotten off the DART at the Raheny stop the gloves and hats were off and the day was turning out warm and nice. By the time we walked a half hour from the DART to the beach no one had on a jacket anymore and Michelle was saying we might need sun screen. Once we made it to the beach the kids started taking off their shoes to run and play in the sand.

I’m typing this post watching everyone in their happy places. Michelle at a beach with the family, the girls off hunting for shells and Maddex digging in a deep hole on the sand. He says he’s going to dig until he hits mud then play in the mud. The girls are on a mission to fill up their buckets with shells. The beach here is massive. Colin tells me his dad took him out here to learn to drive on the sand. Miles of smooth flat surface and not much to run into. I can see this being a brilliant place to learn to drive. on the walk down most of the paths to drive to the beach were blocked off.

Being Ireland and being on the ocean it’s fairly windy out here, and the wind is not warm at all. I put my jacket back on while typing and we put the brake on the stroller to keep it from rolling down the beach blown by the wind. We have so many amazing sandy beaches a short distance from where we live in Dublin; Feel a bit spoiled.

We made it about an hour playing on the sand before the wind was too much and we headed inland. We stopped near a boarded up looking visitors center at a picnic bench to have lunch and use the toilets. While the girls were using the toilet it dawned on me my gloves were missing. I searched all of our bags and they were nowhere to found. I figured they fell out when I took my jacket off as we first hit the island. To look for my gloves we elected to take the same path off the island we took to get on the island.

I offered a 5€ reward for my gloves and Maddex and Mila started running ahead to look for them. We ended up finding my gloves on the path right where I took my jacket off. Bummer for the kids Michelle found them so she got the reward. Across the road walking in Saint Anne’s park, the kids all climbed up a steep hill to look on the other side. Khaleesi was scared coming down and Maddex, being oddly nice, gently took her hand and helped her down the hill. He helped find my gloves and was mega nice so I tossed him a 2€ coin to reward the good behavior- then spent most the rest of the day praising him for it.

We found the kids play area in Saint Anne’s park and played there for a bit. Massive park. Huge kids play area and a small Saturday market to boot. The kids play area looks well shaded. if it was not such a chore to get here we’d mark this as a great place to visit in the summer. After the park, we walked towards a super value in Killester for some ice cream and a rest of our worn out feet. Someone or two muttered about their dogs barking from all of the walking. I guess the dogs barking is acceptable given my Fitbit says 21,759 steps while sitting at the super value typing this up.

After SuperValue we added a few more steps walking to the DART station where we had a 15-minute wait for a train. We stood on the train until we got off at Pearce station. More steps towards Stephens green where we caught the LUAS home. We succeeded in our mission to wear the kids out. They are sitting and laying down on the floor of the LUAS wiped out as I finish up writting. We had a great day. We’ve been needing to get out and have some adventure since school started.

A bunch of other pictures