Titanic Museum

We were able to enjoy a few days in Northern Ireland visiting Wes and Lyn.  While there we were able to visit the Titanic Museum.  The museum is the most comprehensive museum about the Titanic in the world and only opened in 2012.  The Titanic was built by shipbuilders Harland and Wolff in the shipyards of Belfast a little over 100 years ago.  There were extensive photos and interactive displays about its construction, what the ship looked like and the people involved.  There was even footage in the theatre showing the remains of the crash on the ocean floor.  Very powerful experience.  We were also able to visit a heritage village and experience life in the north in the 1800's.  The highlights were seeing a printing press in action that was over 170 years old, an old time forge demonstration, weaving on an old wooden loom and learning about how photography worked back then.  Very fun evening.

This is the drawing room where the plans for the Titanic were hand drawn.  The planning process took about 3 years, with 3 more years needed to complete the actual construction.

This is the shipyard where the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic, were built side by side.  The Titanic was 90 feet tall with her smokestacks adding another 90 feet.  

Countryside outside of Belfast, Northern Ireland

Picture taken of the men drawing the plans for the Titanic.

Floors

Today is the end of a very busy week.  The floors just need a layer of poly gloss and then they will be done.  One more large room was added to our floor list, so that slowed us down a bit.  The last ceiling has been painted and we're working on prepping the walls to paint 2 more rooms.  After that there is more baseboard to put up and a lot of trim work to be done.  So much work and so few days! The weather has still been very nice.  We are getting spoiled.  It will be a shock to go back to the cold and dark!  Next week will hopefully see the completion of some rooms.  We are working on 6 at present.  None of them have been able to be used for over 5 years, so we are excited to get them opened up again.  Thank you for all your prayers.  We are tired, but the work continues to go smoothly, for which we are very thankful.

The half floor round room.  Just needs a coat of poly and baseboards to be completed.

Upstairs round room.  

The day was so nice we decided to go to the orchard and do spelling in a tree.  

Matt and Drew fixing the floor in the lower round room before the floors were stained.

Great Hall.  We won't be able to do any work in this room.  

Balcony area from the first floor.  

Fore Abbey

Squinting against the sun at Fore Abbey.

Fore Abbey

Waterford/WexfordCrystal

Crystal helmet at Waterford Crystal factory.

Quay at Waterford.  

Main street Waterford.

Irish Sea.

Biscuit, Johanna and Eva's dog, enjoying the sand.

Viking artifacts at the museum in Dublin

Boys and their toys.

Clint and Molly doing their own construction.

276 feet of baseboard to paint.  Twice.

Viking ship in the archaeology museum of Dublin.

Old Viking weapons.

Viking houseware.

Little Viking child's boot.

Partially finished log boat.  It may be incomplete, but you can see how long it was.

Shopping mall in Dublin.  It was designed to look like a Victorian greenhouse.

Drew cutting baseboard.  He did a good job doing all the math and angles in his head.  

West Coast Holiday

What a treat!  The past four days were spent on holiday in the little coastal town of Fanore in County Clare.  Pictures can't begin to capture the beauty of the west coast.  It is rugged and wild.  Made even more so by high winds from a storm.  In spite of the weather we ventured forth to hike the Cliffs of Moher, explore the medieval castle of Bunratty and the demonstration village they had set up there, went tide pooling, trekked in a cave and met the birds at the Burren Birds of Prey Centre.  At the end of the day we came back to our vacation cottage to sit in front of a peat fire and listen to the wind.  It was a lovely time.

Cliffs of Moher on the west coast.

West coast of Ireland.

Tide pooling on the rugged Atlantic shore.

Our vacation cottage in Fanore, County Clare.

Clint's jellyfish.

The kids got a good laugh at the chicken in bloomers.

Main dining hall of Bunratty Castle.  There were several old tapestries hanging on the walls.

Clint with Batty, the African eagle.

Tessa holding Jess the barn owl.

Old thatched cottage at the display village at Bunratty Park.