Weekend adventures with Kaetlyn.

I am a terrible blogger. These images were from last week, and I just got around to editing/uploading them. Procrastination at its finest right here.

Anyway, over a week ago Kaetlyn went on this little hike of her own down this side road. She was doing it for a project, and met some pretty interesting folk I guess but also came across what seemed to be an abandoned village. Granted it was only a few houses but still, I wanted to check it out. So last Sunday she showed me the way.

Apparently the route we were walking was part of the "National Walking Loop" We basically followed that until it became too late and we turned back.

This was out first stop. It was an old house completely overgrow with vines and trees. It was too much for us to go inside unfortunately.

This house was nearly impossible to get to. There were just bushed and prickers surrounding the place, and we almost just didn't want to try. However we covered the thorns with some sticks and just hacked our way through. And it was a good thing because this place was such a treasure. It had to of been recently abandoned because it was still full of stuff, where as most of the other old houses are empty. There was a mixture of new and old things too, including a 2000 calendar. It was really amazing to just rummage through all the stuff and learn about whoever lived there.

I believe it was a woman named Mary and maybe her family? She was definitely a religious woman as there were plenty of things from the church and missionary papers laying around. She also had a dog and was definitely an Irish woman, as there was a picture of the pope inside. (No Irish home is complete without the pope!)

This was our final abandoned house for the day. As you can see there's no roof and most of the walls are crumbling. This is how most of the old houses are around here.

The vines growing in and out of the stones of the walls.

We ended up near the Ailwee Caves and decided to check it out. Honestly, the caves themselves were pretty dull and not really worth it. But the Birds of Prey was definitely awesome.

We got there just in time to see the end of the flying show, and I got to see an owl fly! It was so awesome. I love owls. It was funny though because this owl was supposed to fly to this little boys arm to get some food, but he was just sitting there on his post not even looking at the instructor for a good while. It was kinda funny.

He looked right at me for this photo. We definitely had a moment.

Next he brought out some falcons. They were pretty adorable with their hoods on. They need them because falcon's eyes are pretty superior to human eyes. They can see UV light that we can't see, and if he brought him out without the hood he would just take off. Eventually he took the hood off and had the bird try and catch this little fake bird on a string. The bird would just dive over our heads and just come out of no where. It was pretty incredible how fast these things can go. Especially when food is involved.

After the flying show, we walked around and looked at the collection of birds they have. SO MANY OWLS. It was SO awesome seeing all the different kinds! They were all just so cute.

The Barn Owl is definitely my favorite. They're so pretty with their little heart shaped faces and big black eyes!

He puffed up just as I was taking the picture.

The vulture was so big. Just sitting there lurking at everyone as the passed by. I picture vultures as the grumpy old men who just wants their dinner of the bird community.

This owl was inside of some room, behind glass instead of a cage like the others. Not to sure why. But he was so cute. I guess they puff up to try and be intimidating. I didn't see it puff up, but I can't picture it being intimidating because he's just so dang cute.

After the birds, we went to wait for the tour of the caves. Unfortunately it was Kaetlyn and I as well as 2 other busses full of people. So it was a pretty big group, and everyone had to stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING. It made the tour really irritating. Not to mention the caves themselves were just...caves. It would of been cool if the tour guide didn't just ramble off stuff you could of just looked up on the internet. But oh well. After the caves, we were debating continuing the loop, but it was already pretty late and we weren't sure how much longer the loop was. So we just turned back and walked home. That was until we ran into Martina, who works in the cafe at school and she offered us a lift. Which was really nice of her. Pretty convenient she lived on the road we were walking down. All in all it was a really good day.