Closer to America than we've been since last October

The 12th of July in Belfast is like the 4th of July in America (even better: you get two whole days off of work!), except that it's not fun for half of the population. The loyalists are celebrating the Battle of the Boyne and the republicans are getting the hell out of town. We joined some Irish friends for a long weekend in Donegal instead of sticking around for the marches and bonfires. We had a bonfire of a different sort two hours away and roasted a goat over it. Yum.

Tom and Beatrice invited us along with them and a few other friends and we spent the weekend in the wild Irish countryside. It was great. Tom had procured a goat from a local butcher and, after marinating it in the bathtub overnight, it was ready to go on the spit on Saturday morning for a day of roasting. All day long (through a lot of rain) we watched and waited, turning the spit, basting, salivating. It was ready to go as the sun was going down (which is quite late here in N. Ireland in the summertime), but worth the wait. We ate as much as we possibly could that night. And the night after. And the night after. And we still have a lot of goat in our freezer. If you are wondering what goat tastes like (it's great - between beef and lamb!), just come for a visit and we'll share some.

On Sunday and Monday we took a drive to two different breathtakingly beautiful beaches each day and Andrew went swimming in the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean at both. We were closer to home than we had been since last fall and if we squinted really hard we thought we could see the shores of America. Almost. 

I, too, took a dip, but only after putting on Tom's wetsuit. (Which I actually put on backward, but oh well, that's not really important.) Also, my hands and feet were pretty cold after about two minutes so I didn't last. Andrew's a champ - or he's insane. 

More of our weekend on flickr.