Day 5 - Hawks, Fish, and Jameson...oh my!

Sorry the post is late today.  We have SUCH a comfy bed here in Galway that we decided to sleep WAY in!!  We woke up at almost 10am!  Ahhh!

Okay, on Day 5, we drove up to the little town of Cong to do a Halk Walk.  It's essentially where you get to take a hawk out for a little walk with them flying to your glove and to trees all throughout.  It was SO amazing!!  The hawk was named Maya and was beautiful!  She's a Harris Halk and weighed less than 2 pounds!  Pictures and this little blog paragraph doesn't do the experience justice because it was VERY cool!!  We wanted to see Ashford Castle, but it's closed for construction, so it looks like we'll have to come back one day!  :)

Maya

LouAnna wasn't nervous and loved every minute with Maya!

Chris conquered his fear of birds with Maya, the hunter!  :)

Then, we went back to Galway to go to the Aquarium.  Chris had fun taking a ton of pictures, but only a few ended up on the website.  We still have LOADS more to show you, if you are interested, when we return!  LouAnna's favorite were the rays because they are so thin and graceful swimmers.  One even came over to her and lifted up it's face to say hello.  Chris's favorite was also the ray because the color markings on top were beautiful and they were great to photograph!

Sting Ray

Clown Fish and Shrimp

Apistogramma Cacatoides - the fire fin fish!!  ;)

This cawfish was as big as a chihuahua/weiner dog!  ;)

Then, it was time for some pub food.  LouAnna had looked up this one, The Kings Head, here in Galway that was 3 stories, had a King's throne, and a medieval fireplace.  It was here that we had our first Jameson and Coke and it was SO smooth!  YUM!  Then, Chris and I got the Traditional Irish Stew.  The lamb just melted in your mouth!

2 Jamesons with coke

Irish Stew

400 year old fireplace

 Then, we went to a shopping mall to walk around.  You have to pay 20 cents to use the restroom...weird!  There was also a butcher shop on the first floor, too.  Stinky!  Then, we just walked around the pub/shopping area that reminded LouAnna of Key West in that there was just strips of pubs and shops down most of the streets...or Chris likened it to Broad Ripple...so many people, so little parking, and so many shops.

Then, it was back to the hotel to rest and finish off the Forty Creek we had bought at the Toronto airport on Saturday.  It took us almost a week, but we finished this smooth Canadian whiskey.  Too bad we are flying back through Washington DC.  ;)  LouAnna ordered room service this time and then we called it a night...for almost 12 hours!