Checking in at the Cottage at Doonagore Castle for our stay near Doolin, Ireland.
Tammy modeling her new Ireland made Jack Murphy coat found at Adare Manor.
This would be the perfect spot for a Kubb pitch at Adare Manor!
Afternoon Tea at Adare Manor
Today we had a special event — Afternoon Tea at Adare Manor. The last time Mazie and I went to an Afternoon Tea she was three and it was in London. Tammy and Mazie have done a couple of them in Minneapolis but not as grand. It was Tyler’s first tea experience.
We had the 1 PM seating at the Manor in the Great Hall. The room lived up to its name completely. Both Tammy and I added an Earl Grey Bellini (Earl Grey & Apricot infused Peach Liqueur, Champagne) to our experience. We started with the special 1832 Blend that is custom to Adare Manor. I thought it was amazing. Maybe better than my favorite Earl Grey.
For the sandwiches we had: Baked Limerick Ham with wholegrain mustard; Free Range Egg Mayonnaise with asparagus, quail egg, brioche; Duncannon Smoked Salmon with caperberry, lemon gel; St. Tola Goat Cheese & Cucumber with goat cheese & cucumber roll, candied walnuts. I was the only one that tried them all and they were good.
Tyler got the “kids tea” (technically he was too old for it but they didn’t care). His tea included varieties of Hot Chocolate. HIs sandwiches included Nutella and Peanut Butter, Ham, Sausage Roll, and Chicken Arancini.
For the scones course we switched to Earl Grey Darjeeling. The scones were amazing. Mazie enjoyed the lemon curd so much that she made all of it go away. Mazie liked the Earl Gray a bit better than the 1832 Blend. Tammy thought both of the first two teas were okay, but found the white tea that we had as a digestif to be more her liking.
Deserts were amazing and included: Lemon cake, vanilla cream cheese, strawberry gel; Chocolate Guinness sponge, cherry, chocolate coating; Coconut mousse, sponge, lime curd, lime sable; Mango crémeux, mango jelly, apple compôte, mascarpone vanilla Chantilly cream, choux pastry; Raspberry cranberry mousse & confit, pound cake, almond sable.
For desert I tried a third and final tea — Tom Crean Vanilla. Tammy had the White Ginger Pear.
We had a fabulous time. The entire experience was incredible and very memorable. By far our favorite of the limited tea experiences that we have ever had.
Last beach walk this morning in Ballybunion during low tide.
I am excited to see sync improvements to OmniFocus 4.3 for Apple Watch. The new watchOS app is very good but sync is always behind and makes it very difficult to use. Smart to use the iOS app as a sync speed up!
- Sync – When a paired iPhone is nearby, the watch app will now download recent changes from that iPhone prior to syncing with the sync server. This makes syncing faster and more reliable when the watch doesn’t have a fast connection to the sync server.
- Sync – The watch app now attempts to sync automatically whenever it detects that the iPhone app has newer data.
- Sync – Sync errors are now automatically resolved by the watch app.
It didn’t occurr to me that Ireland was going to have much longer days. We are used to Minnesota at 45 °N. Ireland is at 53 °N with over an hour of additional light. Still a far cry from Iceland at 62 °N and yet 5 more hours of light, but super noticeable with light well past 10 PM.
Ireland 2024 Log - Day 5
Weather: Windy, partly cloudy. Cool but pleasant. Very cold for water activities.
A rare unscheduled Thingelstad vacation day with open options.
- Breakfast at Marine Bakery & Cafe.
- Wandered around Ballybunion.
- Walked and explored along the beach for extended time.
- Lunch snacks.
- Attempt to book Surf School but too late.
- Back to beach and Tyler and Mazie got on suits and braved the very cold water a bit.
- Dinner at Namir’s.
- Walk the Cliff Walk.
- Head to McMunn’s per my Barber’s suggestion
- Return to Airbnb
- Mazie and Tyler explore the beach even more
Jump to day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 or see Ireland 2024 Collection.
My Barber sent me to McMunn’s in Ballybunion
We ended our evening at McMunn’s of Ballybunion on the recommendation of my barber. How is that? 💈
Before leaving for vacation I made a stop at Dick’s Sports Barbers and got my regular 3 week cut from Gene. Gene’s been cutting my hair for a decade. I sat down for a trim and shared we were going to Ireland for vacation. After a bit Gene mentioned that if we ended up in Ballybunion I should go to McMunn’s. I knew Ballybunion was already on our itinerary. “We will for sure be there!”
It turns out that Tony McMunn is an “Edina guy” as Gene put it — a successful business guy and he owns McMunn’s in Ballybunion. Tony got his hair cut at Dick’s Barbers for many years. Dick, the owner, and Gene, both use to cut his hair. Gene said he was a nice guy and now lives in Florida but he still owns this pub in Ballybunion.
So tonight we stopped in for a pint of Guinness and desert for the family. When checking out I asked the waitress if she knew Tony McMunn and she did. I shared the connection and all had a laugh.
I grabbed a few McMunn’s golf tees to bring back to Gene at Dick’s Barbers. ⛳️
After dinner at Namir’s we took the Cliff Walk for an evening stroll.
