The short road home

After two days in the car, no one was feeling particularly anxious to hit the road on Sunday. We realized too late we should have scheduled a "nothing" day for kids to play and adults to lounge and chat. But we had tickets to the Easter Eggspress departing Dublin on Monday, so staying an extra day, tempting as it was, was not an option.

And then there was the matter of Easter Sunday. No, we didn't have to deal with a Catholic vigil or sunrise service, but there was a pile of fresh hot cross buns and more than a few foil-covered eggs and bunnies to deal with. Any fears that the bunny might not find us were alieved when the kids got up early to play with the dog and found the table set by said festive rodent.

The outdoors had a few glimmers as well, and the kids soon discovered an embarassment of chocolate eggs and bunnies in the field around the cabins. All the booty went into one bag, equitably dividing the stomach ache among us all.

With the morning nearly gone and our bellies full of chocolate, we decided to take the direct route home, stopping once in Roscrea, a town we had bypassed on the way down. Two bags of snack, one for each car, were prepared, bags were packed and one more egg ingested for the road.

Coloring books, cheap felt pens and a mountain of food got us all the way to Roscrea, where we discovered, much to our delight, that there was a great castle with picnic grounds, sunshine and an OPW booth--we could actually use our card for the first time this trip! The guidebooks don't lie when they call this place a great halfway stopover. The castle has been restored very selectively and sensitively, allowing you to explore passageways and see evidence of even more. Think of sunny window seats, a huge fireplace and stairways to nowhere. There's even a hole-in-the-floor dungeon, called an oubliette to scare the kids.

From there, we discovered it was a quick hour home to Tulfarris (mostly motorway), and kidlets, full of sun, chocolate and lunch, slept most of that. Our food bag also had some lovely lamb chops from County Kerry, which served as our garlicky Easter lamb that grilled up while the troops played soccer outside our very own back door.