Day 8. Derry.

I got an early start on the day so I could be a good wife and check out the surf in Easky and Strandhill. Two spots that Steve and I visited during our honeymoon. I've been missing Steve and with all the craziness that's happened back home, I wanted to spend some time at the ocean to feel closer to Steve and his brother. Knowing that it would bring me some small amount of comfort to check the surf and watch and photograph the surfing scene for the both of them.

I spent about an hour watching the ocean and thinking of all of them, including Michele. Taking comfort from the ocean. And documenting as much of it as I could for Steve and Pat. Here's an album filled with nearly 100 photos of surf sequences from the brave, or crazy?, surfers who managed to go out.

In Search of Surf in Ireland

When my wifely duties were over, I headed to the bus station in Sligo and picked up Robin.

I've known Robin since we were children. She is my oldest friend and someone I reconnected with after the article Kara wrote about the hike we did to drop my father's ashes atop Mt. Lafayette appeared in Real Simple. We don't get to see each other often, but when we do, it's easy and fun and comfortable. I value our easygoing, consistent and fun friendship. And I loved that we were able to pick up right where we had left off as if no time had passed.

We decided to head to Donegal (Steve and I also went there on our honeymoon- in fact, it's where he got food poisoning for the second time that trip!) and then do the scenic route from there. We would have loved to do the coastal scenic route, but that would have taken hours and hours and we would have been driving when it was dark. And neither of us were up for that much time in the car!

Which is just as fine. We were rewarded with some pretty spectacular views during the drive that made both of us say more than once how grateful we felt to be together and exploring Ireland.

And then we coasted into Derry to find the place totally deserted! When we first got into town, we thought it was buzzing and had a great energy. But by the time we made it to the B&B and headed out to grab some food, there was no craic to be found anywhere. All the shops were closed, there weren't many choices for restaurants and the one bar we did make it into scared us both so we turned around and left!

It's an early night and tomorrow we have a full day of exploring that we're both excited about!