Finally! Jaime's best buddy from Bilbao got to take a weekend off and come and stay with us! The boys are crazy about "osaba" Unai... so they were delighted to finally have him here :)
After seeing the suburbs of Dublin, and visiting some photographers in the area, Unai said he wanted to see some of the "greener" parts of our countryside... so we took him to the "
garden of Ireland": Wicklow...
To the waterfall you may remember from previous posts...
The Powerscourt estate was quieter than it was last time we visited... and this time we decided to have ourselves a barbecue so that Unai could taste some lovely Irish beef.
Vegetarians: look away!
We got ourselves a picnic table and had a great cook-out. Apart from that annoying white van, the view of the waterfall in the background was lovely ;)
Lorcan looked like he was the man in charge...
And Malachy was being, well, very... Malachy :P
How can you go from this....
...to this in a matter of seconds?
I don't actually remember what the huff was about... but I know it was over in a matter of moments... as always!
Liam clinging to his buddy, Unai.
... demanding his full attention!
!!!
Unai is a photographer by profession and he had the tools of his trade with him here. Jaime and I were eager to try out his camera...
After our barbecue and juicy watermelon dessert, we went exploring around the waterfall and the river...
Unai took tons of great photos with his cool camera. They're all on the hard disc of our iMac (which I never use for blogging), so when I get them onto my laptop, I promise to post a few... the difference in quality is, ahem, notable!
Later we went to the playground for some fun and ice-creams. I couldn't resist snapping this candid shot!
Twirling, lifting, spinnning.... in the carpark before heading home.
* * * * *
As all true Basques do, Unai loves the fruits of the seas... so we just had to take him to Howth for some nibbles and shopping...
We had langostines and white wine and Ivan's...
And then went shopping at Wrights for our fishy fishy supply :)
Um, it looks like Liam's fringe needs a trim!!!
Fish and chips for dinner, of course...
And a quick pit-stop at the book stall at the Sunday market, where Liam bought himself his first book of poetry... and proceeded to read it there and then, all by himself!
Then we had a quick spin around Howth playground...
...and headed home to get the kids to bed.
On his last night we used some of the goodies we bought in Howth to make a fish barbecue at home with Unai, Morgan and ourselves. Here's Unai getting the "refrito de ajo" ready to top off the fish...
sizzle, sizzle...
yum, yum...
So it's farewell... but not for long. We'll be seeing Unai again very soon... in Bilbao!!!!
xxxxx
Hey, we forgot to show you where we were staying for our first two weeks! The green house in the row above was ours. Nestled between the coastline and the mountains in the tiny village of Llames de Pría.
To find out a little more about the area, we went back into Llanes (with an 'n'... which isn't the tiny village of Llames (with an 'm') that we were staying in!) and visited the tourist office. It's in that cool castle tower in the photo.
Armed with our maps and tourist info, we went for a walk around the old town.
Yes, he's getting very big!
Then we headed for the idyllic beach "Playa de Toró"....
And we spent the rest of the day there... doing all sorts of beachy, holiday things...
(If you're looking back at this years from now, Malachy, yes, I admit it, I clipped your fringe back off your face with one of my hairclips!!!!... But I'll have you know, you didn't mind one bit! And I thought, so what?... everyone always mistakes you for a girl anyway!!!)
our baby beach boy!
dig, dig, dig...
On our way home, we stopped at the fishmongers for some supplies...
And had a mosto and some olives on a 'terraza' in town.
