Dingle Peninsula (An Daingean)

June 18 – 20, 2008

This was our favorite spot in Ireland. The landscape was spectacular,

and the locals were friendly (the people, the cows, the sheep, the seagulls, the dolphins . . . )

This is Emlagh Lodge (we took the picture from a boat in the harbor), where we spent two nights. Our room was the middle one on the second floor.	Craig enjoys the harbor view from our bedroom window.	Same view, different spectator. There was a window seat that made it easy to relax and watch the harbor action.	And the absolute best view from our window – a Dingle Sunset. Of course, this was around 10:00 at night, since Ireland is about the same latitude as Calgary, Alberta, Canada!
By the way, here’s why we were out on a boat in the harbor - Fungie! This dolphin lives in the harbor, and he’s so consistent about meeting boats, you don’t pay the tour fee if you don’t see Fungie! **	Oh, come on. Now you’re just showing off! I have to say, the Canon PowerShot A729 IS was the best buy we made for the Ireland trip. All 427 pictures we came back with were shot on Auto, and the camera did everything itself!	Here you can see Dingle Town across the harbor. We walked through a few cow and sheep pastures during our exploration . . .	Yet another view from our window. See the little stone fence past the yard? There’s a gate in it – if we turn right, we can be in Dingle Town in five minutes. Left, and we end up where the previous picture was taken.
Remember the movie “Far and Away”, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? This is where the opening scenes were filmed. There was Tom wrestling with stones on their property, then wrestling with his brothers down the slope towards the ocean.	Ever wonder where all the stones went? These buildings are often made without mortar, but were still water-tight.	This picture of an old Irish Keep was taken during our harbor cruise. It’s actually where we were standing when we took the picture above of Dingle across the harbor.	Another picture from the harbor cruise. Ireland has the most amazing scenery in the world!

** As a behaviorist, Lori assumed that the tour guide feeds the dolphin when he takes a tour out to get this consistency,

but he didn’t – he used the boat to play “catch me” with Fungie. When Fungie would start to wander away,

the captain would race his boat in the opposite direction, and Fungie would turn to chase it

(Interestingly enough, Lori suggests this method in her dog training book as an emergency recall!)