The west coast of Ireland in October felt a lot like living in Nova Scotia. Not necessarily in topography or overall feel, but in the specific way that fall storms arrive, the dampness that gets inside of you, and in reminding you that Mother Nature is always the boss.

We picked up a rental car just outside of Galway amid storm warnings and ominous skies and our phones telling us to expect a lot of flooded roads on the three and a half hour drive north to the house we were renting for the better part of a week. Orienting oneself to driving on the opposite side of the road is enough of a challenge… doing that while sideways rain and narrow roads have you questioning your sanity just added to the experience. Soon enough, that drive started to feel normal, and after a stop for some groceries in Killybeg, we arrived to this view as the storm temporarily subsided in Derrylahan.

We put our groceries away, giddy at our luck in having such a spectacular home away from home for some quiet time away from it all. Not too long after arriving, as the winds started to howl again, we heard the power go out. With our many experiences of Nova Scotia hurricanes we knew not to be terribly hopeful of the electricity coming back until after the storm concluded which wasn’t forecasted until the next day. So, what to do? Irish whiskey and a game of Yahtzee with the remaining light of the day.

Speaking of that whiskey…. we picked up this bottle in Galway, local to that area. It became a good friend of ours over our days in this remote location in County Donegal. I can highly recommend it as a pairing for some tinned fish and soda bread thickly slathered with Irish butter. That meal was about the best I could do with the contents of our refrigerator remaining sealed off to us in hopes of it staying cold until the power came back.

About 24 hours later I caught sight of the power lines being fiddled with above the trees and shortly after that wonderful hum of electricity coursing through the house made for a celebratory whiskey.

We did not have any exotic plans for this portion of our trip. Much like our time the previous year in Italy along the shores of Lake Como, the idea was to relax and play the days by ear. On one afternoon we did a short drive along the Wild Atlantic Way and the sights were breathtaking.

The sound of waves crashing ashore above the noise of a stiff wind brought smiles to both of our faces as we stood high above Trá na nGlór Beach. You can take the boy from Nova Scotia, but you can’t take the Nova Scotia out of the boy. This was a great way to start an afternoon of exploring.

A little bit later, needing to get closer to the ocean, we stopped to visit Fintra Beach. We had the wide expanse of beach almost all to ourselves

In all of the traveling I have been fortunate to do, whenever I get near a body of water away from home, I take some time to write the names of my dogs in the sand. Over the years that list has grown, and this was the first time I got to write Tia’s name here with the eternally good boy Chewy’s, and the eternally good girl Chloe’s.

A beach all to ourselves far away from home…. this might be peak vacation happiness you are seeing in the picture below.

Driving back to our rental place, we pulled off to the side of the road a few times to marvel at the green hills sloping down to the ocean and the stretch of dark clouds off to the horizon. This was exactly the kind of day that you dream about where the charms of rural Ireland seep inside you.

We were both taken with the sheep… oh, so many sheep.

Those sheep were everywhere, even roaming in the fields below where we were staying. These ones were tagged with blue on their backs as a way to identify them to their owners as they wandered freely.

What else did we get up to while in this gorgeous location? Not a lot… and that was perfect. We watched a few movies (The Banshees of Inisherin was perfect tucked under blankets, drinking whiskey, and having looked out over the water to the islands in this movie only a few days previously). My wife experimented with making whiskey sours with what we had on hand. We made simple hearty breakfasts with ALL THE BUTTER! We ate cheese and onion chips that have been missing from our lives until this trip. We visited with sheep. There was craft beer and sausage pies. There was Yahtzee and conversation and napping. It was glorious.

And the backdrop was always this… Perfection.

My wife’s family has some ties to this area of Ireland, and as we left Derrylahan and drove back toward Sligo at the end of our stay here, we stopped by some sites that her genealogical research turned up. Driving some very narrow roads led us to the Drumhome Old Church Graveyard, a place where a few relatives were buried.

And while that alone would have been interesting enough, there were cows, so naturally my animal loving wife made a few new friends.

Rossnowlagh, a small community a bit down the road was the site of some of my wife’s ancestors. We stopped at the beach and talked a bit about how these parts of Ireland reminded both of us New Brunswick where her ancestors settled.

Just outside Sligo, we visited the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery. I think this cow was as curious about us as we were about her.

We walked through close to 35 passage tombs that date back almost 6,000 years. Maybe it was the damp weather, the quiet of the day, and the rural landscape stretching out from here… it felt a touch spiritual and made for a wonderful conclusion of our time in rural Ireland.

We dropped off our rental car in Sligo and with some time to kill until our train departed to take us back to Dublin, we took up residence at the Swagman Bar. Gluten free pub snacks all washed down with a couple cider and craft beer was the backdrop as we made a commitment to each other to come back to Ireland to explore more. This was a fitting end to this part of our trip as we chatted about how storms always pass and leave something beautiful on the other side.