Sunset over the Atlantic

July 13, 2010  •  County Clare, Europe, Ireland, Travel

I didn’t intend to post my final dinner at Ballinalacken Castle Hotel, but it was so special that I just must. I began with a great leafy green salad with other vegetables and pine nuts, then moved on to the seafood special: halibut, salmon, monkfish and prawns with a very light lemon and herb cream sauce. The seafood just melted with no “fishy” taste at all. But the real astonishment was dessert.Guinness ice cream. I can’t quite describe it except to tell you it was good enough that my dad had two scoops. I fell in love with it, and that’s coming from someone who makes all sorts of incredible homemade ice cream flavors.The real reason for dragging out dinner was that we had a suspicion based on the loose cloud cover that we just might be able to see the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean – something high on my dad’s “bucket list”.So while I set out with Declan to tour the Ballinalacken Castle behind the hotel……my parents wandered to the top of the hill in front of the hotel to watch the sunset. Don’t you just love this picture? I do, and I’m sure they will when I print it for them.The sun sets slowly from about 9:45 until well after 10, and my parents stayed up for the whole thing, chatting with the owner of the hotel (Dennis, whose parents bought the house in 1939 and turned it into a hotel right before the war).
I really was wishing I had my big camera with me to shoot this, but even with a digital zoom, I managed to capture the color and beauty of the sunset, even if it is a bit grainy. We’re up early morning to head to Dublin!

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