The Red River Gorge in Daniel Boone National Forest is full of amazing features and views. My wife and I have spent more than one weekend exploring around the Natural Bridge there. Here are a couple of views from the top of the bridge.
Click to see full-sized.
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During the second week of our honeymoon, my wife and I returned to the Red River Gorge, in Daniel Boon National Forest, Kentucky. This park is where we were engaged and also where we were married. It seemed only fitting that we also visited for part of our honeymoon. A multi-day backpacking trip was in order! Along the way, we used our filter to get safe water. Is there any fresher water than some from a spring in the mountains? Nice and cool, definitely refreshing, I don’t think it gets much better than this!
Click to see full-sized.
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This photo was taken shortly after Saturday’s. My wife (who had just become my fiance the night before) and I were walking back to our campsite in the Red River Gorge. We were on a ridge, above the clouds down in the valley. They were evaporating and the valley below us was beginning to emerge. Here you can see the forest slowly “waking up”.
Click to see full-sized.
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Took this picture one morning in the Red River Gorge in Daniel Boon National Forest. My wife (girlfriend who became my fiance the night before) woke up early, walked down the trail a short way and sat on the cliff’s edge. We watched the clouds in the valley dissipate.
Click to see full-sized.
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While visiting Belfast we took a tour to the Giant’s Causeway, which included a visit to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Carrick-a-Rede means the rock in the road. The road is the sea route for Atlantic salmon on their westward journey past Carrick Island. For over 350 years, fisherman have strung a rope bridge 30m above the sea to allow them to access the best places to catch the emigrating salmon.
There are only a few days left to vote for the Photo Scavenger Hunt winner! I’m lagging a bit behind and can’t win without your help. If you haven’t voted yet, head over to Nicole B’s and vote for me! The poll is on the right side, and I’m Matthew (Ireland).
Haven’t checked out my pictures? Here they are!
Thanks for the votes!
While in Belfast, my wife and I took a tour up to the Giant’s Causeway. We have been looking forward to this tour since we decided to come to Ireland. In fact, it is part of the reason that we chose Ireland in the first place.
Way back in the day, the Irish giant, Finn MacCool, wanted to go and fight the Scottish giant, Benandonner. Finn built a pathway from Ireland over to Scotland, but upon nearing Scotland realized that the Scottish giant was much bigger than him. Finn came back and asked his wife what he should do. She thought for a moment and told him to dress up like a baby and to lay in the crib. Then she left. The Scottish giant came across the pathway to fight the Irish giant. He came into the house and saw the crib. Looking inside, he was afraid, “If their babies are this large, how big can his da be?” He ran back across the stone path, tearing it up as he went so that the Irish giant would not come to his island.
Of course, then you’ve got some scientists trying to tell everyone that the Causeway was formed “as a result of rock crystallization under conditions of accelerated cooling, this usually occurs when molten lava comes into immediate contact with water, as happens today in Hawaii, the resulting fast accelerated cooling process causes cracking and results in what we see today at the causeway.” But we all know the real story, don’t we Finn? 😉
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There is no real way to describe the feeling you get when visiting the Causeway. It is interesting to see the uniformity of the hexagonal stones on the ground and realize that it is a natural formation. They could easily be man-made paving stones. Then when you see that the stones “laying on the ground” are actually the tips of columns that could be meters in length it becomes even more amazing!
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I mentioned in Thursday’s post that my wife and I headed out after lunch (and the rain stopped) to explore more of Belfast on foot. One of the places we visited was Victoria Square. Victoria Square is a roofed outdoor mall, if that makes any sense. Traveling down the road (foot traffic only) you walk underneath a roof and you’re inside the mall, though you are still outside! The individual shops are separately enclosed, and since it was rather cool outside, we gladly stepped in some of them to warm up occasionally. The square is dominated by a glass dome that includes an observation platform which one can see most of the city.
Here is a picture from one of the third floor pathways, showing one of the mall entrances. You can see that “inside” and “outside” are merged quite successfully.
We stopped at a small shop called the Cookie Box and got some hot drinks (hot chocolate for me and tea for my wife) and some delicious cookies! We carried them into the mall and sat on a bench to enjoy them. While there we saw the characters shown in the Scavenger Hunt under the Traditional Dress heading. We also headed up to the observation platform to see the city from above. Beautiful! (Unfortunately none of those photos really turned out.)
Went up to Belfast last weekend. Saw some beautiful scenery, visited some amazing places and learned some fascinating history (I guess current history, as the Troubles are still on-going). All of those places, and my favorite picture is of this lil taxi that we took a tour in. I paused while walking back from shooting some photos and quickly grabbed this one. Good thing it turned out so well, as I only took one!
As you can see, we had a bit of rain. The day started out nice and sunny, if cold, and towards the end of the tour it began to rain and then snow on us. Fortunately for us it didn’t last long; we ate lunch in the hostel and by then it had cleared up so we were able to continue exploring the city.
I would love to have entered this into the Photo Scavenger Hunt for transportation, but had already submitted the bicycle photo. That’s ok, though, as I still get to share it with you, here. 😀
It was a bit of a last-minute scramble, but I finished the Photo Scavenger Hunt! You can see all of the photos here. Now comes the important part, please go to Nicole B’s and vote for me! The poll will be up until the 31st, and I’ll remind you at least once before then. The poll is on the right-hand side of her page.
Hope you enjoy the pictures and thanks for the vote!