The Roaming Roths

Planning Our Next Itinerary

Most of you know that in 7 months, the kids and I will be heading to Ireland for a family reunion and to meet up with a few friends in our path of travel.

I am fortunate my friend Jen decided to marry an Irish lad this past year. While they were home for Christmas break, they came by and helped me lay out my plans over some gin and tonic. Conor was a wealth of knowledge on how to make the most of our 12 day trip. Of course this itinerary is only our guideline and subject to change based on our whims.

We plan to fly into Dublin and stay downtown so we can foot hike around the city. I’m sure The Temple Bar will hit our list of must stops. They have the largest collection of whiskey in Ireland. St Patrick’s Cathedral and a hike up Wicklow Mountains also top the list.

After two days in Dublin we will head to Belfast for two days with a stop at the Titanic Museum. My son is a huge fan of Titanic. He has been entranced with books detailing the ship’s construction, it’s journey and its ultimate demise since he first learned to read.

From Belfast we will traverse the countryside and it’s scenery for several hours to Sligo, which is situated between Donegal and Galway. It’s a combination of literary legacies, a surfing hotspot and jagged mountain peaks that helped to inspire the writings of William Butler Yeats.

After departing Sligo, our next stop is Galway. We have a friend in Galway with a horse farm along the beach so we plan to take a ride along the shore. There is so much to see and take in in Galway that we may take a few days to rest here. Who hasn’t wanted to be a Galway Girl for a few days?

We will drop south of Galway to hit the Cliffs of Moher for some incredible views before we cut Southeast for our final part of the week.

Our next destination will take us to Kinsale, Cobh and Cork. Kinsale is known for its yachting, sea angling, and golf, but also for being the gourmet hub of Ireland for foodies. Right up my alley! I plan to fill my belly quite well as this stop.

Once known as Queenstown, Cobh was the final port call of the RMS Titanic when it set out on its maiden and final voyage across the Atlantic. It is also the departure point for over 2.5 million Irish people who emigrated to North America between 1848 and 1950, including the Keough’s and the Moriarty’s. See, this is how you all ended up with me!

We can’t leave Ireland without partaking in a little tradition so we will check out the Blarney Castle and kiss the old Blarney Stone to seal up our Gift of Gab.

We will finish out the trip with a 3 day visit to Waterford, which is where my grandmother’s family originated. During the Keough reunion will get a personal tour of the area with specific focus on our heritage, old family homes, burial sites, etc. We will be staying at the Faithlegg House, old castle style, for a dinner and reception to meet our relatives from across the globe. This is such an amazing opportunity for the kids to meet their relatives and trace their heritage to a different sort of home.

From Waterford we make our way back to Dublin for a flight out the following morning back to the States. We will catch a few more sights here before we head home. Along the way we plan to get in some hiking, tour some castles, enjoy the local beverages, and maybe even squeeze in some falconry! Sleep is overrated. There is so much to do here that we will catch up on that on the flight home.

I’d welcome any feedback or suggestions for our travels from those who have experienced Ireland firsthand!

Fall in the Finger Lakes

This November trip was a short one, and another impromptu one with a random assortment of great travel buddies. Part of the fun of these long road trips is the story telling that occurs along the highway miles and the chance to get to know some new people. I am an ocean girl by summer, but I love the coziness of the woods and cabins when the winter snow appears. We closed our eyes, put a finger on the map and booked a cabin on the east side of Owasco Lake. We left early morning for a four hour drive and arrived right around lunch time as the winery crowds started to pull in.

We managed to make it to about eight wineries before they shut down for the evening. It had just snowed in the area so most of the wineries were surround by mud pits which made traversing the parking lots a treat. I would definitely recommend boots the next trip. Although it was mid November, the entire area was decorated for Christmas so it definitely had that festive feel! Americana Vineyards Winery and Finger Lakes Cider House were my favorites and the places I likely dumped the most of my spending money. This is a great place to pick up holiday gifts for extended family and friends.

After eight wineries worth of sampling, we headed back to the cabin with a car load of snacks for the evening. The cabin was an excellent choice and we spent the evening buried under blankets chatting and playing games. No trip is complete of course without uncovering a gem of a local diner for breakfast. Snow started falling again during our trek home which just added a serene touch to the scenery.

This was a great inexpensive weekend getaway although I would recommend at least two to three nights to really take in the area. I wouldn’t mind trying this trip at some of the other lakes or in the summer to take more advantage of the great lake views. Regardless we had a great time!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining us! I started this blog as a way to document our travels for myself and for the kids as we take on our adventures. I am grateful for friends and kids with a sense of adventure and desire to absorb the world around them. Hope you enjoy reading about our travels as much as enjoy capturing them there!

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Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Visiting with Martha

So I must back up a bit to July of 2018 when I decided on a whim to throw together 4 girls who didn’t really know each other at the time and hop in one vehicle to Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard with zero plans. I am a sea side girl at heart and loved the New England summers after visiting Gloucester MA as a teenager.

First things first, don’t let the GPS fool you. Seven hours? No problem! In reality, plan for 9-10 with traffic and pit stops. I will say I was impressed that 5 women fit luggage, beach gear, food, and of course wine into one vehicle. We picked an Airbnb online that backed up to a small lake in Falmouth, had 5 bedrooms and an ample kitchen to get dirty in, and put us in close proximity to everything we wanted to see.

With driving we really only had 3 full days to work with, but we managed to make the best of our time. Our first day we took a sailing excursion from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard on the Liberte Schooner, a Hout Bay 70, two masted gaff-rigged schooner. It was a heavy but fast offshore cruiser captained by Chris Tietje. Sailing has always been one of my dreams, and Chris was kind enough to let me sail this bad boy and turn it against Martha’s coast and cut back towards Cape Cod. I highly recommend this excursion. It’s well worth the cost for a 3 hour ride with a bar! Even better.

Liberte Schooner

The second day we took some time to tour Falmouth, hit the grocery store for some things to make a big meal at the house, and in the afternoon hit Old Silver Beach. Word of warning. Cape Cod beaches are packed and there is little parking at any of them so plan to get their early. We didn’t plan ahead and spent a good chunk of our day waiting to get in a parking lot, but the view was worth the wait.

On our last day we caught the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard which is about a 50 minute ride on the open waters. We grabbed a quick Lobster Roll at the Seafood Shanty and spent the day touring Oak Bluffs gift shop, art galleries, historical museums and soaking up all the sunshine we could. Oak Bluffs is home to the famous Gingerbread Cottages. They have their own depth of history so I have included a link on them below. As far as the vineyards themselves, apparently the locals don’t like the tourists milling through the area so we never got a glimpse of them. We did partake in plenty on their outputs though!

Gingerbread Cottages in Oak Bluffs

This trip was short and sweet, the area is gorgeous, the weather was 80 and breezy the entire trip, and all the points of interest are in such close proximity. The people were amazing and friendly. I would definitely make this trek again for a longer stay.