AT MY MOST BEAUTIFUL

Day 5 - family connections

My great great grandfather (William) was born in County Wicklow in 1847 to John and Sarah Burns. I know very little more than that. We don't know exactly where in the county the Burns' lived. And Grandpa William didn't even grow up in Ireland - he and his family emigrated to Nova Scotia when he was a toddler. 10 years after that they moved to Michigan (where William was classmates with a boy named Thomas Edison!) before settling in Missouri. Since then, the great majority of my family's history occured within a small area in the Show Me state. So, why I would feel any real connection to Wicklow is beyond me. But, a connection is without a doubt what I felt.

We woke on our last full day in Ireland in a B&B near Glendalough, Co Wicklow. We got an early start so as to maximize our time after feasting on a breakfast that showcased some truly spectacular eggs. Seriously, those eggs were hands down my favorite culinary experience in Ireland:) The air was cold and frost covered the ground everywhere you looked. The everpresent Irish morning fog had yet to clear and I just didn't care. It was still breathtakingly beautiful.

The Wicklow Mountains are certainly small by most standards. The highest range - Lugnaquilla - is only a little over 3000 feet. But it's rumored that on a clear day you can gaze across the Irish Sea from the mountain's peaks and see Snowdonia in Wales. A clear day is rare in Ireland and it wasn't available to us during our exploration:) Regardless, the sights we did see were worth the trip. Even when we drove into one of many valleys the view was incredible. Green hills despite the winter season, picture perfect farms and villages. Postcard images that inexplicably filled me with a proud warmth that proved very successful at chasing away the cold.

I suppose you can equate an Irish county to a US state. Not size-equivalent by any means but a similar division. So although I don't have many specifics about where my Irish family is from, Co Wicklow felt a little like home. Just like the happy feeling I get these days over anything Missouri, I left Ireland flaunting a little Wicklow county pride:)