Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Ireland

Happy 20th Anniversary, Harry Potter!

I can’t believe it was 20 years ago that J. K. Rowling introduced our world to the magical world of Harry Potter. Over the past two decades, I’ve read the books and listened to the audiobooks multiple times, watched the movies in theatres and at home more times than I care to admit, and have managed to work several Potter-related places into my travels. I still have yet to ride the train along the Glenfinnan viaduct in Scotland and there are a few other minor stops I’ll probably get to eventually (e.g., a Harry Potter-inspired coffee shop in Nevada or maybe tea at this B&B), but my Potterhead experiences in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and Florida are some of my favorite memories!

“After all this time?”

“Always,” said Snape.

June 26, 2017
Moving Pictures: Ireland

I know I’ve been a little light on posts so far this year, but I blame the awful cold I battled and also the amount of time it takes for me to edit video footage, which is what I’ve been working on instead of writing. That said, I just finished compiling a bunch of video clips from our trip to Ireland and have uploaded a short movie for your viewing pleasure! Bonus points if you recognize where else (hint: in what movie) you might have heard the song.

February 1, 2016
A Bit of Beach Therapy

It’s that time of the year, when it has turned unbearably cold in Virginia and I’m dreaming of sun and sand. Chris and I don’t tend to try to get away to the islands during our winter months because we typically use our free time to play in the snow, but right now we’re at the point where it’s bitterly cold without any snow. When that happens, I turn my daydreams toward beaches. Thankfully I can look back on my images of sandy shorelines, and look forward to island trips ahead (Mexico is calling our name this year)! So on that note, here are some of my most favorite beach photos from the past several years. It’s the closest to beach therapy I can get at the moment!

Outer Banks, NC

Would you believe the first time I remember ever going to the beach wasn’t until I was twenty years old? I grew up in land-locked Missouri and Colorado, and when I lived in Texas we were a good five hours from any sandy coastlines. My family took plenty of vacations, but not to the beach, so it wasn’t a familiar sight to me when I went on my first trip to the Outer Banks with Chris. It has taken me many many years to get used to the water, but this first trip to Corolla will always be special to me.

Oahu, HI

A few years later Chris and I found ourselves on Oahu for a conference. Despite my adventurous nature and love for exploring, I still harbored a pretty serious fear of ocean creatures at this point. So after seeing a sign on Waikiki Beach warning swimmers not to go in the water due to jellyfish swarms, that was it for me. I didn’t get in the water the entire trip! But I enjoyed gazing at the water from a distance, and of course I took pictures of the enchanting colors. These photos are actually from our return trip to Oahu in 2008 for a friend’s wedding.

St. John, USVI

When Chris’s dad invited us to spend a week with him on St. John, it began our love affair with the island and we ended up returning two more times after that. I don’t have photos of my favorite beach, Cinnamon Bay (where we went for a short snorkel before a sting ray freaked me out), but I do have a photo of one of the most photographed beaches in the Virgin Islands. Trunk Bay is the one that shows up most frequently on postcards from St. John. I snapped this photo on our third visit after a tropical storm had just visited the island.

And it’s easy to get that view of Trunk Bay – there is a road that passes by overlooking the beach, and there’s plenty of room to pull off for a photo op!

Virgin Gorda, BVI

Without meaning to, I turned this post into a timeline of my ocean phobia, but this day trip to Virgin Gorda (from Tortola) was a huge turning point for me. Chris talked me into getting in the water at The Baths because he knew I’d be crazy about the cute, brightly colored fish. Sure enough, I put my face in the water to see a school of blue tangs trailing nearby, and it was enough to make my fears melt away. I’ve been more and more curious about the sea ever since.

Tortola, BVI

Smuggler’s Cove on Tortola is still one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Being able to see everything around me is key to my comfort while swimming, and the crystal-clear water at Smuggler’s Cove put me right at ease.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

By the time we booked a trip to Grand Cayman in 2014, I was ready to go all-in with snorkeling, diving, and playing with sting rays in the water. We missed the chance to dive on this trip, but we did get to see some stunning beaches. Seven Mile Beach and Starfish Point stand out in my mind as favorite stretches of sand on the island.

Vik, Iceland

When you think of Iceland you probably don’t think of beaches, but our visit to the shores of Vik was my first sighting ever of dramatic black sand.

Ambergris Caye, Belize

This long, narrow island in Belize isn’t typically known for its beaches, but we did enjoy the little strip of beach outside our villa on Ambergris Caye.

Vieques, Puerto Rico

Even though this beach wasn’t really swimmable, Chris, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I loved the view from our villa in Vieques along the northern shore.

Derrynane, Ireland

Speaking of unswimmable beaches, Chris and I had a great time exploring the rocky coastline of Ireland when we stopped at Derrynane Beach off the Ring of Kerry. It was too cold to even dip a toe in the water while we were there (and signs warn visitors not to swim there due to strong currents), but it was beautiful to photograph.

Islay, United Kingdom

Last but not least, one of my favorites of the favorites: Saligo Bay on the Isle of Islay in Scotland. I just didn’t realize we would find such pretty beaches in Scotland, but lo and behold they’re all over, and here is one of them.

Even thinking about beaches that are too chilly for swimming makes me feel warmer on this blustery day in Virginia. I’m hoping to add some more shoreline images to my collection this year with a visit to Isla Mujeres, and I’m hoping even more that we have warm, sunny weather while we’re there. Something to look forward to, for sure!

January 12, 2016
What I Packed for Ireland and Scotland in Late Summer
Full disclosure: packing for a two-week trip in Ireland and Scotland gave me a fair bit of anxiety. The weather in Ireland and the UK is fairly unpredictable to start with, and on top of that I wasn’t sure if our early September trip would call for summer or fall outfits.

The temperatures for our trip ended up ranging from 55-70 degrees as the high. Most days were sunny or partly cloudy, and even when it started off with a cool morning we rarely needed all of our layers all day. My main goal was to keep our luggage very light since we were moving from eight different accommodations over the course of two weeks, so I booked a couple of places with access to a washer/dryer and planned do laundry a few times.

As far as the level of casual vs. formal, Chris and I expected to have mostly active days (tons of walking/hiking) and we wanted to eat as much pub food as possible, so jeans and casual tops were fine for us pretty much every day. I was able to wear a long-sleeve top with a scarf plus my flats for a few places when I needed to look a wee bit more polished. So here’s what I packed for fifteen days in late August and early September:
- 2 short-sleeve shirts
- 4 long-sleeve shirts
- 1 zip-up hoodie
- 1 tank top (for sleeping)
- 1 pair of lightweight hiking pants
- 1 pair of jeans
- puffer vest
- waterproof jacket
- 2 scarves
- waterproof hiking shoes
- ballet flats
- undies and socks
- baseball-type cap
- sunglasses
In case it helps to have some more details, here are a few of the specific things I packed:

1. Long-sleeve waffle henley from Eddie Bauer (similar); 2. Striped long-sleeve top from Loft; 3. and 4. Long-sleeve cotton crewneck tops from Nordstrom; 5. Warm puffer vest for layering (that I wore on so many days) from J. Crew Factory.

1. Soft and warm wool scarf; 2. Pretty patterned scarf; 3. Hat; 4. My favorite small camera bag to hold my SLR and a point-and-shoot; 5. Super comfortable North Face Ultra Fastpack GTX (similar) waterproof hiking shoes; 6. Tieks foldable leather ballet flats.

1. Comfortable and water-repellent Mountain Hardware Chockstone hiking pants; 2. Jeans; 3. Space Dye Strength Hoodie 2 from Athleta; 4. North Face Carli Jacket for the rain that we didn’t get (yay!).

All of our stuff went into my trusty Eagle Creek packing cubes and we each brought one carry-on suitcase. I ended up wearing everything I brought, and didn’t really feel like anything was missing. Of course, if room wasn’t an issue I would have liked to have more shoes just because, but the lone two (!) pairs I brought worked out well. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about packing for either of these places!

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!
December 7, 2015
Ireland Snapshot

Last year, I started doing “snapshot” posts from our travels with a summary of superlatives and sidebars. It’s a fun way to me to reflect back on specific moments, so to continue that tradition here is my Ireland and Northern Ireland snapshot!

Best Moment

I’m not a huge fan of crowds. Is anyone, really? But I feel like I have an especially hard time with big groups of noisy people in certain places. So when we went to our first stop on the Ring of Kerry, the Torc Waterfall, and found it completely void of another human being, my heart swelled in that moment of absolute serenity. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I don’t like being with people or sharing an experience with others, but there is a time and a place, and too often a rowdy group of people has ruined the vibe for me. That didn’t happen here, and I loved absorbing every sound of the forest and watching the gentle flow of the waterfall. That, and the Ring of Kerry day in general was one of our favorites.

I also loved all of our interactions with locals. Everyone in Ireland was heart-warmingly welcoming and friendly, and I just soaked it up.

Worst Moment

Ireland didn’t have a standout worst moment, but there was an afternoon in Dublin when I got a little cranky (it happens). Chris and I were riding the hop-on-hop-off bus and we accidentally hopped off at an unplanned stop where we ended up wandering pretty far from the bus route. Normally that would have been completely fine and even fun, but it started to rain. A lot. And my feet started to hurt. A lot. And I lost my bus ticket and had to buy a new one. Then, when we went to the Guinness Storehouse, I lost Chris’s new Jameson umbrella. (He was perfectly nice about it and assured me it wasn’t a big deal, but I felt bad.) We ended up taking an overpriced carriage ride to our next stop because we left the Storehouse after the bus stopped running, and we didn’t notice that taxi cabs were around the corner from the expensive horse buggies. Ugh. So it was just the culmination of several little things that added up to one bad mood for a couple of hours. It doesn’t blemish my feelings about Dublin at all though; we still had an amazing time despite my crankypants attitude and an inclination to lose stuff that day.

Best Meal

Irish stew, brown soda bread, shepherd’s pie – I loved almost every single thing we ate in Ireland. As I expected, I discovered I’m not a fan of black pudding, but everything else was delicious. A millionaire bar from The Good Room Cafe in Adare and a scone from Skelligs Chocolate in County Kerry both earned the best food spot in a two-way tie. Neither one was a meal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about both of them so I think they belong in this category.

Something We Learned

Chris loves whisky (no ‘e’), and our tours at the Irish Whiskey Museum and the Old Jameson Distillery gave us a good introduction to the history and arduous process of making his favorite spirit.

We’re Thankful We Packed

Light. We each brought a carry-on suitcase and a backpack only, so we didn’t have to check any luggage. It was also helpful not to have a giant suitcase to lug up the many stairs at all of the B&Bs where we stayed each night. I’ll follow up with more details about what I packed for two weeks after I finish my Scotland posts (since it was the same trip).

We Didn’t Need To Bring

Our PacSafe came in handy on our last trip to Vieques, but we didn’t need it on this trip and didn’t end up using it once.

Trip Regrets

I regret that we couldn’t stay longer! And I regret losing Chris’s umbrella since it seems I can’t order a replacement for him – Jameson doesn’t ship to the U.S. so I’m not sure how to get my hands on one. Sigh! What I don’t regret is spreading our trip out over so much ground. Many resources recommended against it, but I love the combination of areas that we saw and we had a fabulous week.

Reasons To Go Back

My list of reasons to return to the Emerald Isle is constantly growing! There are so many parts of the country that we missed and would love to see on a future trip: Cork, Dingle, Skellig Michael, The Burren, the Arran Islands, Wicklow Mountains National Park, and on and on and on. We saw so much, but would love to see a whole lot more.

Favorite Photos

Chris’s favorite photo is of Hore Abbey in County Tipperary, as seen from a walking path behind the Rock of Cashel.

And my favorite image is this simple one of a brightly colored building adorned with flower baskets. The cheery color and the flowers remind me of so many small towns we visited in Ireland.

I had a hard time deciding on a favorite image though, because there were so many great photo opportunities throughout the country. I had a blast (a quiet blast) taking pictures in the Long Room at Trinity College, and of course it was fun capturing images of the iconic Cliffs of Moher and the Giant’s Causeway. So can we consider these images very close runners-up?!

October 21, 2015