Valporaiso University and Indiana

A few weeks ago my mom called me and asked if I wanted to spend spring break with my grandparents and her and my sister. Of course I said YES. So I came up to from college station late friday and the next morning I got up early  around 5:30 in the morning to fly out to Chicago. When we were about to walk out the door my dad said something about picking up something in Indiana. Dumbfounded I asked “what?” and found out that we were really going to Indiana first to drive with the grandparents to Chicago.

So we arrived in Indiana and chilled at the grandparents house for the day. We had a great dinner with them and Uncle Dick and Uncle Mikey. Today we went to church and then started driving to Chicago. We took our time and visited Purdue University as well as Valparaiso University.

Valparaiso University is a small Lutheran College in north Indiana with about 4,000 students. It was founded in 1859 and was one of the first coeducational (men & women) colleges in the United States. We liked Valpo so much that we got out and walked around for quite a while. Once we walked into the chapel we saw an intricate organ as well as stain glass overload. It was glorious. What was also really neat was the amount of natural light that came into the chapel. Well once were done walking around we jumped into the car ate dinner near campus and then headed to a hotel.

Tomorrow we go into Chicago, I am super excited and will keep posting photos and stories through the week. Dad and Grant I know you are reading this, wish you could be here.

The Ring of Kerry and landscapes of Ireland

This morning was our first morning to wake up in Killarney. We had a rather quick breakfast and I grabbed a cappuccino. While we walked out of the hotel we saw the Dunloe Pass and underneath of it is a pasture were cows and horse just roam about. The scenery is perfect. Well we jumped in with the group and started our trip around the Kerry. Supposedly if you take the roads counter clockwise you have better luck, so thats what we did.

We stopped at numerous small towns and in one of the small towns we talked with a sheep herder. Brendan Ferris, was his name, and he was incredible. He explained the ways he called the dogs with different pitched whistles and how he could maneuver the collie to gather all the different sheep. I could see why he loves it so much. He said that he will take apprentices but they have to give him three years and they will know everything he does. So if college goes astray, I will become an Irish sheep herder.

After that he we grab lunch in one of the small towns and I had vegetable soup and had cod. After lunch I decided to walk around the town for a little bit and I took what could be some of my favorite photographs from the trip so far. After lunch we headed further down the Ring and ended up at several photo shoot stops with just beautiful views.

After that we drove the ring even further and now started to make the loop around to back were we started in Killarney. We stopped along another small town to break for a little bit. While we were there we were told that the Irish make this great ice cream with chocolate sauce and stick a piece of cadburry chocolate in it. They call it the 99. Because it you to could 99 schillings(I think). But we did that and then Grant, Amy and I walked down to the Church in the town. It was very interesting because behind it the monks way back in the day use to live in these small stone-like tepees. I walked around and checked them out and crawled into one of them.

We kept driving and came finally to the Ireland’s National Park and found even more beautiful view points. It was incredible seeing how green everything is. It gorgeous.  Well sorry I didnt write much tonight but we have an early day tomorrow and if I go to bed right this second Ill get five hours in so lasts what I am going to do. You all are awesome, thank you so much for the prayers and encouragement. I love you all. Bring on the Blarney Castle (Tomorrow)