The Hip Chip and Downtown Bushmills

Rebecca's favorite moment of our trip?  "Spending Monday afternoon getting lunch and walking around Bushmills in the beautiful sun!"

Yes, we were blessed to have sun every single day we were in Ireland.  I had been watching the weather for weeks, and it had been rain every day until we arrived.  In fact, most of us came with sweaters, jackets and a change of shoes (in case one pair got wet).  As it turned out, we should have packed shorts and t-shirts, because not only was it sunny, but it was in the 70's everyday.

After paddle boarding Monday morning, we decided to head into Bushmills to get lunch.  We found what will surely become one of our favorite eateries in all of Ireland:  The Hip Chip.   It's a fish and chips place, but really, they deep fry anything and everything.

The awesomeness of Ethan's shirt in the window of a fish and chip shop in Northern Ireland was not lost on me!

I do believe all of us ended up ordering fish and chips, although Glo chose fried chicken instead (and Rebecca might have ordered something else).  This was legit though.  We watched the one guy running the whole place dip the fish in batter and pop it in the fryer.  And for the record, he was Stephen Carlson's doppelgaenger (although he was rather more attractive). It took a while to actually get the food because it was all made fresh...and that's how it should be, am I right?

You'll notice that not only are Ethan and Mark sporting their SCHOOL colors, but John and Johannah are sporting their HOUSE colors.

In the meantime, John ran down to the market and bought bottles of pop.

Because it was so glorious outside, we headed across the street to a park (which John had found, of course), and sat at tables and ate.  It was just so lovely.  And unbelievably, several of us got sunburned.  I never thought I would use that term in reference to a trip to Ireland!

Check out the size of that order!  And everybody got their own!  And John didn't forget to buy ketchup either, so in the end, we used up an entire bottle of ketchup, horking down those delicious "chips".   Goodness, I can still taste it!

Hannah (like several of us) doesn't even eat fish!  But there was no fish left in her box.  It was so fresh and so delicious!

Baby with two of her fans.

Afterwards, we walked around Bushmills, visiting the three art galleries there.  Oh my goodness, so many cute things that remind us of how happy we are in Ireland!  In the end, Hannah bought a painting of a hilarious ram (which I will post a picture of when she unwraps it back at BYU), Ethan and Rebecca bought a photo of Carrickarede, and John (unbeknownst to me) bought me a framed charcoal drawing of a rabbit by a local artist (that I didn't need, but loved oh-so-much).

When we got home, we discovered that no one had bothered to grab the key to the house before walking out of the self-locking door.

No problem though, seeing as we seem to always need to break into our Irish home rentals.  Seriously, we're developing a habit of doing this.  Thankfully, with the warm weather, someone had left a window unlocked.  Of course, we didn't find this window until after Glo had Spiderman-ed it up a gutter pipe to the balcony, and Ethan and John had boosted Mark up to a second floor window.  Nope, John had to borrow a ladder from the farmer and go in a window.

Notice the difference in the two brothers?  One posing for the picture, one worried about the safety of his sister....

Our hero!

After all of these adventures, no one could blame Hannie for sitting down to watch some Irish Netflix (supposedly much better than what we have here in America!).   And Baby getting her first exposure to My Little Pony <3

#TanteHannahLove