Going for Adventure on the Big Blue Wet Thing

That Muppet Treasure Island references goes out to my best friend Caity Ruth Roberts, as it is the theme movie of our friendship and her birthday today. Yah, yah, I'll get to Ireland, but this movie. My brother Chon and I used to watch it together on this crappy VHS version we had that was taped off Disney channel.

Then it was the treasured film of my senior year and Caity, Taylor Pride, and I used to quote it all the time with one another. Still do. And I also still snort-laugh just thinking about it. Cait and I even considered doing a song from it for our school's Senior Farewell.

THEN, first day, first class of college (to which I was late and, thus, last to introduce myself), I didn't want to name Pride and Prejudice as my favorite movie like at least three of the other girls did, so I said MTI. There may have been some quoting or singing, I don't recall, but it did jumpkick a beautiful friendship between my Professor Rabbi and me. One that I will always value.

NI: Yes, we went down to the big, blue wet North Coast.

First on the agenda was the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede. This bridge was at one time used for fishermen wanting to catch salmon. However, years passed by, the salmon population diminished, and people loved the thrill of the bridge between the rocks. To get down there is a journey of about a mile, in which you walk down 161 steps (my calves remember perfectly) and some road as well.

Oh a picture? Is that what you want? Okay. If you insist. I don't have one of the bridge itself, but I do have a couple of the locale:

The first two of these pictures are the small islands to the left of the bridge. I think they're called Shepherd's Islands. It's the third picture where the bridge stretches between the first two big cliffs. 

Look at that water. Seriously. Clear, clear, clear. I absolutely love this area. Aside from Newcastle, it's my favorite place to come. 

The bridge itself? Not a fan. I spend the entire time crossing thinking up escape routes from worst case scenarios. Once you're over though, it's soft grass and peace. Just as we were about to recross the bridge...

a huge pod of dolphins! Really. It was hard to count because they were never above water at the same time, but there were more than eight, just hopping about in the water as playful as can be. (insert Finding Nemo shark scene sentiments here).

Next was lunch. We figured we'd sack lunch it right there by Carrick-a-Rede, but Hadden insisted in taking us "somewhere prettier." What. How.

That's how. No words.

Then to Giant's Causeway! Giant's Causeway is a geological phenomenon which looks a bit like this, formed over an extensive time period by volcanic cooling.

I like it because of the folklore surrounding its creation. I wrote a whole piece about it in a collection of creative non-fiction I completed this past year. There were once two feuding giants... That's all I'll tell ya. 

A cool thing I discovered around one of the base of the columns was some odd orange staining which, upon closer inspection, seemed to be caused by corrosion of coins. Like throwing coins into a pond for good luck, people have stuck coins of all currencies into the cracks at the base of these columns. At places, the coins were still quite new. At others, they looked as though they had become part of the rock itself, folded over and porous. 

I love those kinds of things. My roommate would never make wishes with me at 11:11 or on shooting stars because she is very reasonable and also very correct, probably. But not me. It's not as though I believe that making a wish while holding your breath in a tunnel will come to anything, but there's an intoxicating air of...hope in it all and magic and childlike dreaminess. When I see fountains or cracks with coins, I always wonder what wishes they are and if they ever came true. 

We summed up the day with a visit to Dunluce Castle, which was the locale of inspiration for C.S. Lewis' Cair Paravel in his series of Narnia. 

My calf muscles have spent all of today screaming, but it was so worth it. I've missed the smell of the sea. I could have gone, breathed in the salt and seaweed, not seen any of these beautiful places, and been content. There's just something about the ocean.