A Little Craic Never Hurt Nobody

Try saying that in an American airport...

Also, if you haven't caught the fact that nearly every single one of my titles is the name or line of a song. As a general suggestion, you should google them, except insert "party" for "craic" here. :)

Saturday was a right ole 4* day. If it were 5*, it just wouldn't be Irish.

The day started with Naomi and Craig. We were meant to go climb Slemish Mountain, but it was, as Naomi says, "pishin' out the skies" with rain, so we kept it close instead.

After we'd grabbed Craig, we drove to Brown's Bay, which is north of Carrickfergus on the coast.

They said when it's super sunny, the place is packed, but for us it was quiet and just downright gorgeous.

It's this lovely little sand beach with a hill overlooking it stuffed full of these yellow flowers. Extending out past the high grass hill and into the water are these large boulders you can climb all over.

We climbed, we saw cool birds and swimming seals, we breathed in salty fresh air, and we listened to the curls of the waves as they twisted round the rocks.

Post dander, involving Naomi and I sinking into bog up to our calves, we drove down to Port Muck (yuck!) for a wee BBQ.

Muck Island, where Port Muck is located, is actually a bird sanctuary, fun fact.

It was crazy windy, so Craig's first attempts at lighting the instagrill were kind of a fail. So, we hid behind a wall (which seemed to be there without purpose in the middle of a field) and tried again.

 Did I mention that we also forgot a knife? Yeah. So, Craig brandished a stick to flip the sausages and tear them apart. he may or may not have burnt his fingers, but those sausages were finger-licking good and put in between two slices of white bread.

After sausages, we (and by we I mean Craig) decided it was a good idea to put my lemon glazed cookies and the Chips Ahoy (or, at least, the British equivalent) on grill.

Oh, the caramelized sugar. :)

A little wet-butted for wear and smelling like smoke, we peaced out and I headed off to my next suaree.

Part B of the evening was a birthday party for my MA friend Emma.

The whole class (yes, all 4 of us) were there! Wait! Not true. Jo didn't come. But 4 out of 5 is still pretty good odds.

We started out at Made in Belfast for dinner. Since I had had lunch not an hour previous, I got soup. Unsurprisingly potato. Surprisingly delicious. Possibly the best potato soup I've ever tried.

Chocolate torte with salted caramel ice cream for dessert.

Later, we landed at Lavery's Pub to get our dance on.

Dance we did, the whole night long, attracting fun strangers to join us as we went on.
What can I say? Wherever we go, that's where the party's at.