Seaside References

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If you are looking for the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion or just to get together with family or friends, we would like to recommend an ideal location in Ireland. In late 2002, my wife and I started looking for a rental house in Ireland where our immediate family could gather to help us celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary, which was coming up in the summer of 2003. >From a previous trip we knew that we wanted to be in the Bantry Bay area and we began with a general search of the Internet.

Two of the houses we found are owned by Carey Conrad, an American who has lived and worked in the Bantry Bay area for many years. The houses, Eden and Seaside Cottage, are located on the same piece of land in the village of Adrigole with an unobstructed view of an arm of the Bay. We made a preliminary trip in February 2003 to meet Carey, see the houses and familiarize ourselves with the surrounding area. The houses were very much to our liking with exactly the amount of space we needed for the twelve people that were expected to attend. We quickly learned that the nearby town of Castletownbere had an excellent supermarket, the largest fish market in the region plus a number of specialty shops for whatever the family might need during its one-week stay in the area.

Satisfied that we had found exactly what we wanted, we made final arrangements for the first week of July and sent word to our far-flung family (Lebanon, Honduras and Washington, D.C.) telling them where and when we were to meet. Everyone arrived without incident, and we began what turned into a near perfect week.

The houses certainly helped. Most of our family time was spent in Eden which has four bedrooms, four baths and an open plan combining kitchen, dining and living areas running the full width of the house with every window looking out on the constantly changing sea. Carey's use of antique furniture, old prints and colorful fabrics gave us all the feeling of being in a private home rather than a rental house. Everyone in the family cooks, and one of the high points of each day was the evening meal when we all gathered around the huge table in Eden to sample one another's specialties and old family favorites.

Seaside with its two bedrooms provided space for a family unit of four and its washer, dryer and fully equipped kitchen took some of the pressure off the facilities in Eden. We found both houses equipped and stocked as advertised, even to charcoal for the barbecue, and we had to supply only our food and drinks.

Activities away from the houses included, among many other things, shopping for crafts, attending market day in Bantry, fishing , horseback riding and hiking to ancient sites, all things Carey told us about in her orientation talk when we arrived. We ranged in age from seven to seventy, and had fun together and/or in smaller groups arranged to suit individual interests. We can recommend Carey and her houses without reservation for any group looking for space for ten to fourteen people in one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland.

Thomas Ball
Sacramento, California