With some good advice from various travel sources, we decided to bypass the hoards of tourists and tour buses at the top of the Cliffs of Moher. After all, we had already gotten the best view of the cliffs from our boat, yesterday. Our goal was the Loop Head Lighthouse 60 kilometers further down the coast. As the name implies, it is at the end of the peninsula and is reported to have cliffs as spectacular as the Cliffs of Moher but without the crowds. We turned on the GPS, Lilith, by name, and let her do the navigating. Lilith is named after the character in the TV program, Frazier, the totally drab and monotone sounding wife. Anyway, one thing that we have learned about Lilith is that she will send us down almost any type of road or lane regardless of its size as long as she considers it the shortest route. Consequently, we have seen some lanes that had grass growing up in the center of the path! Lilith did not disappoint on this adventure, and we saw some places that can only be stumbled upon.

After about 90 minutes over hill and dale, we finally got to Loop Head . We were not disappointed! The present lighthouse was built in 1854 but there had been a light at that location since the 1700s. It is still in use today. It didn't get electricity until 1971 and was gas and oil before that.

The cliffs surrounding the light are beautiful and well worth the drive. The best part was that there were almost no other visitors and the car park doesn't even have places for buses! A very cute local lady gave us the Cook's tour of the light and suggested a walking route around the cliffs. A highly worthwhile 90 minutes.

Historical note: the light was used during WW II as an aid for aircraft coming from the USA and Canada. A huge rock sign was whitewashed in front of the light ("EIRE") to let the flyers know they were still short of England and not to land. (Ireland was a neutral country during the war and would have interned the crews if they had landed.)

Now about noon, we headed for the ferry crossing on the River Shannon . By the time we got there it was closing in on 2 p.m. and the ferry only runs every hour, on the hour, going our direction. Superb navigation by me and sound driving by Dayna got us there just in time to catch the 20 minute crossing. On to Milltown, County Kerry, our destination.

Tonight, we are at the Shortcliff House B&B. Probably the nicest one we have stayed at on this trip. Coffee and tea were served in the dining room shortly after our arrival. We had a brief rest to check in with the home front, and it was time for dinner.

Milltown is not a cornucopia of fine dining establishments, but it did have a nice pub that served dinner. The Irish are very proud of their food, visa vi the cost. But one thing I will say, if you go away hungry it's your own damn fault. For reference we had Shepherd's pie (Dayna) and Dingle shrimp (me), beer and wine. The bill came to 36€. That's $45 US. The up side is that there is no tipping expected. Servers are paid well here, because it is considered a real job, unlike in the USA, especially Utah where Patrick earns a whopping $2.13/hr. So, all in all, it was an expensive meal, but not a deal breaker.

We have been averaging 5 - 8 miles a day walking, according to Dayna's FitBit pedometer. Today we didn't cover as much ground, maybe a little over a mile. We'll do better tomorrow. We head to the Dingle Peninsula in the a.m. for the day.