South Ireland Day 2: Killarney National Park and Kenmare

On our second day on our South Ireland road trip, Gabe and I ventured from Kinsale and headed to Kenmare with a stop in Killarney. After the first day driving on the wrong side of the road, neither of us were looking forward to getting back into the car. I will proudly state my husband quickly became familiar with the roads and I didn't see my life flashing in front of me once!

The drive from Kinsale to Killarney was amazing. October in Ireland weather can be finicky. One second its sunny, the next its foggy - then it's raining, next thing you know there are rainbows everywhere. However, the scenery is stunning wherever you are.

Once we got into the Killarney National Park, the fog started settling in, but the colors were still popping everywhere.

 I have not altered the color of any of these photos. This is truly what it looked like! We drove through the forrsest after having lunch in downtown Killarney, but first I must rewind....

You guys - I had the best ice cream of my life in Ireland. Two weeks later and I am still thinking about it. In fact, I don't know if I will ever get over this. Murphy's Ice Cream was unlike any other I have ever had. If you are in Ireland and you see one of these ice cream shops, do yourself a favor - stop and order a large. I am not a huge sweet tooth and devoured my medium portion of a mix, dingle sea salt and caramel honeycomb. Back to the Forrest we go!

You can take Jaunting Cars (horse and buggies) through the Killarney National Park. We opted not to since we had a car and were enjoying site seeing on our own time.

We walked up the Torc Waterfall, which was an interesting experience less than 48 hours post marathon. One thing I have learned from multiple "runcations" is to always keep moving, so while I was hurting and a little slow, I kept pushing.

 My bluetooth selfie stick came in handy on this trip - as did our ASICS Storm Shelter jackets. I love this jacket so much that I own it in three different colors.

The photos do not show the true beauty of Ireland. This was the start of being wowed over Irelands true beauty. It was quite magical really, we were listening to Enya going through the National Park and for the first time in a very long time, I felt completely at ease (probably because I had no wifi and no work email access).

It was nearing nightfall so we headed out of the park into Kinsale, where we booked the cutest B&B which was attached to a pub called the Coachmans Townhouse. The accommodations were great - comfortable bed (not common in Europe) and we paid less than 70 euro a night including parking. Many of the restaurants in town were closed on Wednesday's so we ended up dining at the hotel, which I ended up being very happy with. I had a Cottage Pie (aka a Shepherds Pie in the US).  It was fantastic.

We fell in love with this city, who loves Halloween more than me.  The great thing about our hotel is that it had live music - and we didn't have to go far to be entertained! My only sad story of this day is that Gabe lost his wedding ring and they couldn't find it.

If you are doing the south coast of Ireland, I strongly suggest starting the Ring of Kerry doing a drive through Killarney Park with a hike and picnic, while and staying overnight in Kenmare.

Day three will take us from Kenmare to Tralee - traveling the beautiful Ring of Kerry and ending with a staying overnight in a castle!!!!!!