It's Animal Heaven!

DAY FIVE

Although I didn't have jet-lag that bad,

I had been waking up in the middle of the night

and unable to get back to sleep for an hour or two.

But when we arrived at Annie's Cottage...

 it was truly raining for the first time. 

This meant we were lulled to sleep by the storm against the windows,

and except for being briefly woken by a gale

that sounded like a refrigerator being pushed down the stairs,

I slept soundly through the night for the first time.

And in the morning...

Donkeys!!!

And sheep!!!

Annie's Cottage had donkeys, sheep, dogs and cats,

and was perfect for our animal-loving family.

After saying "Hey" to the beasties,

we headed out to the Dingle Wildlife and Seal Sanctuary.

And what did they have there beside rescued baby seals?

Baby goooooats!!

After walking around a bit...

... and feeding some birds...

.... and trying to touch some birds...

(Lawd, my hair looks like one of the birds had tried to nest in it)

....we made our way to Inch Beach for lunch.

We ate at Sammy's, a popular spot,

(we in no way  totally picked that spot because they had WiFi, which Annie's Cottage lacked),

and I had my first fish and chips.

It was as tasty as can be, but I committed a faux paus, tip-wise.

(And not the kind you would expect.)

I had consulted with Rick Steves on how much to tip,

and he said it was not as expected in Ireland; 

also, ten percent was plenty.

Since I wanted to leave a good impression, as an American,

I decided to leave a little bit more than expected.

"Ay, those Americans,"

I imagined a waitress saying at night,
"They're a loud bunch, but they leave a good tip."

HOWEVER...

At Sammy's, I left my ten percent, plus a bit more,

plus a little bit more

because we were going to get some dessert and Guinness and take it to the bar.

As we headed to the door, the waitress came running after us.

"Excuse me!" she said, loudly,

"You left this," and she waved some some bills at me.

"It's.. it's a tip," I said in a small voice.

(This was less than what I'd leave in The States, btw.)

"Oh," she said, not at all impressed.

"It's just a really big tip."

I know this sounds humble-braggy, but I was genuinely embarrassed and 

 realized that too much of a tip

was not considered in as positive a light as I thought it would be.

"Ay, those Americans,"

I now imagined a waitress saying at night,
"Always throwin' money around, showin' off."

I vowed to tip just a bit more, but not too much in the future,

and after finishing our drinks and dessert we went along the Inch Beach.

After a brief stroll we headed back to the cottage,

where the donkeys didn't care what kind of money we had,

as long as we had carrots to share.

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Next Up:

It's a WiFi miracle!