Of all the kids, Ciárán was the one who didn’t want to go. He’s rather contrary by nature and doesn’t necessarily like to step outside of his comfort zone. One of the other major reasons he didn’t want to go was his birthday would occur while away on vacation.
He was afraid we wouldn’t be able to celebrate it as well a getting no presents. For months he was adamant he was going to have a horrible time in Ireland and have a horrible birthday.
We researched things to do for Ciárán on his birthday in the months leading up to our trip. We found the Dunluce Center in Portrush, about a 30 minute drive from where we are staying. It has a massive indoor playground of slides, tube maze, a ball pit, etc. There’s also laser tag (not quite old enough) and a 4D “ride” where you strap into a seat that moves and a 3D movie short takes the viewers on a journey.
The place was set up for birthday parties. While we wouldn’t be having any sort of formal birthday party for him, we did want to make the effort to actually celebrate it.
The morning of his birthday arrived, it was a Sunday. The bakery was closed, so I had to pick up a generic box cake at the local store. At least it was a cake. We headed over to Portrush to the place where we would be celebrating his birthday.
One of the odd things about the north coast of Ireland, and actually much of the country, is that the weather is in many ways much like Seattle, plenty of cloud coverage throughout the year and rain.
Today was sunny and warm. The Dunluce Center was virtually deserted. Who wants to spend time indoors when the sun has finally emerged?
One of the neat things about the Dunluce Center was the design – sort of like an old lighthouse. This meant a trip to the top. From there you can see a decent distance. We climbed up the spiral staircase and checked out the view.
The kids were having a good time, and more importantly, Ciárán was. I didn’t get many pictures, unfortunately. I wish I had. He smiled almost the whole day.
Another thing that helped Ciárán’s mood was the presents. August and Déla helped pick up a couple of children’s magazines which he was able to enjoy in the car. One of them had an advertisement for Octonauts toys. One of his favorite shows happens to be Octonauts. Somehow in America we had missed these toys, and Ciárán REALLY wanted some. We told him that if we found some, we’d buy it for him.
Now, one bad thing did happen. We purchased LEGO Batman 2 for the 3DS. Unfortunately, it was the European version of the game and wouldn’t play in our North American 3DS. I should have known better. Ciárán was very upset about this. We promised to buy the game (again) when we got back to America.
On the way home from Portrush we stopped off at Coleraine, the “big city” for the region. This is where the major shopping takes place. We were picking up stuff for dinner as well as some other stuff. Turns out, there’s a toy aisle. Want to guess what we found?
All in all it was a good day. While Ciárán was a little worried he wouldn’t be allowed to take his presents home, we assured him we would be able to pack them and take them home.