Tuesday

We first visited to Ulster American Folk Park in Armaugh. Here we were able to experience what life was like at people prepared to travel from Ireland to America. The conditions in Ireland were reviewed. We passed through one of the "coffin ships" and saw the deplorable conditions. We then experienced life in the U.S. Reenactments were done and all parts of our "journey". We sat in a one room school house with a teacher who taught us the value of discipline and order. Some of our group was "late" for class. One student in particular had to go to the front of the room and was "scolded" in front of us all. "Getting lost" was not deemed a good enough reason for being late. Something about not being smart.... or something like that. None of us will ever be late again!

In the afternoon we traveled to the north east coast of Northern Ireland. The words magnificent, awesome and breathtaking cannot adequately describe the coast. Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway and Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge were incredibly interesting and beautiful. Most students braved the rope bridge as you can see from the pictures. The guide at the bridge said it had almost been closed earlier in the day, as winds rose to 38 mph (children were prohibited from crossing earlier in the day...comforting thought). The bridge is closed at 40 mph. For some of us, the thought of walking a tight rope (well, not really, but....) was just too much, and we willingly took pictures. Rock ledges, water crashing against the shore, wind gusts and a rope bridge just wasn't a good combination.

We returned to Derry for dinner around 7:00 and then retired for the night.