Ireland: goodbye luxury, hello simplicity

Day 4: I woke up still surrounded by all of the mystery and luxury that is Hilton Park. We all stayed snuggled in our beds till almost 8 and took in the experience from the evening before. Breakfast turned out to just as enjoyable but more charming. The evening before Joanna explained that breakfast was served downstairs in the servants eating room adjacent to the kitchen. The stairs leading down were no longer dark wood with heavy banisters, but rather well worn stone from decades of staff running up and down all day. The eating room had been redecorate to appear more country like with large overstuffed chairs, a cracking fire, and rustic wood tables. Our table was festooned with freshly picked wild flowers and a separate table with a buffet of canned apricots, peaches, rhubarb, muesli, mixed seeds, and yogurt. We filled our bowls with the delicious offerings and tucked into the table. Joanna fetched our regular morning choices of coffee for mom and tea for two for Allison and I. She brought out two types of bread, Brown soda and fruit soda and proceeded to announce our breakfast choices were the full Irish, omelets, or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. We were shocked! But settled on one of each. Mom who is not much of a pork eater enjoyed her full Irish, Allison only wished she could've added spinach to the mushroom onion and bacon omelet, and I could eat my eggs and smoked salmon every day.
Towards the end of breakfast Joanna disappeared and Fred greeted us with more coffee and tea. We chatted at length about his current children, his expected twins, and purchasing an automatic minibus to transport them all. Upon discovering I worked at a university he had a whole list of questions regarding the american educational system. Then he gave us a tour of the kitchen and let us out the back door to explore the grounds. Our intention was to find the vegetable garden where our dinner came from, but we didn't quite find it. None the less we enjoyed our walk through the forest, herb garden, and continued to explore inside the house.
The second drawing room had a huge grand piano, I sat down a played Prelude 1 from "The Well Tempered Clavier" by Bach. During our tour Joanna had indicated it was one of the best pianos in all of Ireland, I hate to say the piano at my church is better. There was an additional sitting room and a playroom with a ping pong table and upright piano. While we were exploring Fred popped his head in again and gave us a brief history of his family, the house, and then answered any questions we had. After an hour of chatting we decided it was near time to pack up and continue on to the Thatched Cottage in Sligo. We said our goodbyes, thanked them for what was a truly memorable experience and drove out ever so slowly.
Two hours later we drove through the Irish beach town and up to the cliffs where our self catering cottage is located. The owner, Krista, had just returned from the hospital; her 16 year old son was injured playing Rugby. On cue her son zoomed by on his motorbike, which Krista said he purchased with his own money and sticks to the roads on their property. She gave us excellent directions to the local market (she is German not Irish, who seem the struggle with directions for the home country). Upon reaching the Supervalu we discovered it was Euro Fresh & Easy! We stocked up on food for two days and headed back to the cottage to prepare supper; roasted chicken with carrots, potatoes, locally grown lettuce, tomatoes, bread, and wine. After dinner we took a walk down to the beach, followed by a short drive to the market for softserve ice cream cones. Allison turned in for bed early and mom and I stayed up late to watch Downton Abbey.