Ireland: Museum of Country Life and Westport, city by the sea

Day 6: Our time in the countryside had come to an end. We enjoyed a le

isurely breakfast in the cottage as the last of the rain trickled down. We said goodbye to our hosts and drove through the rolling hills, down to a teeming beach town of Westport. While Sligo had been near the ocean, it was working class and lacked restaurant or entertainment. Westport is like Newport, tons of boutiques, a good variety of dining options, a cinema, and AMAZING SEAFOOD. But I am getting ahead of myself....
On the way to Westport we stopped by the only National Museum outside of Dublin, the Museum of Country Life. It was a fabulous 4 story modern building which housed both folklore and folklife. Each floor focused on a different aspect of Country living, from building homes, to important of community, a section on travellers, home life, religious ceremony, and seasonal farming. Many of the displays had recreations by local artisan trained in the old ways. You were encouraged to experience the displays by attempted to comb washed wool, or churn butter, examine the woven lobster pot and sit in the straw chair. We really got a taste for what our ancestors lived through, including the potatoe blight, harsh political climates, and hard work needed to survive.
After arriving in Westport our first challenge was to.parallel park, in a manual, on the opposite side of the street. Luckily a spot opened up.right in front of the B&B, I hopped out of the car and guided mother into the spot. We got it on the first try! Sadie, the owner, showed us to our room which is all.shades of green but had a modern bathroom with shower (some of the historical.buildings can only.have baths). We quickly headed to the streets to wander the shops. There is plenty of shopping, but we stuck to just windowing shopping our first night here.
We were able to snag a late reservation at the extremely popular Mangos for dinner, In Ireland many of the restaurants will only seat you if you've made a reservation earlier in the day. So we killed time around the corner at a local pub, Hobans. The barkeep was delightful and entertained all of our questions and we were able to answer a few of hers. Just as we were leaving she mentioned we should return later in the evening for live traditional Irish music. And of course we did.
All day I had a serious craving for some fresh Clew Bay Mussels. And boy was I delighted when mussels and clams with garlicky red sauce was a featured in the specials. Seriously delicious. Allison had a seafood sampler and mom the scallops. The entire meal was extremely delicious and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We skipped dessert and opted to grab a seat in the pub for the band. Shortly after 9:30 the family band arrived, father on accordion, mother singing, and 3 teens rotating the guitar, fiddle, tin whistle, and some sort of flute. They were charming. Song after song the kids passed instruments, and they took requests from the crowd. The youngest daughter was hilarious to watch and often played whatever she wanted on the whistle, even if it wasn't quite right. The middle daughter pouted most of the time, and the oldest a boy had a lovely singing voice. We stayed until the pub was crammed full and our ciders had warned from the heat in the room.