When God created the Universe, He decided that some things should remain a little mysterious.  Some things are meant to inspire awe and wonder, and questions as well.  They were created to ignite our own creativity, in poetry, story, art and song.  We went to the Giant's Causeway on Sunday, and the mix of legend, science and history that surrounds it is fascinating.

Our guide was Catherine, park ranger and naturalist, who told us how the hexagonal rocks were either formed from lava flows, or built by a giant trying to reach Scotland to fight an enemy.  She told us about the Bay of Cows, where farmers would graze their herds in the winter in the sheltered bay but did risk losing some to a watery demise whenever there were storms.  There was also a bay for the sheep, too, and a path leading down to it from the cliffs where shepherds would take the sheep down on their shoulders in the spring, one by one.

Catherine also knew plenty about flora and fauna and told us about wild orchids, sea otters, and the rare chough.  The chough is a type of crow that is very rare Ireland and supposedly only 50 breeding pairs remain.  One such pair lives at the Giant's Causeway.  Seeing a chough is a rare treat for Ireland birders, and I hope to be able to see m myself one day.

A pair of chough also raise young on Rathlin Island, a small 8-mile piece of rock between Ireland and Scotland that has a village with 70 residents and a school of 7 students.  It can only be reached by a thirty-minute boat ride, which for us was pretty much the greatest thing ever because the water was choppy and we had an unbelievably good time sitting out on the deck.  We went to Rathlin primarily to reach the seabird colony on the northern side of the island and find Atlantic Puffins.  The colony was amazing, but we didn't really get great pictures of puffins because there were few of them, they were far away and were surrounded by thousands of guillemots and gulls.  We found them by looking for their little orange feet.

On Rathlin, we also saw seals, eiders, and a rare wildflower known as the early-blooming orchid.  We found those nestled in the grass of a churchyard, and it turns out they were blooming late, seemingly just for us to be able to delight in seeing them.  God is good.

One of the men who had been on the crew of the boat was also standing in a local craft shop that we entered after we had toured the colony.  We were in the shop marveling at some beautiful photography of the puffins and other Rathlin wildlife when a woman told us, "Those are Tom's.  He's standing behind you."  And so we were introduced to Tom, whose job is literally to ferry people to his island on a boat and do wildlife photography.  He is very skilled and you can see his work here.  He talked to us for a while about photography and the plants and animals of Rathlin, and back on the boat on the way home he told us to watch the waves, and maybe if we were lucky we'd see a minke whale or bottlenosed dolphin.  We asked to take a picture with him when we left the boat, and I think we're all somewhat envious of the life he leads, because it seems amazing.

Traveling to another culture does put one's place In the world in perspective.  How many people, if they met me, would be envious of my career path as a veterinarian, the place where I live and the culture I am part of?  I have many good things... And yet I see these seemingly happy Irish people living in this harsh and beautiful landscape and wonder if there's something I'm missing.  Can I just share things about nature with people who come visit me and give it expression in art?  That's what I really want to do.

The Giant's Causeway and Rathlin were also in the same vicinity of Carrick-a-Rede bridge, a popular place for tourists to see and cross a rope bridge that was originally built by fishermen to haul salmon out of the bay and over to the mainland.  Melinda and I had a great time crossing the bridge, and Anna gets a gold star because she managed to cross as well, putting aside a tremendous fear of heights.

We stayed in the north for a couple nights, and there are so many good memories... Visiting the dark hedges, befriending an adorably silly group of old Yorkshire motor bikers who decided to teach us about their home (most of which we didn't fully believe), eating amazing food at the inn at Bushmills, and finding out about the mysterious widgets that live at the bottoms of cans of Guinness and make them foam when you open them.  Driving the Coastal Causeway of Northern Ireland, "an area of outstanding natural beauty," we headed south on Monday for the Cliffs of Moher and the next part of our adventure.