August 3-4, 2009
During the first week of August, Scott's work had a bonus week off (at least that's how we would like to look at it). But since we had been traveling so much and have so much planned for the fall, we decided to take a short and we hoped,
cheap trip to the famous Lake District and Peak District.
Our favorite hotel chain called Premier Inn had a 29 gbp a night deal if we booked two nights at certain hotels in advance. So we used Carlisle as our base for the Lake District. This trip Scott did the planning and found all sorts of exciting things to do there.
We arrived at lake Windemere around noon. It is famous for being the heart of the Lake District. Bryce completed some school work for his Geography class while Jeanne and the girls had a wonderful time exploring the (tourist trap) Beatrix Potter's world. It actually was great.
The girls next to Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.
Next we took the car ferry across the lake to get to Beatrix Potter's home. It was a bit rainy but worse yet, we discovered that the tours of the home sell out daily and we were too late. So on to the next stops.
We found some wonderful waterfalls that we walked along. We had heard that because of the mountains and location next to the ocean that the weather primarily consists of rain. And the lake district lived up to the reputation.
The stone walls were so mossy that they were a livid green! But even so, it was just so incredibly beautiful. It was like being inside a woodsy fairy tale.
One of the trails Scott and the kids took brought them down a path, across a river, down the other side to the base of a large waterfall. Jeanne met them at the bottom and was greeted by Madison who was the official photographer of the journey. She obviously was quite proud of her photos and immediately showed Jeanne her video. Can you guess who she was trying to get in trouble? Scott did stick up for Bryce and said that it wasn't as dangerous as it looked... Jeanne still wonders though...
The roads were part of the charm, but they also were a bit dangerous. They wound back and forth and were mostly single lane! In fact, one time Jeanne was driving up a very long steep road with hairpin curves where you couldn't see much ahead of you and came up to a big white van coming down the hill fast. YIKES! It was steep enough that the only option was for Jeanne to roll back down the road using her brakes and emergency brakes until we came to a passing place. But then another car came up behind her! It made for a few stressful minutes.
We even came across a granite company that had the name Kirkstone (our kids school).
Okay, if you happened to notice a small teddy bear in the photo above here's a bit of explanation... The school is divided up into 4 "houses". And when each family enters the school they are assigned one of the houses. Our kids were assigned to Truesdale house and they represent their "house" by wearing their yellow rugby shirts in friendly competitions. So the owner of the school decided to have a new type of competition between the houses. Each of the four bears were to be checked out and taken by the students around in their travels. The idea is to document where each bear goes. So our Truesdale bear (with a yellow ribbon) went with us on our travels this summer.
Kirkstone Pass 
Road warning signs indicated a 25% grade for the first pass and that was quite exciting. The funny thing was the first pass was called Kirkstone Pass and the kids all attend Kirkstone House school. So of course we had to stop for a photo shoot with the Kirkstone Pass Inn. But we were in the clouds then so it was a bit foggy for a photo.
Wrynose Pass
Our journey began with a stop at Castlerigg stone circle. It's funny how in America it seems all we hear about stone circles is Stonehenge. But in our travels we have come across lots of circles. Most aren't as large or assembled as Stonehenge, but nevertheless it's surprising to see so many of these throughout the countryside. In fact there are 50 just in the Lake District alone!
After a very soggy visit to Castlerigg, we decided to be even more adventurous and attempt to go up the highest pass in the UK. The road actually had two passes. The first one was labeled on the map as "steep" (Wrynose) and the second one "even steeper" (Hardknott). Jeanne wasn't sure if our big van (by UK standards) would make it! But we gave the first one a go.
We drove up and up and up. And finally we were in the clouds.
It was steep! But we made it!
We decided to get out walk around in the clouds. But the ground was so soupy that Scott wished he hadn't.
Here is a picture of Madison with the highest mountain behind her. Yep, you can't see it from the clouds. I guess not every day can be clear and sunny...
Hardknott Pass- Britain's most exciting road!
We drove down to a valley and then were faced with a choice. Continue on to the highest pass and see the Roman fortress on the other side
or escape out the side and down another valley. It wasn't much of a choice for our adventure seeking kids so we kept going!
This photo is from the internet but it does a good job in showing the winding steep road (we didn't have that good of weather!)
Hardknott Pass has been featured on the British show Fifth Gear and is quite famous for it's spine tingling drive up. It is the steepest road in the UK (although another road in Yorkshire vies for the title also).
But irregardless, the incline was
INCREDIBLY daunting. A
one lane bumpy road winding up at a 30% incline was scary but it truly felt like a 45 degree incline! Our whole family were so relieved and surprised when we actually made it. Jeanne was just thanking God that no one was trying to come down at the same time. UK driving courtesy says that you give right away to the person going up so maybe they could see a big van coming up and they waited. Whatever it was, it's highly likely that our van would NOT have made it if we had encountered another car and had to slow down or stop...it was that steep! The videos truly do not do it justice. And unfortunately the humidity was thick enough that the lens was foggy...but it was our experience!
Afterwards the kids and Jeanne thought it was the highlight of the Lake District! A must for all thrill seekers (and maybe even those who don't)!
But more excitement was yet to come...!
On the other side on our way down to the Hardknott Roman Fort we decided to be extra careful with other possible cars coming up. We certainly didn't want to come across another car heading uphill if we could avoid it. So when we saw several cars coming up from the valley we decided to wait. And wait. And wait. Then we decided to head down to see what was the problem... and we found it. A VW van (air cooled engine) had tried to go up but had overheated and ran the battery down. It was blocking the entire road both up and down!
As we waited Jeanne reminisced about her childhood family adventures with their own VW van. Their family drove cross country several times, up mountains, down mountains etc. The most memorable moments were the numerous breakdowns that happened at the most inopportune times. (Like the brakes failing when the engine couldn't make it up the mountain thus having to drive backwards down a mountain with failing brakes...it was quite an adventure!) The kids were quite thankful that Jeanne told them that story on TOP of the mountain!
Eventually, a jeep decided to try to pull it up and have it turn around and go back down to pop the clutch and start it. WOW. We had front row seats to an incredible spectacle. And we all were thankful that it wasn't us!
Hardknott Roman Fort
It was still misty-rain and we couldn't see how to get to the fort. The ground was so oversaturated that everywhere you stepped you squished.
By the end we just gave up and walked through the water which didn't make Bryce the happiest. He says his shoes will never be the same.
Of course we had to have one good soggy kids picture before we peeled off the wet socks and shoes! Thankfully after a good lunch at our nifty table in the back of the van everyone was happy again.
The Eskdale train
Next Scott dropped us off at a quaint mini-train station.
We all had ice cream and enjoyed the scenery as we rode down in a kiddie train to the ocean.
Scott was able to meet us with the van at the end of the line. and we were off to the beach!
Seascale BeachThe beach at Seascale is like none we've ever seen. The sand went on forever! We couldn't believe how long we had to walk to finally make it to the ocean! The tide was surely at the low point but still ... it seemed to be about a quarter of a mile out! We walked and walked and walked!
At the ocean Christina loves sticking her fingers in the water and finding shells, Madison loves splashing and collecting crabs, and Bryce loves playing tricks on the girls...
Here he buried the girls shoes in the sand for the girls to dig out.
Wastwater lakeThe last stop of the day was at the Wastwater lake. It is where the mountains drop steeply to the UK's deepest lake (243 feet deep).
While we were admiring the scenery, another tourist dad had to swim out towards the middle of the lake to rescue his kids shoe that was rapidly floating away. Thankfully, our girls were a bit more careful (though their shoes floated also).
It was a great day!
Bowder Stone
Our third and last day through the Lake District gave us a second try at the Beatrix Potter house. But first we wanted to stop by the Bowder stone where the kids enjoyed climbing up this very precariously balanced rock.
Perhaps from the picture you can't tell how it is balanced. But somehow as it tumbled down the mountain it became lodged into the ground on it's point. So you can walk
under both sides of the rock as well as on top of it (they even have wooden stairs up the side).
Hill Top Farm-Home of Beatrix Potter
We were able to park in the parking lot (sounds simple? HA! It is cut-throat competition to get one of only a few parking spaces in the town!). While Jeanne was struggling with parking, Scott obtained tickets. Yea!... but had to wait about 2 hours. So we relaxed (in our precious parking spot) and had lunch. Finally, our ticket time arrived!
The Hill Top Farm was just as you would think it would be. The garden looks like Peter Rabbit might peek out from behind a cabbage, the old floorboards in the rooms squeeked and the rooms were full of charming miniature toys. It was here that Beatrix Potter did much of her writing and it was reflected in the artwork she created for the books.
Amazingly, it still functions as a working farm. The portion of the house to the right was Beatrix Potter's home and is currently a tourist attraction run by the National Trust (Beatrix hugely supported that organization). But the portion of the house to the left is still the residence of the farmer who works the land. ...What an odd arrangement!
Peter Rabbit and Jemmima Puddleduck joined Madison and Christina's collection of stuffed animals (to help them remember the trip they said). Christina was VERY happy.
Stott Park Bobbin Mill
Our last stop on our way out of the Lake District was a visit to the Stott Park Bobbin Mill. Doesn't sound too exciting does it...? Well, it actually was quite interesting! The mill actually was still working.
The person who demon-strated how the machines worked actually was an employee during that time (WW2 era). So for persons with mechanical interests (and historical) it was interesting. Jeanne even was able to purchase an egg timer made out of an old bobbin. Simple but fun.
How would you like to live in a house with the postal address of "Plague Cottage"? They even post the plague victim information on the plaques outside. But it does make you thankful to live in a time where they have medicines to combat such dreadful plagues.
