Peter Rabbit, Mountains, Lakes and Rain.... yes, it's the Lake District!

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 Beach

The 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 lake

The 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.

Cruise to the Baltics

July 11-18, 2009

We had such a wonderful time on this cruise. It could be the company... we went with our family, Jeanne's parents (John and Bonnie Dustin) and with our nephew Jordan (who left at the end of the cruise for home in Alaska after living with us here in the UK for almost a year). It also could be the relaxed traveling that we did which contrasted from our frantic traveling that we have been doing lately. Or perhaps it was the places we went. Whatever it was... it made for a nearly perfect trip.






















This cruise was again with MSC cruises. We like them because they allow free kids (yea for our travel budget!). We planned this trip almost a year ago and when we finally booked it around Christmas-time we found it hard to get two rooms together. But the ticket agent pulled some strings and opened up some fantastic rooms for us. We were on floor 14 on the inside. Although we didn't have a window we had an enormous balcony right outside our door. We were at the front of the ship and the balcony went the entire width of the ship.







The outside door that led to our rooms (immediately on left).










The trip began from Copenhagen, Denmark. We had originally planned on sightseeing the city but chose to go directly to the cruiseline with our luggage and stayed there! It was a massive ship that held 2,400 passengers and 1,300 crewmembers! The floorplan was a replica of what we cruised with last fall so our family knew how to get around right away.







But for Jeanne's parents, cruising was an entirely new experience for them.














...and they liked it!










Grandma, Grandpa and the boys were in one room. They enjoyed watching Mr. Bean movies in the evenings thanks to a combination of Jordan's computer and Bryce's video library on his Ipod. (Poor Grandma having to live with 3 boys!)




Watching a Mr. Bean movie on a chair so everyone could see.





One evening we were able to use the ships conference room and plug in Bryce's Ipod. So we were all able to watch Mr. Bean's Holiday (appropriate since we will be going to southern France as our next "big" trip).


Lubeck, Germany

The next day we ported in Kiel, Germany. The town itself is a harbor without much to see. But it has a very convenient train station with links to Hamburg and a little medieval town called Lubeck. We chose to go to the little town and walk around.


A cheap group fare on the train made it an inexpensive excursion. We played cards the whole way there and back while Christina played petshops and Madison played her gameboy.






The town had an interesting ancient building that housed a local museum. The towers appeared to be leaning toward each other!











The best part though was the puppet museum located a few blocks from the leaning towers. The girls split from the boys to see the puppet museum and right from the entry were enthralled! The most amazing puppets and creative ideas were displayed from around the world!








The first display really energized Jeanne's mom who came up with all sorts of ideas she could use with her center at which she volunteers back in Hawaii. This was a "puppet" that you collar around your neck and your face becomes the puppet! SO CREATIVE!










Another display that Jeanne saw a lot of potential in was the walking puppet theatre. Isn't this a great idea? (other than your hand would probably get tired holding them up all of the time...)







While the girls thoroughly enjoyed the puppet museum the guys decided to show their physical endurance and climb up to the top of the church tower. (We later found out that there actually was an ELEVATOR!). But they did enjoy the views and trying to fool the girls about the stair climbing thing.



We had just enough time to visit the market square and walk through the church. During WW2 a bomb was dropped that toppled the bells. The people decided to rebuild the bell tower but leave the bells where they fell.




Legend had it when the church was being built the devil thought it was going to be a tavern so he was actively helping to build it alongside the local people. But when he found out it was a church and was about to destroy it the townspeople made a deal with the devil to build a tavern right next door. Sounds to me like some of the townspeople were looking for an excuse!... but it makes for a good picture!




We timed our return to the train station perfectly (with 2 minutes to spare ... whew!).





Christina knew when it was time to get off the train and was ready! She is turning into such a confident little traveler! Maybe Christina was in a hurry to get back to the ship because she was hungry!







That evening Christina began her nightly spaghetti feast (her favorite food). There are definite advantages to traveling on an Italian cruiseline :-)






Stockholm, Sweeden

We planned on the hop-on hop-off harbor boat which took us to the two stops in the city we wanted to see. The first was the old part of town called Gammelstan. It was charming. But boy are they serious about their bikes. They are like motorways and if you walk across one without looking you could be in trouble! Jeanne while taking a photograph almost got ran over by a high speed bike. Thankfully, the bike had a bell which alerted her!

Jeanne finds it amazing how frequent the theme of slaying dragons is found throughout Europe. We as a family have actively attended and led creationist Bible studies. So when we see yet another statue recognizing St. George slaying a dragon, knowing that many "legends" have some base in fact and as well that there are many similar stories around the world, it affirms our belief that "dragons" were likely to actually have been around with humans during recorded history. For those of you who think that this sounds wacky, I challenge you to attend our Answers in Genesis Bible study that we've been hosting in our house on Tuesday evenings. I promise that it will give you food for thought on how you as a Christian view the Bible, how you view scientific conclusions reported in the media, and it will likely challenge many things that you never questioned before.




Well after walking through the town, the we toured the palace. Christina discovered an odd telephone booth. We hadn't seen anything like it in our travels so it must be special to Stockholm.

Pretty cool, isn't it?








Our next stop on our hop-on/off boat was the highlight of our visit to Stockholm. The Vasa (located in the VASA museum) was a newly christened flagship which because of it's top heavy design sunk about 1 km into it's maiden voyage in 1628. It remained in the Stockholm bay for all those years when it was carefully raised, amazingly preserved and put in a museum. The carvings on it are truly amazing! A museum about a sunken ship doesn't sound too interesting...but this one was!

The carvings were so incredibly detailed and so abundant! It made me wonder how any ship designed like that could last more than a year in the harsh environment of the sea! That probably made this find of a sunken NEW ship in the bay all the more spectacular. The sand had protected much of the ship...even for over 300 years! No other examples of ships from that era have survived.








The stern (or rear) of the VASA.
Isn't it amazing?











On a more grim note, when the ship sunk they estimate that 30-50 people died. In the basement of the museum was a tomb/display of some of those bodies. A bit odd, as it seems that bones aren't often displayed in the US out of respect for the dead.



The outside building that houses the VASA was also interesting. They made the building have masts! The girls smiled and waved goodbye as we took our shuttle boat back to the cruise ship.



As we left the port, we were able to watch for more than 4 hours the most amazing views of the islands of Sweden. Beautiful small villages and charming bayfront homes and cabins.






It was amazingly beautiful and continued until well after dinner!


Tallinn, Estonia





Jeanne's father had been to Tallinn several times during his world travels. So he became our tour guide for the city. It also was quite charming.












It had an absolutely beautiful town square full of temporary shop stalls.
















Here is Christina in a doorway to a store that was just her size!










There also were very detail -ed doors and clocks in the towns quare!









We walked up the hill toward the summit of Tallinn.











We came to a portion of the wall around the city where they allow you to climb up to walk along the wall (similar to Rothenburg in Germany). But the stairs up were gigantic!












The view from the top was great!









Madison is such a comedian!






Grandma & Grandpa found a table in the shade and enjoyed watching the rest of us climb and play in the cubby holes.











At the top of the hill there was a Greek Orthodox (I think) church. As we posed for this picture, a car popped out of gear and rolled backwards. If a car hadn't been parked in the way some of us very likely would have been run over. Another example of God watching out for us!





Fat Margaret and tall Herman are names for some of the towers in the city which is located on a high point of land near the port. We really enjoyed the town square and walking the city walls. But our favorite feature of the city had to be just the interesting walkways and charming old town feel of the buildings.






Piggie flower-boxes?









As we left the walled city we looked out over the city square and charming streets we could see the ship.



When we reached the city center Jeanne and her dad broke off to find an internet cafe while the rest headed back to the boat. Thinking that they had plenty of time to get back to the boat they stopped by a grocery store and meandered back toward the ship...only to find that there was a large waterway separating them.


Then they had to quickly walk around while worried that they were going to miss the departure time...but they made it!




St. Petersburg, Russia

Five people in our party had already been to St. Petersburg... John and Bonnie (several times), and in 1994 Scott and Jeanne visited for 2 weeks with their newborn son. It wasn't a smart journey back then and was quite full of adventure (and misfortune).






Bryce was only 3 months old at the time and had hair that stuck straight up. Wasn't he so cute????







Here is a picture of us with some Japanese friends in the Goodwill games office hallway where we stayed.




Bryce was fine but Scott got severe food poisoning and Jeanne sprained her ankle badly. Thankfully we were there working for Jeanne's dad in the Goodwill games and were staying in athlete's village with full access to AMERICAN doctors who even came up to our room!





This time we arrived at port just outside the same Prebalticskya hotel which housed us and the Athlete Village. It now is a Park hotel and the harbor land has been added on to. Now the shore is quite a distance from where it once was! Such changes! We all took a cruise tour (since we didn't get Russian Visa's which would have cost about $900). In the end Jeanne was quite happy that we took a tour which worked out perfectly fine other than the guide wasn't that good)






We saw some highlights of the city stopping first at St. Issac's cathedral.










The Church of the Spilled blood is where one of the Czar's were murdered. They built an elaborate church that actually never functioned as a church. But it is beautiful and resembles another church in Moscow.








Of course we had to get some sovenier shopping in too! Bryce found an pocket watch with the old Russian initials of CCCP and some old Russian money, Madison found a white Russian hat which she was thrilled with and Christina hunted down a mirror that she liked. Jeanne got her Christmas ornaments that she collects for the family and everyone left happy and satisfied (and without too big of a financial loss! YEA!)

Day at sea

We had a fantastic last day aboard. It was a day at sea which made it even better. We were able to rest, relax, swim, play cards. This trip has been really wonderful.



Card playing was a major part of our relaxing time...if you call a cut-throat game of hearts relaxing. Having heard the reputation of Grandpa always winning at hearts, the goal of both of the boys was to beat Grandpa.






Grandma (who isn't known for winning at hearts) celebrates a good hand.








In the end... much to the chagrin of the boys, Grandpa won yet again.

(but there were quite a few games played...and the boys were successful a few times! YEA!)



Christina took the time to swim in the green salt-water pool. Madison taught her how to go underwater! She was so proud of herself that she wouldn't stop. For those of you who are Dr. Seuss book fans, it was kind of like the story of the diggingest dog. (one of Jeanne's favorite)



fantastic job Christina!









In the evening Scott took the time to go our and dance with his two girls.











They had a chocolate bar fruit feast and a fun time on the dance floor.














Christina can really move to the music!
















It was a special daddy- daughter(s) -date!






Before we left on the cruise, Bryce and Jeanne discovered Matalan. It was a great store with cheap men's dress clothes. He surprised us all with coordinated outfits with Jordan.





On the cruise they dressed up one night in opposite colors pink and black.






Another night they did opposite colors of red and black.




And on the formal night Bryce really shocked everyone with a tux shirt and bow tie! We have some handsome boys and beautiful girls...no doubt!









We went out on deck for some sunset pictures. It was fun.











Copenhagen, Denmark

We were required to empty our room by 7 am...which is a little bit early for us... It still took time to eat breakfast and wait for our group to be called so we didn't make it out until 10:30 am. We located a taxi van for our monster group and headed to the airport. We were hoping to drop off our luggage at the airport Hilton as we had rented the room for just the day (at half price!) and then head back to the city for a short tour. But on our way the taxi driver informed us about the incoming storms with potential flooding. So we switched plans again and took the taxi directly to the little mermaid and a fleeting tour of the city.

It was fine really as we were all tired... too many midnight buffets and late night card games I guess :-)

We spent the rest of the day telling stories, resting, and playing cards.

We flew out to Stansted at sunset and saw an interesting sunset from the terminal.








Farewell to Jordan

Parenting can be challenging and parenting a kid who hasn't grown up with your family can be even more challenging. But Jordan has really become an integral part of our family that will truly be missed. On our travels he dependably helped watch Christina and entertain us all. We all reckon that our car journeys will be a bit less windy from having to roll windows down (smile), but he has left a hole and the house definitely seems a bit more hollow.

This moment also marks the first time in over a year that we have only our five in our house. We have had constant visitors literally for over a year. So although it will be nice to get back to all of our family, we also are left a bit sad as we have really enjoyed all of the visitors. The amazing thing is that we have NO visitors planned for the future! Talk about feast or famine!

But it has been an amazing year! And it's not done yet!