Summer Holidays - British Style...

Ok - Summer? What Summer? Good Lord even the Brits have been bitching up a storm (pun intended...) about the lousy weather we had this summer - they claim that its global warming causing the rubbish weather and that even 3 years ago, summer was fantastic. I think they are deluded - its England for godssake - no one has any illusions that the weather here is EVER sunny and warm. I have found my self REALLY enjoying the nice days when they come about - and they are admittedly few and far between, but they are very welcome, indeed! The thing I can't take is the day upon day of clouds and rain with no sun at all. That truly kills me - when the sun does finally pop out, I have the urge to strip down and expose as much of my flesh as I can get away with so that I can take in the glorious rays of vitamin D packed sunshine as I can get. As it is, I think I can only actually get away with rolling my sleeves and turning my face skyward...

Right... Summer holidays - how has an entire month gone by since our vacation? I guess we've had a lot going on with school starting and stuff, but still... Anyway here we go.

After floundering around at the last minute trying to find a deal in Spain or Greece or something, we wound up going to the Lake District (in England...). While I was disappointed that we would not be going to the Continent, it turned out to be a fantastic choice! I found a little cottage called Steps Cottage (everyone names their houses here...) which was located halfway between Windermere and Bowness-on-Windermere. Bowness is located right on Lake Windermere - we actually stayed in Bowness in 2001 (when I was pregnant with Audrey) during a 2 week tour of the UK, so it was cool to come back with our kids and see it through different eyes.

But let me start at the beginning... Everytime we go somewhere, we look for National Trust sites to visit on the way, and this trip was no exception. First stop: Little Moreton Hall. This place is a quintessential British half timber house built in the mid 1500's. It is in amazing condition and you really get a feel for what it must have been like to live during the medieval period. The floors on the upper levels are all uneven and you get vertigo just walking across them - if you dropped a handfull of marbles in the middle of one of the rooms they would all roll (rapidly) to one of the corners. Touring around these places is so interesting, it makes you wish the walls could talk - the things they have seen that we will never know - cool to think about...

Next we carried on straight to Windermere to pick up the keys to our cottage. It was Saturday afternoon in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the UK - and lets just say that the roads are not set up for it - total gridlock... But picking up the keys was a piece of cake and we carried on down the road to Steps cottage. The cottage was situated just off the main road between Windermere and Bowness - a tiny little whitewashed house basically in another houses driveway. Walking in the door you are in the "kitchen" it reminded me of an efficiency apartment or galley kitchen - just a long skinny room with a couple of cabinets, a dishwasher, clothes washer/dry (yes a washer-dryer all in one machine- weird...), sink and small stove on one side - the other side a dorm room fridge (which is actually quite common in many homes here...) and a little overhang counter and barstools. Turn right, there is a living room with TV etc - carry on through the living room and there is a small open space leading to a bedroom, bathroom and set of stairs down to the second bedroom.

I must say that I love the idea of a vacation in a cottage - the kids had their own space for the week and Pat and I had our own space - we could watch tv and hang out after the kids went to bed without having to worry about keeping them up, like you do in a hotel.

Plus, you can save a ton of money by being able to make your own meals, pack snacks and lunches. It is also nice to be able to do laundry! That way you don't have to pack as many clothes and save more room in the suitcases for souveniers!

After we relaxed for a bit, we wandered down to Bowness to explore a bit and find something to eat - the buildings all around the Lake District are made of the most beautiful deep blue-gray stone - the buildings, contrasting against the bright green hills and trees draped in misty low clouds all meeting with the lovely Lake Windermere.

We were all pretty tired after a long day of driving, so we headed back to our little home away from home. The next day called for rain (shocking, I know...) so we made plans to visit the Cumberland Pencil Museum - yes really... we also wanted to see a couple of outdoor sites: The Bowder Stone and Castlerigg Stone Circle. The photos speak for themselves...

The pencil museum was really cool - no REALLY! And it was packed! You never really think about pencils being invented, but they were - in the 1500's graphite was discovered in Cumberland and at some point they figured out that they could write with it, then they figured out that it got their hands dirty, so they made wood casings... ok - wake up now, I'm done... It was really interesting though. And the best part was the shop at the end - Derwent, maker of artist quality pencils, graphite, color, watercolor, etc is the company that owns the museum and they had all kinds of goodies for me :) The kids really enjoyed it too - again, there was a little quiz to keep them engaged with the exhibits and when they were done, they got some free watercolor pencils for their efforts!

After our adventures, we headed home to chill, then down the road for a meal at one of the many Italian restauants in Bowness. Food good - price RUBBISH! It is the biggest pain in the ass going out to dinner with kids in this country- its bad enough that a main course is between 9-15 Pounds, (translate $18-$30) PER PERSON -then kids meals are always at least 4 pounds each. And with Zoe being so picky, its hard to make the kids share because Zoe only likes two things and Audrey loves food like I do... it is always a battle. As much as I used to like going out to dinner, I have learned to actually avoid it here because it just doesn't have the conveinience factor that we have in America - or the variety for that matter! Anyway, we had a nice meal and took a walk by the lake.

The walk to Bowness was always an adventure. There was an area where the road crossed a small stream and was really green and tree filled - very Lord of the Rings -we always joked that there was a troll living under the bridge and tried to scare one another. I have to say that the kids are at such a fun age - no strollers, or diapers or baby bags - just two awesome little girls and their clueless parents enjoying ourselves together...

Next day we visited Carlisle Castle and the Cumberland Brewery - on the way we stopped by Aire Force, a fantastic waterfall

Then it was Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's house. This turned out to be a whole day deal - it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the country. They have timed tickets, so you have to wait in a queue to find out what time you have to come back. Oh, and there is only enough parking for about a tenth of the people who come to see it. We had to park in the next village up the road and got the last spot in this tiny little lot. We were worried about walking down the windey road, so we decided to take a public footpath through a sheep pasture - did I mention that it was really rainy this summer? It was like walking though a sheep shit laden bog of smelly sloppy splattery hell - after a few steps I just picked Zoe up and held her under my arm (her feet were covered...) Audrey and I had on our Keen like sandals and our feet were slathered in shmud (shit+mud = shmud) Fortunately, there was a nice little stream that we rinsed our feet off on. Unfortunately, my khaki colored pants were spattered all the way up to my ass... Nevermind... we were going to see Peter Rabbits house!

On the way to Beatrix Potter's house

The one and only Hill Top, one of Beatrix's homes (we are now on a first name basis...)

in the Lake District. She used this home mostly as a studio, and didn't acutally live

here regularly

The kids were so totally excited - they have loved her (Beatrix Potter) books since they were both really small and they continue to love them. Before we went to the Lake District we watched Miss Potter, which is a biographical film about Beatrix Potter's life - it was really good, the kids even enjoyed it. I highly recommend it- she was a very interesting woman with a very interesting and sometimes tragic life.

When it was finally our time to visit the house, it was totally worth the wait. The kids were given a copy of The Tail of Mr. Samuel Whiskers, which I had honestly not even heard of before! All through the book are illustrations of Hill Top! The kids were thrilled to go through each room and try to find a page in the book that matched it. One of my favorite things was the doll's house and dolls that she based her story "The Tale of Two Bad Mice" I've read that book to the girls a hundred times at least, and that dolls house had the little fake food and everything, as well as the Lucinda and Jane dolls! Outside was a lovely garden all still kept as she would have had it. We, of course had to buy some of the books they had for sale in the book shop - we even got book plates that show that we got them at Hill Top!

Other highlights of the week were a Windermere Cruise and visits to Furness Abbey, a beautiful ruined abbey, Townend, a brilliantly preserved 17th century yeoman farmer's home, Sherwood Forest and Hardwick Hall, a FANTASTIC AMAZING SUPER COOL Elizabethan house

The Major Oak - purported to be the meeting place for Robin Hood and his Merry men

Strolling through Sherwood Forest

Whats up next? We are taking the Eurostar to Paris on Thursday. Pat needs to go to Quantum's field office there for business and we just decided that we should all go. I have to suffer the nasty looks of judgment at the school's office when I take in the excuse note - God I hate that! Apparently the British government is contemplating charging families as much as 100pounds per kid tor taking days away from school for reasons other than illness. People take their kids out during school all the time because the prices for air travel and hotels etc are SO MUCH CHEAPER, its truly ridiculous. My neighbor said she would be happy to pay the 100 pounds because they are still saving so much money on their holiday... this place is so crazy...

Seriously, how the hell did they park that car without high centering?

After that, the girls are off school the last week of October, so we are going to find some sunshine in the South of France. We are renting a gite (a cottage) near Avignon and will spend one nite in Nice. It will probably take me until Christmas to get that update on line :S

We sure do miss everyone back home - for all of our great adventures, not a moment passes where we don't think of our family and friends. We sure hope some of you are planning to come visit - we really would love to have some company!!! A friend of ours from Quantum, Cornell, was over here for business and made a point of coming by before he traveled back to the States - we really enjoyed having him here - you should have seen our girls, they were sooooooo excited to have another American around! So - come see us, ok?!

out

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ld