27 December 2014
Several hours later than planned, car packed to the hilt and Aggy peering anxiously out of her travel crate, we pushed dog hair and plastic bottles aside and piled into our beat up Golf Estate. I straddled a giant Tupperware full of leftover spaghetti and enjoyed a lower back massage, compliments of Millie, who is, it appears, physically unable to ride in a car without kicking the seat in front of her constantly (woe be to the unfortunate airline passenger who is seated in front of her on our next flight). We were off to the Lake District, a destination we had been meaning to visit since we moved to England.
As luck would have it, the day after Boxing Day is one of the busiest travel days in the UK and there were major train service disruptions, so more cars on the road than there should have been. Result: our trip was considerably longer than it should have been. Somehow, though, we still had a pleasant journey. The girls were happily playing with their 'cameras' (which also are video games) and Jim and I enjoyed catching up on our stockpile of NPR podcasts. When traffic got unbearable, we detoured off of the M6 and into the country, stopping for coffee, a walk with Aggy, and to play in the snow that started falling as we were driving along. We didn't get to the Lake District until long after dark, but we managed to get there without having a fight, getting lost and, most unbelievably, without tantrums or meltdowns (and I'm not just talking about the kids). It was a great start to what would turn out to be a really wonderful week.
28 December 2014
When we woke up the next morning, it was to the view of beautiful frost covered fields and bluish mountains off in the distance. It was
cold, but after fortifying ourselves with coffee and breakfast, we bundled up and crunched off on our first walk in the Lake District. Aggy darted around, peering at sheep and sprinting through fields. The girls delighted in crunching the ice that had formed over the puddles and a deer bounded off ahead of us.
After crunching along for a while and scrambling over some rocks, we reached our first obstacle. The puddles gave way to full blown, partially frozen marshland of indeterminate depth. The girls, of course, thought the solution to this problem was to just walk right out onto the thin ice. So did Aggy, who, while we tried to figure out how we were going to get across, charged right onto the ice and then through it into the water below. After we had pulled her back to safety (she was, it should be noted, completely unfazed by falling into freezing water), we noticed a ladder-like 'bridge' propped up against the fence. Jim was wearing wellies, so he waded in and made us a somewhat unstable crossing, escorting each of the girls across like a true gentleman.
We made it! A little more trekking across the marshlands led us to a path along a muddy river and then over a bridge and into a wood full of moss-covered stones and narrow boardwalks.
When the girls started to flag, we let them be in charge of mapping our route, an age old distraction technique. We also bribed them with food to keep them going. Jim packed some of his irresistible Snickerdoodles, which proved to be great motivators.
After we came out of the woods, Aggy almost abandoned us to go live with some people in their beautiful farmhouse with a spectacular view over the river below. But, she too is easily persuaded by treats and we managed to get her to come back to the tune of a few dog biscuits. We all could understand why she would want to live there! It was really beautiful.
Down a hill and beyond the house, more marshland needed crossing and it was over this narrow boardwalk that we had to walk. We made it across, unscathed and mostly dry but the inevitable whining had begun so we started back towards home.
Millie is a nature lover and really has fun walking in the country. Evie, the athlete, is pure city girl and once she has decided she's had enough, she comes up with any excuse possible to try and convince her dad to carry her. (He didn't.)
After such a cold and beautiful walk, there was no choice but go to a local pub and warm up.
And then to the grocery store, which had this view above it:
(And a picture of Aggy Brown, just for cuteness sake.)
And finally back to our cottage to relax and watch The Gruffalo and plot out our next day.
