Winter 2009: Installment 2

It was a cold winter for North Yorkshire. Quite a few more snow days than last year but, the girls had fun.


Molly turned 3 in January. While 3 may not seem like a big number, we can't really remember what life was like before her. So, to celebrate, she had 2 parties! One with us and one with some friends from our village. Needless to say, she made out with the birthday loot: 3 baby dolls, a roaring lion, musical toys for the tub, dress-up toys and a fantastic book, "Going on a bear hunt". She even got her favorite, a chocolate cake.



Towards the end of the month, Sam's mom came to visit. We had a great trip and got out to see quite a bit of North Yorkshire. There was a short hike out to Malham cove, a giant limestone wall which hosted a huge waterfall during the melting of the last glacial period.



We had a fantastic visit to Bolton Abbey, a 12th century Augustinian abbey.



Sam and I also managed a weekend trip to Dublin while we had our favorite baby-sitter in town... Dublin was pretty good. 15C compared to 4C in Yorkshire. Literature, revolutions and Guinness. Lots of it.



At this time of year, there weren't many tourists around and we got in a good bit of walking around the city. This is Kelly at Dublin Castle, once the British center of power, now the Irish center of power.


Even made it to the oldest and smallest pubs in Dublin and managed to catch a few "sessions" of traditional music at O'Donoghues, the home of the Dubliners (the Irish folk band).



Kelly at the Oldest Pub, the Brazen Head.

Sam in the smallest Pub.

That pretty much got us through our second winter in England. We returned from Dublin to find February nearly over and buds on the trees. Spring was pretty much here and we were ready for some warmer weather in North Yorkshire.

Winter 2009: Installment 1

It's been a busy and quick winter. We've had lots of trips, personal and business, school and adventures.
We'll split this over a few posts.

The first installment is our trip to the Lake District in Western England, Cumbria to be specific. We had a break in the weather so packed up the family truckster and made the couple hour drive to Grasmere: home to William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and some fantastic Gingerbread!

Sam had a great idea that we would drive over and pack the girls up the surrounding fells, putting in 5 peaks in about 6 miles.... Yeah. It's still winter in England, 55 deg North latitude. It was pretty cold and windy even though it wasn't raining so, we decided to stroll through the town and see the tombs of the mighty.


After seeing the graves of Wordsworth and Coleridge, we drove off into the central Fells of the Lakes. A truly awesome experience.

We couldn't resist a bit of a walk at this point. So, we pulled off the road and took off.
The girls got a lift through the boggy bits.
Sam and Sandy looked for the rockiest crag to scramble up.
We all managed to get to the top of Lang How, 414m,
where Sandy promptly made friends with the locals.

At this point, Sam decided we should keep going to Castle How, about 1.5 miles further. So we said have fun and watched him run to the next peak. He's the white speck going up the hill in the picture.
Here he is waving back to us from the top of the hill.

About this time, Molly decided she was ready for hot chocolate.

So we headed back to the car and took off without much forethought because, this is England, you can't drive, bike, run or walk 1 mile without finding a pub. And to prove us right, we found this beauty: the Old Ghyll Dungeon Inn.

It's been around for over 300 years and caters to climbers, walkers and thirsty souls in general. And true to form, Sandy and Molly picked out the best seats in the walkers' pub and struck up conversation with a couple of other walkers. The only taller tales told in a pub have come from our very own hiking hero, Sam.

After quenching our thirst, we hit the road for home. The girls took a much deserved rest. (Editorial note, it's only about 1600 -4pm-. notice how dark it is?)

It was fantastic day, especially for January.
We'll have Winter 2009 Installment 2 up soon!