Lake District Holiday 2011

See, I told you I would try better to post more often. However, this post is for my Mother and Father-in-law. The family is awaiting a new arrival, however the labour started on Monday afternoon (it's now Wednesday morning). So this is to give them something to do while they are waiting for news.

Alice started nursery a few weeks ago. She really enjoys it, however there are loads of tears (from Alice, not me) when I leave her. I'm assured that as soon as I leave she is fine and when I pick her up she is all chat on the walk home about what she's been up to. We filled in a wee book about Alice and what she likes to do and her development stage. She drew this picture of herself for the book.

A very good likeness, I'm sure you will agree!!!


Last week my mum came over from Northern Ireland and we all went off to the Lake District for a week's holiday. We stopped in Bowness as that's where we had to pick up the keys and went to the Beatrix Potter Experience. It was good, but not worth the money it cost. Alice did enjoy it and thankfully we have the complete works (in one book) of Beatrix Potter, so she knew most of the characters. This is Alice with Mr McGregor from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Next day we went to Hill Top where Beatrix Potter lived. Stuart and I joined the National Trust for a year (we got 25% off a year's membership through a voucher I got in a child's magazine), so we got in free here. It was a very good afternoon, though. Alice did a little trail looking for paw prints on stones and then writing down the letters beside it and we had to re-arrange all the letters to make a word. She really enjoyed that. This is Alice with her Nanny (my Mum) at the door of Beatrix Potter's house. Also the lady inside gave Alice a book and she had to find all the places in the book from the cottage. This kept Alice's attention (a bit more anyway) as we looked round the house. It was very interesting, talking to the people who work there about her life.

We went to the Aquarium on a very wet and windy Monday. It was absolutely pouring it down, then went swimming in the afternoon. Stuart had his first experience of a Sauna and Steam Room. He said he prefers the Sauna. I don't go near them given last time I went in one I came out and fainted!!!

On the Tuesday we went into Kendal. Then went onto Sizergh Castle. There'd been a really horrible road accident and the main road had been completely shut. So we had to drive up and down really tiny wee roads to get us to the castle. Alice was a bit fed up by the time we got there and so her behaviour left a lot to be desired. We then had a very long drive home as we had to drive up and round Windermere and the traffic then came to a standstill about 5 miles where we needed to turn off. So we managed to turn round went into Bowness and had dinner. By the time we came out the road had cleared. We didn't fancy the route round the top of Lake Windermere we were going to have to take otherwise.

On the Wednesday the weather was a bit better. Cold and cloudy, but not wet!!! So we went to the animal park. It was a really great park.

Alice nearly got eaten by the Hippo!!!!


A good display by this peacock!!! Thank you for obliging.

These Rhinos were hilarious. They stayed like this for a good hour!!!

A couple of other rhinos a bit closer up. Remember you can click on the picture to get a closer look.

We really liked this, the baby monkey riding on its parent's back.

Alice was desperate to feed the giraffes. We had to wait for quite a while until they decided to come down for something to eat. It was fascinating watching them run down the hill though. Stuart talked a lot about their legs. Apparently most animals walk using opposing legs (right front and left back etc) whereas giraffes use the same legs (right front, right back).

Just really liked this bear having a good old lounge!!!

Alice was very brave and tackled this crocodile!!! Who do you think won?

My mum got pretty close to this lemur.

Then it was time for the feeding of the tigers. They hung the food pretty high up in the trees. So when they came out they just jumped up the trees and grabbed the food and then jumped back down again and tore into dinner!!! Fascinating to watch.

Alice was very upset that she didn't get to go down and feed the penguins. However, the enclosure was packed and she wouldn't have got near them, so we watched them from above.

Thursday was a very wet and cold day!!! So we went on a steam train and then the boat up Lake Windermere to Bowness. We reckon it was about 60% Chinese, 30% American and then 10% rest of the world.
Just a view of the Lake in Bowness.


Alice and Stuart feeding the swans and ducks.

Stuart went for a walk from the cottage to a place called High Dam one night. So he took these photos on his walk.



I think this one is my particular favourite. He changed the shutter speed and got this amazing photo.

On the Friday, the weather was a bit better so we went swimming in the morning and then went to Brockhole Lake District visiting centre. It was a really beautiful place. Alice and Stuart sat on this boat.
They weren't going to be going anywhere!!!


A view of Lake Windermere.
Alice on the zip wire at the playground. It was a really great adventure playground.


We had a really great holiday. The weather was cold, wet and windy, but it didn't hamper us getting out and about. It was the first time Mum had been to the Lake District and she said she really enjoyed it. We all came home with colds though. So we all spent the bank holiday feeling really ropey!!!