I think with last weeks exertions to the castles, it gave David the travel bug. He was desperate to get into the mountains since it is fall and the coulors are beautiful. We have had a tradition to go to North Carolina and visit the Blue Ridge Parkway and camp and go to the Woolly Worm Festival but with North Carolina so far away, we headed to the Lake district.
We rented a car on Friday night and David drove. After the first 20 minutes of trying to figure out how to drive on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the street he did farely well, at least he didn't make any fatal mistakes. We tried to find our way to Costco because we have been desperate to go there and we can only go when we have a car or someone takes us. We got lost, ok I gave wrong directions. We only went the wrong way for 12 miles before I realized that we were not getting closer to the city.
We left the next morning to head to Keswick, about a 2 hour drive. The drive was beautiful. The colors, the sheep, the pastures, the stone fences everywhere. The most unbelievable part of the day happened on our drive. I turned on the radio, which is random because rarely do we listen to the radio, and generally not to commercials. We were flipping through the channels and I hear someone talk about being in North Carolina. I thought that was random because we are in England, but maybe there was a North Carolina in England, who knew? So we kept listening. They continue to say "So if any of you are in North Carolina this weekend, which is highly unlikely, there is a little town called Banner Elk and they have a festival called the Woolly Worm Festival where they race caterpillars up a 3 foot rope. There are 20 lanes in a heat and generally 25 heats. The winner wins $1000." They continued to tell about the festival that we attend every year and would have been at if we were in America. We could NOT believe it. Here we are in England hearing about our little festival and tradition that we have kept in America.
After our shocked expressions left our face we continued to drive.
Keswick was great. We visited the pencil museum as Keswick was where they discovered lead to use in pencils. We went to their little shops and market and I loved it. We drove up the lake went on a little hike to a waterfall. We continued on the road to Grange where we ate ice cream and took some great pics.
We headed back that afternoon because we had to return the car by 5:30. It was a great little get away but I am not expecting any more until after finals when we can really relax
Here are some pics.
6 comments:
Looks cold there! I am so glad that you guys get to go out and have fun between David's studying! We miss you.
The pictures are gorgeous and the story is hilarious!! esp cause it was your replacement excursion! :)
unbelieveable!!!! you heard about N carolina on England radio. So weird and random.
the pictures are great.
I can't believe it! That is beyond irony....listening about the Woolly Worm festival while in England. I wish we could have represented you there, but due to my mom's work schedule, we could stay for the festival. As a matter of fact it pretty much rained all three days that we were there. There was a lot of mist and fog that added "intrigue" to the forests and leaf colors, so we got to appreciate something different this year. As soon as we get back home this weekend, we'll post pictures. By the way...we're looking for you on Skype during the day time since Jeni is here in a hotel in Denver while I'm at work.
Soooo pretty over there! I love all the adventures that you're having. And that is SO crazy that you heard about the wooly worm thing over there, haha. I love little things like that to help make your day :)
The pictures are so great. It looks like Sherwood Forest. I'm so glad that you could get away and be with each other for a few hours. The lake looks wonderful, but of course I love you and David with the kids in front of the waterfall.
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