Short Drive in the Peak District

Hello Readers,
This will be another short post as we didn't do much exploring this week. 

The Better Halves Club met at The Bank Bar (link) this week.  There ended up being four of us as two members were in the States and another was sick.  The restaurant write up sounded like a sports bar type place but didn't look like any sports bars I have been to in the States.  I did pass on the Japanese Wagyu Beef, thirty pounds for an eight ounce sirloin or ribeye was a little rich for my blood.  Maybe we will go back some other time when we are celebrating an event worthy of a thirty pound (forty-eight dollar) steak.  Instead I had Lamb Rogan Josh, an Indian dish that was pretty tasty although the portion size was so big I couldn't finish it.

A Carol Seppane Book Update.  I started Element Zero by James Knapp, 368 pages.  This is the final book in the revivor (technically reanimated corpses) trilogy I started a while back.  I am about halfway through and it is starting to get interesting again so I will probably end up shirking all of my housely (it's a word Aunt Joanie, promise) duties and ignoring everyone today until I have finished the book.  Overall all of the books have been intriguing reads for me, an interesting blend of the present and future in a well written setting.

On Saturday we laid around like tired slugs.

On Sunday we took a scenic drive through the Peak District.  I took the kids on a similar drive last year when Lori was back in the States and took Bob and Lona on a similar drive while they were here but Lori hasn't seen any of it yet so we picked Sunday as the nicer weekend driving day and piled into the car.  Our drive itinerary was Flash, Bakewell, Nine Ladies Stone Circle walk, Eyam, Chesterfield and Matlock.  Good plan, horrible execution.

Yup that's frost.  Not the thick hard to scrape frost, more of the thin barely there frost.  At least it looked like it as Lori had the car windows scraped clean in a couple of minutes - you go girl! 

 

The car said 2 C (36 F) so I scratched the Nine Ladies walk off of the itinerary before we even left the driveway.  The start of our itinerary deviating has begun and the car isn't even warm yet.  Not a great start.

Interesting rock formation on the way to Flash. 

Ditto.  You can see some brave (and cold) climbers on the rock.

We made it to Flash.  We stopped here before so I wouldn't write about it again.  This school room is one of the seven buildings in Flash. 

On the road to Bakewell.  Pretty scenery but a little lacking with the bare trees and brown vegetation.

Jim Seppanen Pic - A stream along the Monsal Trail (link), maybe we will make it up in springtime to walk the trail.

Zoomed in view down Wye Dale, looking right from a pull off parking spot.

View down Wye Dale, looking left from same parking spot. 

 

After driving for a while we made it to Bakewell, home of the world famous Bakewell Tart.

I keep wanting to try rarebit but wasn't quite sure what it was.  Now I know.

Dana Johnson Pic - Rarebit is basically an open faced sandwich.  Tasted okay but not anything special.  I planned on having a Bakewell Tart until my on-the-ball wife asked what was in it and found out that almonds were in the filling.  Cross Bakewell Tart from Bakewell off my bucket list.

View down Bakewell, a quaint little town that didn't inspire us to stay.  Nice place but nothing special.  See a theme forming yet?

 

Up next was Eyam, Wiki link, a village famous for shutting itself in during the plague.  Unfortunately road construction in a village called Hassop closed the road so instead of detouring around who-knows-where to Eyam we opted for Chesterfield.

The Crooked Spire, read about on Wiki.

 

Our last stop on our tour was Matlock but after punching in the Matlock time then Matlock to Home time into the SatNav we opted to head home instead.  The grocery we wanted to stop at closes at 4:30 PM on a Sunday (seriously) so we called it a day in order to pick up a few required items before the store closed.  It was a nice, leisurely sightseeing day but we ended up missing a couple places so we'll have to go back at a later date.

 

Final item - a Jeff Seppanen Sports Update.  Football is back baby!  Steve and Jeff came over to watch the lucky Packers beat the under-achieving Lions.  Steve also stayed to watch half of the second game, his beloved Colts and the hated Patriots.  Lucky for him he left at halftime before the Colts showed their youth and inexperience.  At least they held the Pats under 60 I guess.  On a high note my boy RG3 had a fantastic day, now to give him a defense to play with.  Oh well, beggars and horses. right?

The American football viewing set up.

 

Thanks for listening,

Jay

Oxford

Hi-ya all you cheeky monkeys,
Sometimes the Brits just have a way with words.  I was brightening the day of one of Kal's classmate's mum as we waited to pick up the kids from school one day this week and she told me I was a "cheeky monkey".  Appropriate and funny, sometimes the Brits just have a way of wordsmithing the English language over here.  Now onto the week.

The week has been pretty slow.  Both Bob and Lona have been feeling sub-par so we haven't been venturing out much.  Instead they have been resting up for the weekend.  Lona actually has been a little worse while Bob has been a little better and even ventured out for a few walks.  Hopefully they will be feeling much better before the flight back.

I did manage to further frustrate myself with the tumble dryer (clothes dryer) service technician in this week's "Dan Stine extreme self restraint in the face of surmounting adversity moment of the week".  The service tech came out to replace the drain pump and did replace it but didn't stay long enough to see a load dry enough water out of the clothes to activate the pump.  So of course it didn't work so I called the company and made a formal complaint that it has been seven weeks and my dryer still it isn't working.  So this upcoming week will be his final chance, if it isn't working when he leaves I will have them refund the sixty pound service charge and I will just fix it myself.  Obviously I should have done it myself but I never dreamt it would take two months to fix it.  And Lori just looks at me with her "what did you expect" look.  At least I have a system now to partially use the dryer and am caught up on the clothes.

Dana Johnson Pic - Cornish Pasty night.

 

Dana Johnson Pic - cut open pasty on the left, uncut pasty on right.  They taste like at home except the dough is like layered phyllo dough and they are a little peppery.  Pretty good tasting I must admit.

 

Our favourite travelator at the big Sainsbury's grocery store.  Every trip to the store requires us to ride up one side and right down the other.  Basically an incline/decline moving ramp but twice as fun. 

 

On Saturday we drove down to Oxford as Bob wanted to see the Ashmolean Museum and I wanted to see Christ Church College, one of Oxford University's 39 independent colleges.  Bob found the museum online and wanted to check it out while I wanted to see CCC because of the Lewis Carroll, Harry Potter, Inspector Morse and other literary/television connections. 

Doubledecker bus ride into Oxford.  We used a park and ride just outside the city centre as most people who have visited here and travel site forums recommend it.  Plus I saw a traffic congestion sign in one of the areas we walked by during our day which means the park and ride is the way to go.  I'm not sure if the traffic congestion tax (some places over here like parts of London that have a lot of vehicle traffic require car drivers to pay an extra tax to drive their cars in their areas) is required here but for the relatively inexpensive cost and convenience of the park and ride it was well worth it. 

 

After we de-bussed the group went to the Ashmolean (link) while I darted down a couple of streets to snap a few pictures that I spied on the Steve's blog and on Tim's blog (thanks for hitting Oxford before us guys).

Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1664.  Wren also designed St. Paul's Cathedral and many other buildings in London.  We didn't stop to look inside, maybe on our next trip to Oxford. 

The Bridge of Sighs in Oxford.  Maybe we will see the Bridge of Sighs in Venice before our UK adventure ends.

 

Bodleian Library on right (square building), Radcliffe Camera in middle (round building), and spire of St. Mary the Virgin on left.  Great building architecture in Oxford, reminded me of Bath but more elegant.

 

The Turf Tavern where President Clinton famously didn't inhale during his Rhodes Scholar days at Oxford. 

 

Or it is also known as a favourite watering hole of the fictional Inspector Morse as Theresa Marsik can attest.   

The Martyrs' Memorial.

 

 

My solo adventuring is over and I finally catch up to the group in the underwhelming Ashmolean.  We don't see a tonne of museums on our travels because we would rather see rare/famous local sights instead of more paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc. so it may not be fair to compare this museum to the impressive ones we have seen recently but Lori and I agreed that it felt lacking.  Bob confirmed our suspicions over lunch as you will read below.

 

"Marble Relief. 

Two pairs of collared slaves are led on ropes by helmeted men, perhaps to fight like the animals below.

From Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey), about AD 200."

"Gods of Rome. Arch of Trajan at Beneventum, AD 114.

Jupiter, bare-chested and bearded, holds out a thunderbolt.  On either side, stand a helmeted Minerva and veiled Juno.  In the background are Hercules, Ceres, Bacchus and Mercury.  The relief was paired with one to its right in which Trajan will receive the thunderbolt: the emperor is Jupiter's viceroy on earth."

 

Athenian grave relief of soldier and family, c. 350 BC.

A hoplite soldier shakes hands with his wife.  Their baby and a dog are under her chair, and a slave girl stands behind her mistress' jewelry box.  The relief represents social norms for citizen men and women in Athenian society, with emphasis on the family.  The handshake represents proper and harmonious relations in the household."

  

Read below.

 

For above.  I snapped this pic because I remember Karl mentioning one day that most pictures of Buddha show him as skinny as opposed to the older rotund seated Buddha image in the Western world.  He learned it in his Philosophy Religion Ethics class when they were studying Buddhism. 

 

Read below.

 

For above.  I don't see many volcanic stone statues so I snapped this pic.

 

Coin trivia for the Numismatists in the audience.

 

There were also some average oil paintings here in a small room so I snapped a couple of pics for posterity.

Read below.

 

 

For above.  Interesting fact if it is true.

 

The women are always the problem...

 

Karl spied this "Cinquedea, early 1500s, Italy, metal and mother of pearl' treasure.  His character in Assassin's Creed has one so that's where recognised it.  He also has spied weapons in Nottingham, Paris and Scotland museums that he uses in his games.  At least he is somewhat interested in the museums I guess. 

 

Dana Johnson Pic - I had penne pasta with butternut squash and blue cheese sauce which was very good.  On the left is salad.  While we were sitting at lunch Bob asked me how much of museum I had seen so I answered about a half.  So had he except he was ready to go.  He also thought the museum was lacking which confirmed mine and Lori's opinion.  Apparently the website is much better than the museum.

 

So after lunch we left the museum without going through the top two floors and retraced my earlier walk past the Sheldonian Theatre, Bridge of Sighs, etc. to show them a little more of Oxford.  Unfortunately Bob and Lona didn't feel like exploring any more of Oxford so we called it an early day and came home.  We'll have to go back to see the other sights so stay tuned for another Oxford post this winter as we explore Christ Church and the other colleges in Oxford. 

 

The healthy blahs continued Sunday so we scrapped our plans and hung around the house.  Karl and I did squeeze in the Skyfall matinee which we both really liked.  Some nice twists in the story line plus we saw a couple of geographical spots we have toured over here which I thought was neat.

  

 

Thanks for listening,

Jay

 

Nottingham to Isle of Skye and Points In-between

Hello Readers,
The kids are on half term break this week so we ventured to a couple places around Derby then up to Scotland with Bob and Lona.  As with my last couple of posts I will not comment much on places we have already visited, instead I will only include a few facts and pictures on this post.  I will also include a link to the previously posted blog entry for any that missed reading about those initial trips.

Our first stop was at the Derby mall for a few items and then onto cold Nottingham on Saturday. 

Spoiler Alert!  Nottingham Castle from the crusader days of good King Richard the Lionhearted and evil King John (he's the reason for the Magna Carta if you remember) days is long gone.

 

Restored Eastern Facade which replicates the 17th Century facade from above.

 

And those were the highlights of Nottingham (knotting-um) Castle.  Inside the castle were a few museums on local artifacts and history, 17th and 18th Century attire, art displays, and the small Sherwood Foresters Regimental Museum.  The local history museum was interesting but no pics allowed so I lumped it in with the sub-par museums out of spite.  On the grounds was a medieval type fayre selling the usual medieval fayre treasures/food/games/crap and there was some boring shirtless guy in a ring performed for the grandstands.  Nothing worth standing in the biting cold wind for though so we walked down to our next stop, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (you can read about our first trip to the pub here). 

Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem.

The inn is to small to get any decent picture inside but I still like the carved-into-a-rock rooms.  This shows the ceiling of one of the larger rooms.

 

From there we dawdled around Nottingham for a bit until it was time to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Nottingham Royal Theatre.  Adding fun to our dawdling was finding out that our people carrier (Brit word for van) fits in parking decks somewhere between 6'-6" tall opening and 6'-9" tall openings.  Fortunately only the radio antennae doesn't fit in a 6-6 parking deck (voice of experience) but I still opted not to chance it and instead decided to drive for an extra half hour looking for taller opening parking decks.  So not only is driving a conversion van (see van pic later in post) fun in towns we also had a height restriction for parking.  And just forget about finding a curb side parking spot when driving a tour bus in a busy town on a Saturday afternoon.  Good times, good times.

 

So after finding a parking garage within reasonable walking distance to the theatre we stopped for a snack then proceeded to the theatre.  The show was entertaining with everyone enjoying the show although I don't remember Vegas Elvis in that part of the bible.  Artistic license I guess.  Even teenager KJ enjoyed it which was great.  Bob and Lona liked it so Derby/Nottingham day ended up being a draw.  I aimed the short bus towards home for the night with a quick McDonald's stop for supper.  I opted not to make after theatre dinner reservations and we didn't feel like waiting an hour plus at any restaurants so fast food won that battle. 

 

Before the performance.  Cosy theatre.  Lori and Kal said it was just a step down from watching Les Mis in London.  Obvious sarcasm for those not lucky enough to enjoy a London show yet (including me but we just received our February Phantom of the Opera tickets so my time is coming).

 

On Sunday we ordered cold rain with gusting winds and teasingy temperatures between luke warm and cold enough and it delivered with gusto!  We started our driving part of the holiday in Liverpool (see our previous trip to Liverpool here) for the day to check out some local architecture and get a Beatles fix.  Our first stop in Liverpool was the Three Graces, the impressive architecture buildings on the Pier Head.  But before we could see them we had to walk into a sheet of stinging rain on the Liverpool docks so we ended up walking right past them and into a coffee shop in front of the Three Graces where we could sip a hot drink and admire the buildings from under cover.  Mildly wimpy I know but at least we could look up to see the buildings from here.   

 

The Port of Liverpool Building.

Royal Liver Building on left, Cunard Building on right.

 

After drinking our coffees and viewing the buildings we puddle jumped back to the van for a quick trip to the Liverpool Cathedral.

If you look closely you can see people walking in front of the cathedral.

 

The Altar.  Hard to walk through here and feel like this cathedral could be your worshipping "home".  Just feels a little more "look at me" than some of the cathedrals we have toured over here which is really saying something. 

 

The cathedra.

 

Looking at The Lady Chapel.

 

Required stained glass window pic.

 

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's iconic red English telephone booth.

 

Yup its still raining out.  On the right is the Beatles Story, the girls next destination.  The guys went to the Maritime Museum.

From the slavery floor.  Read about them below.

 

For above.

 

A James, Duke of York mention again.

Powerful words.

High level view of the cotton supply chain.

 

Onto the maritime part of the museum now.

 

 

Interesting Titanic info board.

 

Our room at the Best Western in Liverpool.  Thus starts our sketchy hotel holiday.  The best part of this place was my new pub glass - another Guinness!  I know it is a duplicate but can I have enough embossed harp glasses?  Probably not.

 

Monday was a travel day.  A long travel day.  Weather only slightly improved to intermittent rain in England but mostly dried up in Scotland.  Our first stop was a couple of Hadrian's Wall sites by the England - Scotland border.  For the non-history buffs here's a Wiki link.  Not only is the wall almost two thousand years old it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site so I figured it would be worth a short detour.

For the non-link readers.

 

Kalle on the wall at Bank's East Turret 52A.

View of the English country side from the wall.

 

 

After soaking in the scenery and looking at the wall we piled into the van and drove down to Birdsowald Roman Fort (English Heritage link) which had a more complete wall section as well as fort and other building foundations.  Once we arrived we opted out of visiting the site and instead perused the gift shop and checked out the wall sections that were near the road.

 

Looking down Hadrian's Wall.

 

KK and KJ in front of the fascinating (to me) roman wall.

 

 

After driving for two and a half hours then exploring a couple of sites it is early afternoon so we hopped back into the tour bus and headed back to the motorway for our final four hour long driving leg of the day.  Add food and gas stops and we will be pushing darkness when we finally arrive in Fort William, Scotland.

 

Driving through the gorgeous lochs (lakes), mountains and clouds in the Highlands of Scotland. 

Sun is setting which gave us some great views through the Loch Lomond, Trossachs, and Glencoe Mountains regions.

 

The Glencoe Mountains and clouds outlined by the orange sun. 

 

Finally at our destination, The Cruachan Hotel in Fort William.  Sadly this view was the best part of the hotel.  The silverware, glasses, cups, and plates were all dirty for breakfast.  And the food was typically British... in Scotland!  Really Scotland?

 

Our family room.  Nice except for the slowly draining shower that required you to shut off the water every few minutes to avoid flooding the bathroom.  And the bed was horrible.  But it did have a hair dryer.

 

Tuesday was spent driving to then touring the Isle of Skye.  Great scenery but poor picture taking weather limited the blog photo opportunities.  Sorry Kathy.

Now I know how Chicken Little felt.  The low hanging fog over the loch outside our hotel was our daily morning companion for the next few days.

 

 

Jim Seppanen Pic - some roads in Scotland felt like driving through the UP.

 

The tour bus.  If it were any bigger I would need a CDL to drive it.

 

Irn-Bru and Haggis potato crisps.  Only in Scotland.  I did eat the chips and the only thing worse tasting on the trip was the Cruachan Hotel breakfast.  But not by much.

Tammy Foster Pic - Sporting my Tech apparel in front of the Skye Bridge as we approach the Isle of Skye.

 

Harbinger for the day - fog resting on the mountain tops as the rain falls on us.

Coastline by Kilt Rock.

Kilt Rock by Staffin.  The rocks on the shore reminded me of Giant's Causeway.  The views here were so good I made the kids brave the rain with Lori to see them in person.  Bob and Lona opted to stay dry in the tour bus.

 

Quiraing mountain region overlooking the coastal village.

 

More Quiraing.

Quiraing close up from pic above.  Beautiful country Kathy, pack Mark in your checked luggage and come on over to see it yourself.

Steve Frey Pic - this grass is lip licking good.  You even get a bonus sheep on this one Steve!

 

Steve Frey Pic - Lori's favourite hairy cows or Highland Cattle to be proper.  He was slowly working his way over to see us so I wasn't sure if he was coming over to say hi or tricking us into complacency before ramming us full on so I drove off after he came this close.

 

Dunvegan Castle (castle link) proudly flying St. Andrew's Cross as nightfall closes in on us.  Dunvegan is the ancestral home of clan MacLeod and also of Kathy MacLeod Elliott.  C'mon Kathy - the Freys have been here, we've been here, isn't it your turn next?

Our room at the Skeabost Hotel.  Check out the CRT (cathode ray tube) TV.  This place seemed to be a converted manor house which had a fun feel to it.

 

After checking in and relaxing we played a couple of games of snooker/pool. 

 

Kevin Coleman Pic - I enjoyed a couple/few McEwan's after the day's rainy drive on the single track roads although I can't complain because the roads had many pull offs for passing and there was usually good visibility ahead unlike English single track roads.

Dana Johnson Pic - we tried Highlands steak but it wasn't anywhere as good as the Inverness steak we had last time.  Oh well.

 

On Wednesday we drove southern Isle of Skye then up to Inverness and then onto Fort William.

Dana Johnson Pic - breakfast.  I love the Muller Waffles on the right.  Scrambled eggs, bacon and potato cake were all okay. 

 

Skeabost Hotel - the picturesque hotel tour continues.

 

 

One the way to our next stop was a short detour back to the Isle of Skye Baking Company.  Lunch the previous day was at this converted warehouse building followed by picking up some isle photography pieces we liked in the art gallery upstairs.  Lunch was okay but we came back the next day to pick up some homemade bread that the rest of the group loved.  Lori also picked up some gluten free flour.     

 

The pointy mountains watching the sun and clouds fight for sky dominance.

 

Tammy Foster Pic - a quaint stone bridge over a bustling little river with the Cuillin Hills for a backdrop.

 

More of the Cuillin Hills.  We had planned on driving down to Glenbrittle to see the Cuillin Hills but after talking to some locals we stopped at Sligachan to view the hills instead.  Long drive for a worse view from our current spot was their advice.  We don't need no stinkin' itinerary!

 

Tammy Foster Pic - final shot of the beautiful Isle of Skye and Skye Bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh.

I didn't plan on taking this pic but it was appropriate as we had to stop at this layby so Bob could clean the dog dropping off of one of his shoes. 

 

Gorgeous view of the Western Ross region as we drove the single track roads from Lochalsh towards Strathcarron.

 

 

And Loch Carron closer to Strathcarron.  Keep twisting Mark's arm Kathy - it'll be worth it.  Plus the boys can each get their own MacLeod tartan patterned kilts.  And don't forget one for Brody.

 

Tis the end of the month so the Triple Crown Facial Hair of the Month has to leave us.  Sadly I might add as Miggy and rest of the Tigers were swept in the World Series.  Double bummer.

We are nearing Inverness now.

I am quite tired of seeing these road maintenance lights by now.  Lots of road work on our six and a half day, almost 1300 mile driving holiday.

 

Next stop was Urquhart Castle (link) on Loch Ness.  Half price admission thanks to our National Trust membership - thanks NT.

 

Grant's Tower overlooking Loch Ness.  We looked but no Nessie sightings today.

 

The girls posing.

 

View of the castle grounds from second level of Grant's Tower.

 

View of Loch Ness looking northeast from Grant's Tower.

 

View of the castle grounds from third level of Grant's Tower. Finally a sunny day for us.

 

More of my favourite info boards.  Concise written descriptions and colour pictures - how can you beat that?

View of castle grounds from other side of grounds.

 

Here's your Word of the Week Auntie "B".

Doocot ruins.

 

Harp from castle history exhibit.  An interesting fact of the British Isles is the mixing of Welsh, Irish and Scottish cultures combined with the common dislike of England.  Younger siblings ganging up on the mean oldest sibling syndrome I guess.  In western Isle of Skye we were chatting with a local and they told us there were stories of German U-boats docking in the outer islands coves and buying fuel from the locals in WWII.  Apparently the island locals hated the English so much that they would sell fuel to the U-boats.  

 

Interesting St. Columba trivia you will never use.

Kevin Coleman Pic - end of the day refreshment as we are back at the dirty dinnerware hotel.  As for Caledonia - nice try but I think you can do better.

 

 

Thursday was another long driving day as we drove five plus hours from Fort William to Lancaster south of the Lake District in England.  Five plus hours is not counting stops so our actual drive time was more like all day.

Ferry flashback as we stopped to show Bob and Lona the Inn at Ardgour across Loch Linnhe.  The Inn was where we stayed on our last trip to Fort William (read about our previous Scotland trip here).

 

 

SNOW!  Snow capped peaks as we approach the awesome Glencoe Mountains.

Picturesque loch and anchored sail boat snapshot.

Snow capped peak close up.  I took it because you can see that the fog level elevation is where the snow is starting to melt on the mountain.

 

More Glencoe Mountains.

 

I loved how the tiny white house on the bottom right is nestled at the base of the mountain.

One of the many waterfalls we saw on the trip.  As you can see from the fog we are in the mountains now.

And this is what it was like driving through the foggy mountain passes.

 

We are out of the mountains and on our way to Glasgow now.  A little to much light here as the view was better than the picture.

 

I loved the elevated fog in this picture.

Scotland's National Dish - Haggis.  Here is the sheep's stomach holding the lamb meat, lamb heart, lamb lung, onion, oatmeal, spices and etc.  Sorry Scotland but I have to pass.

 

We are back in the Trossachs region again.

 

Loch near Inverglus.

 

Steve Frey Pic - more of Lori's favourite hairy cows.  These guys give off Oreo milk I guess.

 

Sounds interesting so we stopped to see "the famous blacksmiths shop".

 

Turns out the "shop" is an old smiths shop that is now a wedding chapel that requires admission to see the "famous" wedding anvil.  Lame.  So we took the free pic, checked out the merchandise stores, and moved on.

 

 

At least it stopped raining.  And the clouds were still cool as we headed towards Lancaster.

 

Dinner was at a decent Italian place with the highlight being Kalle's build your own pizza.  Literally.  Here she is making her stuffed crust.

 

Ready for the oven.  The waitress complimented her stuffed crust, the first one she has seen made.  Way to go Kal!

 

Finito!

 

On Friday we woke up to hail.  Bob picked up a bug or something in the previous couple of days so we decided to cut the vacation short.  We had planned on driving the Lake District Friday and North Wales on Saturday but with Bob being ill we went home instead.  In hindsight it may have been a good decision as there was a six car accident in the northbound lanes and a ten car accident in the southbound lanes on the motorway between Lancaster and the Lake District so we would have been driving right into the weather that caused the accidents.  Plus the roads in the mountains probably would not have been fun driving as the hail was still pounding down as we headed south.  After six and a half days and almost 1300 miles in the tour bus I think we were all ready for a little more space so going home early wasn't all bad.

Probably a bad omen for a Lake District drive.  Thanks for being sick Bob.

 

November rolled over on the calendar which means Lori's favourite blog feature - the Facial Hair of the Month.  After the Triple Crown ended I figured why not trim it a tad and keep it going?  Viola - we have the Billy Goat Beard.  Lori is so excited she is speechless.  Oh wait, that may not be excitement...

 

The Billy Goat Beard has a decent start already - Lori is so excited!  I think.

 

On Sunday we capped the week with a trip to Tutbury Castle for Bonfire Night.  We went with the Lhereaus last year (read that blog link) after the Freys ditched both us and Ed/Becky so we guilted Steve into attending this year.  We arrived around 5 PM which meant very few picture opportunities due to the darkness.  The format was a little different this year which I didn't like as much as last year's show.  This year the Vikings fought "with honor" (no killing) in one on one combat until one of the combatants gave up which was a little better than last year's mass melee except for the one on three battle where the single combatant was victorious.  The part that wasn't as entertaining as last year was when the Vikings brought Ragnor (sp?) the Black's body up to the funeral pyre boat.  Last year the whole Viking village walked the dead king up to be flamed into eternity and the queen's heart wrenching and eerily realistic wailing felt a little to realistic.  This year they just marched him up and turned on the BBQ.  A little anti-climactic but okay overall.  The fireworks were pretty good though so the night was short and fun.  Slacker Steve doesn't have this week's blog up yet but you can eventually read his take on Tutbury at www.ukfrey.blogspot.com.  

 

The funeral pyre boat and the last sliver of daylight.

Tutbury Castle info board.

 

The bundled up group.  Now Lona is not feeling well so she stayed home.

 

Token fireworks shot.

 

 

A final update - the Carol Seppanen Book Update.  I have given up on Ulysses by James Joyce, 657 pages.  Not sure if I'm not Irish enough or not smart enough or not artsy enough but this book is just a bunch of confusing nonsense.  It is quite rare for me to just give up on a book but this is pure rubbish.  It is so confusing I can't read more than three or four pages at a time without quitting in frustration.  So I am taking a break from reading and am playing Dragon Quest VI on DS to occupy my spare time for a while. 

  

 

Thanks for listening,

Jay