Travelodge Barrow in Furness Barrow-in-Furness

... albeit a spouse) and very happily printed out FOC (free of charge) tickets for us, on seeing our BR passes.

We boarded a small ferry called Tern and sat downstairs. It was just too chilly on deck. My car thermometer had been reading 6C on the way over. The ferry happily chugged its way across the lake, taking half an hour to get to Bowness-on-Windermere. We peered at the passing banks through ...

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... boggy slopes, crossed a stream by hopping from rock to stone and staggered gratefully back to the sanctuary of the cottage. Donny, in particular had done remarkably well, being only nine. The walk had taken eight hours and was probably less than eight miles long as the crow flies or even as the wolf runs, for that matter. It had been rather up and down though. We'd ascended and descended over 1000 feet, if you add up all the highs and lows.

... and behold, it had materialised under a rock. We let ourselves in and dragged our sleeping bags out of the car. It's a nice hut, as mountaineering huts go. There are hot showers and a lounge. The kitchen is a decent size and there are three bedrooms full of bunks to choose from, which allows a certain amount of privacy. We were nearly asleep by the time the rest of the party made their way back from the pub.

... Although it usually involves... yeah, no, I guess I won't go there in a family blog.

So that was what fresher's week included Bar crawls, Club nights, weird outfits, and oh yeah a few classes of orientations.

On Monday, classes started and this is where my blog gets boring. I am taking an Microbiology sequence (for those of you at state it is equivalent to MMG 301), and Physics (Equivalent to the 200 level intros officially, but calc based like ...

Once we had left Blackpool we made our way to Windermere in the Lake District.

Windermere is the home of Beatrix Potter and is one of the most scenic places I have ever seen. The place is surrounded by grassy peaks giving way to heavily vegetated slate quarries and lush walking trails. There are huge ridges interspersed with glassy lakes.

We spent a few days here ...

... to get a couple of rooms at a Bed n Breakfast down the road called "Sarah and Ronnie's". Sarah and Ronnie were VERY talkative!!

Anyway, once we had dumped our luggage in our rooms we took a walk out to the main drag which is right on the edge of the ocean. It was freezing cold, blowing a gale and the sea spray was covering us all with a fine misty layer of salt. I LOVED IT!

The whole main drag had thousands and thousands of coloured ...

You can't visit the Lake District and not hike to the top of a mountain, and being the sheep we are, we decided to go visit the Conniston Old Man. One of the more popular mountains to hike, it has a decent sized path all the way to the top, and isn't particularly hard either. At least, that is, if you researched it before hand and not just turn up and decide on a random path. Yup, we went the back way, and saw barely another soul the entire way up ...

... the stores, we decided to go for a drive, and hit Kirkstone Road, also known as "The Struggle". The road is a narrow, windy and pretty steep affair, seen on various Driving shows on TV. You won't get past 2nd gear (for our American friends who don't use gears, don't worry). It took us ages to reach the top (Kirkstone Inn) because we were having so much fun breaking the car and stopping for photos the ...

... in the Lake District, so was basically comprised of hiking stores, pubs and take aways. Not quite the quaint scene I had pictured in my mind, but saying that it was a very scenic place, full of stone buildings and gentle streams. The kind of place I'd like to live but never admit it.

And so, that was day 1. A 500 mile drive, dodgy food and a beautiful campsite on the banks of a stunning lake. Pretty ideal really.