The Lake District (and War - but not there)

We just got back from a GORGEOUS weekend in the Lake District. But it feels really stupid to write about how beautiful it was and how great our trip was when Israel has gone to hell. I will still supidly blog about my trip, because the information could be useful, and I want to remember, but I have to say first that it is truly unbelievable what has happened in Israel. How all of these people can get across the border and into all of these cities, towns and kibbutzim is truly unbelievable. There is always so much security everywhere. How could all of these places not keep them out or defeat them? How did it take the army so many hours to get to some of these places? Israel is always the STRONGEST. You can't get in anywhere - everywhere is protected. I don't get it. And to think about all of the moms who have lost children - these terrorists took CHILDREN from their mothers and from their homes and kidnapped them. Where are they? How do you keep babies alive without love and care? Why? There are at least 150 hostages in Gaza. That is so many families who are missing people they love. It's mindblowing and so sad. And now thousands of people called up to fight. My neighbor said 300,000 - I don't know the number, but all of these people now leaving their families to fight. Ugh. So it's not that this didn't exist on our weekend. Any time Matt and I were away from the kids we shared info we had seen and just how awful it had been. We talked about it with the kids too - but not the gory details. Just awful. And who knows what's next.

And on to our weekend...

Friday there was meant to be a tube strike, and we were going to walk to the train. LUCKILY it was cancelled! So at 4:30, after the kids were home from school, we finished packing up and took the Northern Line to Euston. We waited outside until ten minutes before the train left and the platform number came up. We went through and onto our assigned seats. We said the kids could use their ipads after about an hour and a half, so they would look out the window and not be zombies. We went north, towards Scotland. It was beautiful. And then it was dark. 

At some point, I looked and saw that our connecting train in the Lake District was cancelled. We got off at Oxenholme, our stop, and indeed there were no trains to Windermere. There was a bus in another 1.5 hours, but then we still had to get a taxi to our final destination of Ambleside, so we decided to take a taxi all the way. We called a taxi company listed, and he said he doesn't do five passengers. Call this other guy. Other guy didn't answer his phone. Someone waiting for a taxi said to call a specific company in Kendal. Bingo. Giash saved the day. (Moved to the UK from Bangladesh when he was 12 - one of a very few Bangladeshi people in Kendal). He drove us to Ambleside (54 GBP including tip - not cheap, but it could have been worse). In the rain. In the dark. But we were sure it would be beautiful if we could see it. Checking into the hotel was similar - couldn't tell what anything was, but we were fairly certain it would be great if we could see it. We stayed at the Waterhead Inn (totally fine - would go again, though some of the B&Bs in the small towns looked SUPER cute). This is the red star on the map below. 

We woke in the morning and had breakfast in the hotel. Koby said it was the best breakfast he has ever had. He LOVED it - especially the scrambled eggs, fried eggs and canadian style bacon (shhh don't tell god). We hopped on a bus (2 GBP each to go as far as you want) towards Grasmere, the next town up. We got off around the blue star on the map below and walked around the SUPER cute town. We got some world famous Grasmere Gingerbread. It was indeed delicious and smelled amazing. Then we walked through some beautiful paths to a hike (the blue line on the map), the Rydal Water and Cave Circular. It was about 3.2 miles - but including the walk there and back and the walk home, we walked 9 miles that day. Not insignificant for small legs. Anyways - the hike started off as FLOODED. We took a long detour through some super wet boggy fields. I was the only one with proper hiking boots. Everyone's shoes were completely soaked. They moved on. We hiked up to this interesting cave, beautiful views, then down to the lake and back. On the way back, we decided to walk through the flooded area since everyone got super wet going around anyway. Matt and Sam walked through. The boys and I took off our shoes and socks and walked through. There was a coffee truck right there, so kids got hot chocolate. It was really beautiful, but truly everyone around us had hiking boots, and sneakers weren't cutting it. We walked back to Grasmere and ate at the Grasmere Brewery and Distillery. Food was amazing. We sat right by the fire. We were all happy, and I tried 3 half pints and got quite wasted, which was funny, since I think it was my first time being pretty drunk with my kids (they didn't know - I don't believe they read my blog...but I guess I'll find out). We walked more and took the bus back to Ambleside, to the super cute downtowny area there. We ended up getting cheap (but they seem good!) hiking boots for the kids and a few other things at a super reasonable outdoors store, and we walked back to our hotel. Dinner at the hotel was great. 

Gingerbread!

Peter Rabbit toy shop. Could not have been cuter.

On the super wet hike to Rydal Cave

Elie loved how this waterfall fell over the roots

Elie, his beautiful scenery and his brother

Every time I turned around, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was

The cave!

So much was covered with moss - this tree had so many colors.

hot chocolate after going through the flood

walking back to grasmere

they looked like spies

Elie really wanted his photo taken with this dude

just look down an alley, and it's gorgeous!

a boat on Windermere named MELANIE!

The next morning we had the killer breakfast again and took the bus to Grasmere again. We took the pink line hike up a BEAUTIFUL mountain to this amazing lake (called a Tarn?), Easedale Tarn Round. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. Kids loved their boots and their feet stayed dry. Eight miles of walking that day. Elie and Koby were planning the rest of our holidays for the rest of the year - mostly focused on hiking. :) We think we will spend April break in England and Wales...It was lovely. We had a very late lunch at the end at a cafe in town - I tried a Coronation Chicken Sandwich and an onion and cheese pasty. Yum. We also tried some sticky toffee pudding thing that was delicious. The kids had multiple meals each. It felt ridiculous, but they were so hungry, and it's better than the crap snacks we have. I think they may have outgrown the children's menus...Here we split, and the boys and I took a bus back near our hotel and went for a loop hike behind our hotel up to a beautiful view of Windermere - the big lake in my map above. It included climbing over walls, beautiful gardens, sharing a walk with sheep and a LOT of stinging nettles, but we had long pants (trousers) and shirts on, so we were cool. Matt and Sam went back to the Brewery from the day before to get Sam a grilled cheese and chips, and then they went to Ambleside and walked home again. We had dinner at the hotel again and slept.

Sam liked the name of the book shop. Sam Read

On the walk to the hike

The houses were just so so beautiful

that's WATER falling down the mountain!

Elie needed a break. Sam always needed a break.

The tarn at the top of the hike

Sam was cold and chilled with Matt. The boys went on a longer walk to try to go around the lake. I made them come back. But they found that cool animal (sheep?) jaw.

See koby?

We had to walk across this riverish thing to take the other way down.

The way down was so so gorgeous

Multiple waterfalls on the way

All the world is a very narrow bridge. The important thing is to not be afraid.

The walk back to Grasmere

the prickly and singing walk above the lake

Elie said "it's a dead end hike" but then we saw these steps in the wall

what a view

Koby took this pic

this was slippery!

This tree is ON this huge rock

This was our hotel

Today we woke early, finished packing, ate a quick killer breakfast and caught the bus to Windermere. We took a train to Oxenholme and there we got a train to London. It was so so easy to get around - we had feared it would be hard without a car. If we wanted to go to some out of the way places, maybe, but since we were there for 2 days, and there were plenty of hikes that were rated 4.8 etc stars on AllTrails, we needed nothing else. 

The boys, Matt and I all LOVED the entire weekend. We LOVED the hiking, the food, the people, the hotel - all of it. Sam said they hate hiking and since I make them hike, it has also ruined their relationship with the outdoors. It was the worst three days of Sam's life (other than when our cat and dog died). Sorry, Sam.