Visiting Our Cousins in the Lake District

Last week J's parents were in town, so we planned a trip up north to the Lake District. Cousins of J's recently bought a bed & breakfast, Ravenstone Manor, so they invited the family up for a visit. To get there, we took a 3 hr. train ride from London and then rented a car. Or more accurately, a van. Driving on the other side of the road is intimidating enough, but add to that small, one-lane country roads, lined with stone walls and a large van and the combination is not a pretty one. Not all of them survived unscathed. But I digress.

The train ride was enjoyable and we were amazed at how beautiful everything was up in the Lake District. The cousin's B&B was actually more like a small hotel with a restaurant, bar, game room and lounge. Our room had gorgeous views of the fields, hills and lake.

Before dinner we had tea & biscuits, played some games and worked on a puzzle.

After dinner the kids and I explored the hills behind the house and found an awesome tree house and tire swing.

After playing a bit we met up with J's parents and went out for a short walk in the sheep meadow.

Since it was getting late we decided not to walk all the way down to the lake...we figured that we'd just do that another day. Little did we know that was the last bit of nice weather we would encounter for the rest of our trip. For the next three days it rained non-stop. It didn't drizzle. It poured. It rained sideways. We scoured the tourist sights to find indoor activities. There weren't many.

One day we drove to the World of Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter lived in the Lake District and wrote most of her stories from her home there.

It was a darling museum but unfortunately the instructions for the exhibit were "do not touch". I sort of take issue with a kids museum that tell kids not to touch.

The next day we visited the Pencil Museum in Keswick which we all really enjoyed. It was a small place but really interesting. There was a scavenger hunt which C and Grandpa took very seriously (and were rewarded with two color pencils for their hard work).

Throughout the museum there were displays of paper and pencils encouraging you to draw. This aspect I just loved.

Here is Grandpa's drawing of C.

On the last night, the cousins planned a special dinner for us to celebrate J's parents 55th Wedding Anniversary and C's 4th Birthday.

C even got her own cake!!!

C told me that she 'loved' meeting her new cousins. The cousins were so sweet to her...not only did they throw her a party but one morning they even let her help bus tables from breakfast service (C was so pleased with herself). They were sweet to K as well, but it's hard to manage a 2.5 year old inside a B&B for 3 days. In retrospect, we should have brought more rain gear so that we could get outside and play regardless of the weather.

Our trip home was an adventurous one to say the least. The road we needed to take was closed because of floods; the river banks had given way. Luckily the van was high enough off the road to power through.

Then our train was cancelled due to the floods so we just hopped on the first one heading in the direction we wanted to go. J's dad was a rockstar when it came to figuring out alternative routes for us. In the end, we managed to make it home about the same time as we initially intended. The news reports from the area called this the "worst rains in 100 years". We'd love to go back one day... if only we could guarantee some sunshine!

Click Here to view more pictures of our trip to the Lake District and Ravenstone Manor.