A Day in The Lakes

Windermere from the grounds of Wray Castle

On Sunday we decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and took a day trip to the Lake District. We are very lucky to only live about two hours away from the bottom of the Lake District, so as long as you don't mind a long round trip, a day trip is perfectly feasible. We didn't manage to get away as early in the day as we would have liked, but we still managed to have a lovely afternoon and evening in the lakes. We stopped at a motorway services for a picnic lunch on the way up and then went straight to Wray Castle when we got to the Lakes. Unfortunately, we were just too late to go into the Castle this time, but the grounds are open until dusk so we had plenty of time to explore those. Wray Castle sits on the shore of Windermere and the girls had a lot of fun playing (fully clothed and shod!) in the lake. Until, that is, they realised that they would have to walk back to the car dripping wet! Tom had more sense and decided the water was far to cold to even paddle in!

Lily and Emma cheered again up after they were dried off and put into dry clothes. They then spent a happy hour playing in the wooded play area. We finished the trip off with a picnic at Coniston Water and had the thrill of being there late enough to see the bats coming out and flying around. I had to stop the Podlings throwing stones in the lake as the bats seemed to think they were insects and kept changing direction to try and catch them. I was worried they would get hurt if they actually caught one!

We got home at half past midnight with three out of four children (and me!) fast asleep in the car and Tom chatting merrily away to Mark in the front seat! The Podlings obliged us by sleeping in until 10.30 am the next morning, although this was slightly offset for me by Alexander's night feed! I was still grateful for the Bank Holiday lie-in though!

My favourite little people

It was Alexander's first trip to the Lake District

Wet in Windermere!

Emma starts to realise that she is cold

Suddenly playing fully clothed in the lake seems like less fun!

The Podlings had lots of fun in the adventure playground in the grounds of Wray Castle

The first photo we have managed to get of all six of us! Taken rather late in the evening on the shores of Coniston Water.

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