Lake District!

This is Jessie again. I have emerged from essay land to bring you this update on our adventures. I finished and turned in one essay, but have two more that I'm currently putting off. But they say your mind works better if it gets frequent breaks, right?

Anyway, where do I even begin to describe the awesome weekend Jacob and I just had?

For those of you who may not have seen Jacob's Facebook posts, we spent the Valentine's day weekend in the Lake District of England. This is an area famous for its beauty and for being the home and source of inspiration for many authors and poets including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter (who wrote Peter Rabbit). And it really was as beautiful as it reputation suggests.

Sunrise over Lake Grasmere

We started off our adventure at Glasgow Central Station where we caught the first train that Jacob had ever ridden. He was very excited.

It was then a two hour train ride to Oxenholm in England where we switched into a much smaller train to take us to the lake town of Windermere. Our final destination was Grasmere (where William Wordsworth lived), but we needed to take a bus to get there and we got into Windermere after the Buses had already stopped running. This wasn't a problem for us however, because we just got a one-night stay at a backpacker's hostel there.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because little did we know that Windermere is home to the largest lake in England called, believe it or not, Lake Windermere. They give cruises of this lake year-round. So Jacob and I got a "freedom of the lake" pass and went on two different cruises, and wandered around two other wee lake towns on either end of the lake. There was also a lake aquarium on one end of the lake that we went to see. It was pretty cool.

Ants carrying food to their colony

Baby alligator

Starfish really loves you!

and the majestic seahorse.

Jacob ambling in Ambleside

The day was overcast and rainy, but we still got some really nice views of the wildlife and the landscape from the lake.

The Queen's swan (because all swans in England belong to the Queen)

After a beautiful and full day on the lake, Jacob and I caught a bus to Grasmere where we would be spending the rest of the weekend. When we got there, it was dark and pouring rain. The bus let us off in the town, but our hostel was about 30 minutes out of the town, so we started walking. We realized that we could have taken the bus for longer when it passed us coming the other way about 10 minutes later, but we just noted that for the future and kept trudging. We had not eaten, but we also wanted to get to the hostel while the reception desk was still open so we could check in. When we did check in, the kind man behind the counter loaned us a flashlight (or torch as they call it here) and then offered to drive us down to the pub since he and his wife were headed there themselves. The food was a little more expensive than we would have liked, but we were very hungry, tired, and wet, so we ate there anyway. We decided it would just be a fancy Valentine's day dinner a day early. We had planned to watch a movie before going to bed back at the hostel, but the rain had caused the power to go out, so we just went to bed instead.

The next day the power was back, the sun had risen, the clouds had cleared, and it was a beautiful day. We decided to go visit Dove Cottage, the home where Wordsworth and his family lived during his most creative period. On the way to the cottage, we stumbled upon a little daffodil garden and Wordsworth's grave. It was too early for the flowers to be blooming yet, but it was cool to see where he and his family were buried.

Dove Cottage (taken from the top of Wordsworth's garden (not the daffodil one))

We finished the day with a walk along the river Rothay and a walk back to the hostel in the daylight.

The next day we were checking out and needed to be out of our room by 10. We still wanted to do some hiking in the beautiful hills surrounding the town, so we decided to wake up before dawn and try to reach a summit to watch the sunrise. We had a hike planned, but the entrance to the path was extremely hard to find in the dark and unfamiliar place, even with a torch. We found a path eventually, but we don't know if it was the one we had planned to take. We got about as high as we could before sunrise, but we were still surrounded by higher peaks, which was kind of a bummer. But I am still very glad that we decided to go out so early because the lake, the forest, and the mountains were absolutely beautiful in the soft predawn light. While the sunrise from the summit of our walk wasn't too spectacular the sun rising over the lake was.

Predawn light on Lake Grasmere

The path just before the sun rose. Jacob thought we were in Hyrule.
(if you don't know what that means, that's okay neither do I)

From the top of our little hill

A wee waterfall

The sun just peaking over the mountaintops

We took one bus (which we almost missed because we were paying too much attention to these giant worms at the bus stop and not watching for the bus), two trains, and a subway to get back home to our flat in Glasgow. The Lake Distract was beautiful and I can't imagine a better place to spend a romantic Valentine's day weekend with my husband, but as always, it's good to be home.

Much love to you all,
Jessie and Jacob