Saturday Morning

Friday's weather forecast was for rain at some point, but we decided we were going to hike the Catbells no matter what, so off we went.  The first part of our trip was a boat ride across Lake Derwentwater to Hawks End where we would pick up the trail.  A bit of scrambling up, but a nice hike to the top.  Beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and the lake.  And, of course, sheep below and along our trail.  The higher we climbed the cooler it became - and windy.  Our return hike to the bottom was along the ridge line which was pretty cool.  The people in town can see people who look like stick figures in the distance along the hill top.  Laverne and I were hoping to see some wildflowers, but because of their rainy, cool, April things are a little behind.  So nothing but grass. 

After our ride back across the lake to Kessick we headed to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then the guys headed to the Pencil Museum (see below) and Laverne and I ducked in and out of shops in Kessick.

The big new in the UK today is that the Olympic torch has begun its run to London.

The Pencil tour was like the chocolate tour in Hershey PA, all fake, no actual factory.  In fact even though the first pencil was made here, the factory has been moved to the coast--the factory is now an empty building.  One interesting item in the tour was a video on their efforts to create a commemorative pencil set that included a special pencil created for their fly boys in WWII that was so secret that they had no instructions on how to make them and all those who had worked on the pencil had died. The pencil looked like any other one, but was hollowed out to include room for a map and compass so if they were shot down, they could find their way out.  very interesting.

lots of sales on outdoor equipment here, there must be at least 10 clothing stores catering to that area. Looking for a coat since mine has holes.  no idea what caused them, but looks like battery acid.

Jim and Von