I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day and being on the coast before making the drive back to North Yorkshire, but my specialty isn't planning things like K.J.'s is...it's making it up as I go along, which sometimes results in a few false starts, as it did on this day. We began with a meandering walk back to the car park where we'd left our car after seeing K.J. and the other cyclists off on their journey.
The start of the bike trail was a lot further away than K.J. had thought, so it took us longer than expected to get back to the car, by which time we had received a parking ticket. I was upset about it, but James was so bothered by our criminal activity I had to calm down and reassure him that all was well, it was only a parking ticket. Then came the task of deciding where to go next. I was traveling without cash, which is always a mistake in England, and perhaps anywhere you have to pay for parking. After spending a lot of time trying to get the pay-by-phone option to work in the small village car park we were in, we decided to look for the nearest McDonald's instead. I didn't want to risk a second parking ticket that day.
Even McDonald's was an adventure. The parking lot was so small and crowded that after circling it twice I finally followed the lead of a few other cars and just parked on the side of the entrance road. I spent most of lunch trying to pick out a good coastal town to visit and finally decided upon something K.J. never would have, because it was a little out of the way.
North Yorkshire is northeast of here, but we took a little detour through the south side of the Lake District. As a beach trip, we were unsuccessful. We ended up at a beach with signs warning of quicksand, which can be dangerous on this coastline, so we basically waved to Morecambe Bay and hightailed it to the park and a really lovely walking trail.
Adventuring is sometimes a bit of a bust. We had a mantra whenever we went out in North Yorkshire: "What do we need for an adventure?" The answers usually included happy hearts, grateful hearts, and the right shoes. I should add pocket change to this list.
We didn't have the beach day we were after, but we did discover the most amazing trees on our walk to the town in search of refreshment. We walked because there was no way we were leaving the parking space we were able to pay for by card.
It really was such a gorgeous day. You could feed the ducks, and the grass was a carpet of daisies. We found a cafe and cold drinks, Millionaire Shortbread for the kids and a quiche for me.
There were a couple of trees in England that had colored leaves in the spring, and I thought they were such a beautiful contrast to all the new greens.
The journey home from here should have been straightforward, but of course it wasn't with me in the driver's seat. I missed a turn, and so instead of skirting the Yorkshire Dales National Park we went right through it in all its winding glory. It was a glorious evening all around, but we were in the middle of nowhere, and at one point on a narrow track that was barely a road, up and down hills, making the kids carsick. Everyone was tired and hungry, but on the bright side, we also stumbled on the remains of a castle connected with King Arthur. Getting lost in England has its advantages.
Where are we?
It wasn't a perfectly planned adventure, but I loved it anyway. As you can see, even getting lost, I kept stopping to take pictures because it was a beautiful detour. I think we all ate chips for dinner and went soundly to our slumber when we arrived home.
No comments:
Post a Comment