VISITING THE LAKE COUNTRY

Thursday, February 27th, 1997 Windermere, England

After Randy, Patti, Jim and Barbara returned from breakfast at French Bolagerie; we loaded up the luggage and left the hotel. No sign of the clerk or the owners…guess that’s why we paid the bill when we checked in! Mr. Owner did showed his face just as we were leaving at about 9:30 am.

After several attempts to find the way out of town... and a stop for gasoline (and the hair dresser’s for directions); we found the correct way out of town by 10:30 am and we were on our way to Windermere by the back country roads.

We drove through very picturesque areas, part of which is the Yorkshire Dell’s National Park. Arriving in Windermere we checked out several different hotels but couldn’t decide where to stay. Everyone was trying to please everyone else; we all were in need of a good night’s sleep; and quite frankly we were all in a very testy mood! We stopped for lunch (which was really past the lunch time) and finally found a nice little tea shop upstairs which would serve us lunch.

We enjoyed our lunch and then proceeded on to the quest for a hotel room. Ended up at the Cedar Manor, a B&B, which was marvelous. Wendy, the day clerk, checked us in and then we went over to the Tourist Station to get some information. I brought fudge; which Randy and I really enjoyed the next day. Over to the grocery store to buy some water and things. The checkout girls all were seated at their registers. Very unusual. There were also chairs in the front of the store for customers who didn’t have to shop; like myself; to enjoy.

Randy checked out the Goat Tour and found out that there were no goats on the tour. The owners liked the name and used it for the name of their company. It was a several hours bus tour in the local mountains for the views. Patti decided “no goats, no tour”. Back to the hotel where we informed the owner that we did want to enjoy dinner with them. Lovely rooms. I tried AOL…got in but got cut off in transmission. Barbara and I took the books and worked until a hotel was selected and confirmed for our next stop in Chester. We told them two nights. This should hopefully take some of the pressure off tomorrow.

We met in the lounge for drinks before dinner and to place our order. The dinner was wonderful and very elegant. Martin, the owner, was a very gracious host and spent time answering all our questions about the history of the home. We started dinner at 8:30 and finished at ten o'clock after which we retired to the drawing room for coffee. Patti told us that she’s missing her pearl earrings. She thinks they may have been left at the Young’s Hotel. She’s going to call tomorrow morning.

I got into America On Line and we sent and received several messages including one to Barbara’s son Brian. We updated Pointcast for stock information. We were on line for 22 minutes. It was £10.00; but worth it! We’re dialing a London telephone number and then connected to USA through AOL’s Globalnet Service which will cost $9.00 per hour. About midnight, Jim & I decided to call it a night and discovered no sheets. A call to Martin and we discovered they use the Germanic style and the coverlet is also the sheet and is washed daily. Everyone got a good night's sleep! (Yes...this was our first experience of many with the duvet!)