Yorkshire

We spent a long weekend with our friends the Yarkers up in Yorkshire at the end of August before school started again. Kathy and Andy scored us a family room at the Mess at Catterick for free which was just 10 minutes down the road from Andy's parents' place in Bedale. 

We spent the first day splitting up girls and boys for different adventures.  Kathy, Laura and Claire went on a short hike to see a waterfall and then took a tour of the Wensleydale Creamery.

 Meanwhile, Andy, Tyler and the boys embarked on a 6 mile round trip hike up to the third highest hill in the dales.  

It started out as a sunny day and the valleys were a beautiful green rolling panorama of stone huts, meandering sheep, and low rock walls dividing the fields. The boys complained for a little while and then finally resigned themselves to the long trek up.  

We wound our way up along the edge of a wide valley to the top of a windy hill.  We had a chilly picnic eating pork pies enjoying the desolate view of tan grassy undulating hills and valleys. 

We all met up mid afternoon at the Wesleydale Creamery and sampled some delightful cheeses before ending up at a local place for ice cream.  This picture was taken moments before Callum dropped his scoop of ice cream on the ground and Milo inhaled it within 2 seconds.  

The next day we took a rainy tour of Richmond Castle just a few minutes down the road.  We found a little ukulele in a charity shop and bought it for Callum since he was going to start in the ukulele club at school that term.  Afterwards, we met Andy's family at the local golf club for a Sunday roast.  We had a great time meal and retired to Andy's parent's place for a visit.  

The next day we departed the mess and made our way into York.  We had several big places to see on our list to include the Jorvik Center which detailed the city's Viking heritage from over a l,000 years ago and the York Minster Cathedral.  

 The Jorvik Center was a great museum that really transported us back in time with the sights, smells and tactile senses of that era.

We took Rick Steve's walking tour of the city and learned many interesting things about the city including the fact that the Roman Emperor Constantine was in York when he learned that his father died and he had become in line to be emperor. 

We found a gem of a tea house and had a wonderful lunch overlooking the spires of York's Cathedral. 

Laura toured a nearby National Trust house across the street and we then explored the old Roman walls.  We finished with a meal of fish and chips before driving the three hours home.