Leaving Warrington, we had an extra traveller with us, albeit just for a few hours. Another friend of Tamara's came with us to Southport and Blackpool.
Southport was our first stop. It's a seaside town, with what is actually quite a nice high street. We parked without looking around properly first (mistake), grabbed some breakfast and wandered towards the beach. Turns out, the beach was quite a way away. We walked down a street, across a beach, through a carpark, past Pleasureland (mini golf and stuff, not as raunchy as it sounds), and along another street. Jackpot - the beach. Well, sand anyway! The water itself was a looooooong way out, which made the presence of a lifeguard in his hut quite funny.
We left Southport and went to Blackpool. Blackpool is like a show on drugs. It's freaky and trashy and just plain bizarre. I'm sure in the 1970s it was a great place to take your kids for their seaside Summer holiday, but now it's just... wrong. They were starting to set up for the Illuminations, but that just added to its overall crackwhore image. Can't say I was sorry to leave! The highlight of the visit was going on the old wooden tram down the esplanade, and buying some Blackpool rock candy, which I'm yet to sample.
We left Blackpool, and our third adventurer, and headed to my happy place - the Lake District. I swear I felt more relaxed as soon as I turned off the M6! We didn't have any accommodation booked, but I told Tamara about where I'd stayed last time, and suggested we try there. Turns out we not only got a room, the people who own it remembered me from my last trip. Great service!
We drove up to Penrith, stopping along the way for many photos. We had dinner up there, and then headed back. The next day we went in search of Hill Top Farm, favoured place of Beatrix Potter. I didn't realise that the farm they use as Hill Top in the movie 'Miss Potter' is not the actual Hill Top, but another farm that she owned. The actual Hill Top is very small and dark - not at all as I'd imagined it. I loved looking at some of the illustrations in her stories and seeing exactly where they came from.
After Hill Top Farm we went to Keswick, as Tamara wanted to go to the pencil museum. Yes, the same pencil museum that I have mocked relentlessly since my first trip up there. We actually went in there, and it was exactly as expected. A waste of time. Funny how we went into something like that, but not something like Shakespeare's birthplace...
From there we drove around the area, before heading back to Ambleside for dinner and sleep.
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