Lake District vacation

The school year is different in Scotland than in Canada and here the kids get a week off during mid February. This year our family travelled by train to the Lake District in NW England for a long 4-day weekend. It is a really beautiful area that reminded us a lot of Canmore and the interior of British Columbia. What is pleasantly not like home is that even in February we enjoyed warm spring weather that you would have to wait for until May in Canada's Rocky Mountains.

We spent a night in Ambleside at a beautiful hostel on the northern shore of Lake Windemere and 2 nights at a hostel overlooking a stream in Keswick a little further north. On the Sunday we hiked a 9-mile circular loop from Keswick around Derwentwater Lake which was amazing!

This was a really beautiful area distinct from others we had already visited in the UK ... it fills up in the summer time as people from southern England travel north to this vacation area. Before returning we went to the Cumberland Pencil Museum (which most likely sounds boring like seeing a giant ball of string) ... surprisingly we really enjoyed it and picked up some supplies for arts and drawing.