Dry day, wet day

Me and Tiger Tom at Malham Tarn

So this weekend was our first weekend to ourselves since we've been here (although originally we were supposed to meet with some friends on Saturday) - we've been really lucky having so many visitors during our settling in time.

We took the opportunity to start house hunting so made some appointments and headed to Ingleton for the morning.  Both houses were good - the first one had the best and biggest kitchen and the second had the best garden and plenty of character - but the smallest kitchen in the world.  We have 2 more to see and then I guess we will need to make a decision.  One thing of note though, both sets of owners were the loveliest people.  The first owner was late but his brother (old next door neighbour) looked after us with drinks and biscuits.  The second set were oaps who had travelled the world including Japan - ended up there for an hour - mostly chatting about travel etc rather than talking about the house.

Tom in Malham

We had lunch at Neptis - the whole village was there - it was Wild West Weekend so lots of cowboys and cow girls around and face painting, craft activities etc.  The owner / manager of the cafe - Rachel seems to know everyone in the village - but on talking to her today it turns out that she is one of 14 grandchildren, in fact the first house we looked at today belongs to one of her cousins.  It is a nice place to go though, a lovely atmosphere and Tom is known by name there.

Tom on a silly Reggie!

We walked back to the car - stopping to watch some line dancing and look at some horses on the way and then drove to Malham Tarn.  We had heard that the walk around the Tarn was easy and flat so thought we would go there with Tom.  It didn't start very well because it was windy so Tom cried, but luckily kicking a football seemed to help him get over it and he walked (well kicked) really well without any more protest.  He was so good that we treated him to tea and a bun in Malham afterwards.  Can't wait for him to have a bit more stamina so we can do proper walks with him.  Came home via Country Harvest where Matt bought some very tasty lamb pinwheels for dinner.

Tom and a Bear

Sunday was a revolting day - windy, cloudy and very very very rainy.  It was definitely an indoor day. We had a look on various websites and decided to do the Lakeside and Haverthwaite and Lakeside Railway with a side trip to the aquarium.  It was a good choice as the rain didn't stop the whole day - so much so that we couldn't see a thing out the windows of the train.  Oh hum - I'm sure it is beautiful on a good day.  First stop though was the aquarium at Lakeside (directly opposite Fell Foot Park) - not bad for a small one - they have 2 otters who were very cute and then fish from around the world as well as some monkeys, a 'funny reggie' snakes etc.  No sharks, but we did get Tom a very good and very cheap shark T-shirt from there (size 6?????!!)  

Then it was time for the train - it didn't start well, we got caught up in a crowd when it was pouring with rain and then the train tooted - all of which made Tom cry.  Took a while for him to cheer up again but we got there eventually and he enjoyed the ride.  We looked around the station at Haverthwaite - which had a Thomas room with craft activities, mega blocks, a table with track and trains and a Thomas train running on tracks suspended from the ceiling.  There was also face painting (again!)  Tom was in his element and even managed to play with the trains when there were two other boys playing with them.  He had his face painted again - but this time as Thomas.  We only just managed to drag him away to have lunch.  Lunch was good though, there was a 'funny man' there who did magic tricks, dog balloons and was generally very silly.  Tom was entranced by him, I must say he did have a brilliant manner with the kids.  A couple of fish finger sandwiches later we returned to the Thomas room for a little more play before meeting with a large mascot bear for photos and then back to Lakeside on the train and another go through the aquarium before returning home (he fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep as we transferred him to his bed)

We then had an afternoon in listening to the torrential rain looking at photos and doing jigsaws.  Then dinner and bed.