49!

Sunday we had a 'normal' day.  It rained all day, so Tom and I went to Kendal to go shopping for his school uniform.  Not an enjoyable day, but a necessary day.  We left Matt at home and he got in a day of work.

Monday was more interesting - mainly because it was Matt's birthday.  His last birthday in his forties.    It sort of crept up on us this year as we have been so busy.  Poor lad didn't even get a cake from me!!!!!  However, I did make him a birthday lasagne on Sunday evening so he didn't completely miss out.

No ferrys!

Boys in front of Piel Island

Matt took the day off work and after some deliberation decided on a day trip down to Piel Island just off the coast at Barrow.  We drove down to Roa Island where there is a car park and then headed to the jetty to get the tiny passenger boat across to the island.  We had checked on-line in the morning that the ferry was working today as sometimes Mondays can be dodgy.  We got to the jetty and saw a family waiting so thought that was a good sign.  We were wrong!  They had done the same as us - i.e. checked on-line, but had found a handwritten sign saying that it didn't run on a Monday. Poo!

Sea Otter tucking in

Spider Monkey looking at his lunch...

What is more the shame is that it rained pretty hard the whole way over and as we arrived the skies cleared and we had what looked like a lovely day.  The castle and pub were shining in the sun and we couldn't go and visit.  Think 4 families turned up to do similar in the time we were there, it isn't an easy place to get to, so everyone probably invested a significant amount of time to get there.  We took a photo from the jetty.  That was it!

Serious bear

Racoon

We needed a plan B, after studying the map and maybe finding a seal colony but not finding anywhere to eat, we decided to cut our losses and head to Dalton Zoo where we knew we would have a nice day, Matt also had his big camera with him which meant he could take some good animal photos.  We arrived hungry, so went straight for some lunch and then we went to visit the animals.  Must say the big cats were a bit rubbish - none of them really did anything.  However, a rhino had a lovely mud bath whilst we were watching.  The siamang monkeys were very very noisy and Stanley the Sloth, one of our favourites was very disappointingly attached to a hot water pipe in the corner of his enclosure.  However, we had a good day, which was only ended when it started to rain again.  We cut our losses and went home, had showers and then headed out to The Game Cock for tea - very nice it was too.

Anyway happy birthday to Matt, wonder what we will get up to next year...