Scotland 2014 - We Made It...Barely

We left Dallas on Wednesday and headed to Chicago to catch our flight to Manchester, UK. There was a 1 hour delay which turned into a 3 hour delay but we didn’t really mind much. We were just ready to get on the plane and start our adventure. 

I was sooooo happy that I made the last minute decision to upgrade my seat. That extra room made all the difference in being able to sleep. Now if I could only have figured out a way to stop the kid behind me from kicking my chair!

Once we landed, we picked up the rental cars and met up with Den, Christina and Coen. Den and I drove the group to the Altrincham Lodge for our first night. After a round of fish and chips, we turned in for the night.

Friday we woke up bright and early to start our drive to Scotland. We had a couple of spots that we wanted to see on our way north. The first spot was Levens Hall, which was closed. But we were able to walk around the grounds and peek in at one of the gardens. It was absolutely lovely!

Our next stop was to find Hilltop Farm, which was Beatrix Potter's home. We had a little difficulty finding it and ended up on some very small winding roads that all seemed to go uphill. The worst part was the second time that I hit the wall :)...I also blew out the front left tire. Luckily, we were right near a turn in and I was able to pull over before I got rear ended. We radioed Den's car and they came back and helped up change the tire.

We made it a bit further before we decided to stop and grab a bite to eat. We found a great little shop in Hawkshead to stop and get take away, called the Honey Pot.

When we got back on the road we only had a short distance to finally make it to Hilltop Farm....and it was closed. :( However we were able to walk around the gardens and the house.

We left Hilltop Farm with the singular mission of avoiding the road we came in on. So we headed out toward Windmere lake and took the ferry across and started our trip north the Scotland. 

Luckily there was a Kwik Fix “tyre” shop right before our turn off in Kendall to head to the M6 which would take us to Scotland. We pulled in and in less than 30 minutes were road worthy once more.

Once we made it to Scotland our first stop was Christina’s grannie’s house in Carsethorn on the beach.

We said hello to her family for a bit then headed to the cabin in Dalbeattie. Once we got there is was close to 11:30 pm so everyone promptly went to bed!