The visit of Chris and Lori, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - 8th-18th October 2012
Chris is the grandson of Freda Meyers, who was born Freda Wilson, daughter of Agnes Wilson and sister of Ernest Wilson (Janice's first husband). This was Chris's first visit to the UK, and was timed to attend the marriage of Matthew Wilson his 3rd cousin. Matthew's brother Jordan brought the visitors to meet us at the Towers, and (in a spirit of familial accommodation, and being "retired") we offered to show them a bit of our wonderful country. The maps below show the routes and places over and to which we took them (and are intended to help them to remember where we went - on two short days we covered a lot of ground!).
On Thursday 13th September we collected our guests from the PNE football ground and took them on a short tour of Bowland. We started off by visiting Longridge Golf Club, for lunch (and giving Chris his first introduction to a snooker table!). Our route from the Golf Club took in Chipping, Whitewell, Dunsop Bridge (where we photographed them at the telephone kiosk - the exact centre of Great Britain), the Trough of Bowland and Abbeystead and we ended the day with "afternoon tea" at the Barn in Scorton.
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On Monday 17th September we took them on a short tour of the Lake District. Leaving Mark's house in Lytham, we joined the M55 at Peel and went first to Sizergh Castle (I thought that a castle was essential). As it happens the castle isn't open until 1.00 pm so we took a couple of photos of the outside and left (having explained what a ha-ha is). Next stop was the cycle warehouse in Staveley (stayed 5 minutes) followed by elevenses in Wilf's cafe. Then to Windermere and Bowness, from where we went to Troutbeck, and to the Mortal Man, for lunch. Chris had the sausage and vegetable soup, which he described as exceptional.
From there we went to the top of Kirkstone Pass (for a brief glimpse down into Patterdale) and on to Ambleside, down The Struggle. We had a non-stop circuit of the village and continued past Rydal to Grasmere, for a visit to the Gingerbread shop. From there we went over Red Bank to Elterwater and on to Clappersgate and Hawkshead, for a walk round the village. We ended the day with a ferry crossing over Windermere and back down the M6.
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Chris and Lori at the viewpoint on the Bowness-Ambleside road, with Windermere below and the Langdale Pikes in the distance.
