Saturday
We slept well and had a delicious 'full English breakfast' at the B&B: eggs, sausage, thick bacon, cooked tomato, sauteed mushrooms, and brown beans.
Today was our last, but my favorite day! We drove about 40 minutes around to the other side of Lake Windermere to the village of Near Sawrey and Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top Farm.
From The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
The winding road from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
'Beatrix Potter was born in London on 28th July 1866. Her parents inherited money from their families' Lancashire cotton mills, and the Potters lived extremely comfortably in an elegant square in Kensington.
We waited our turn to see inside the house - the tickets are time-stamped so there aren't too many people in the small house at one time, and no photos inside.
From The Tale of Tom Kitten
After seeing the house, we walked around the gardens.
She set many of the Tales in and around her house, farm, and village, using her pets, farm animals, and even the rats that lived under the floorboards as inspiritation for her characters.
The rhubarb patch and garden gate from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The boys tried to spot toads, spiders, bumble bees, ladybirds, beetles, butterflies, and wood mice in the garden, as an activity suggested by the childrens' brochure. They found a beetle, a butterfly, and a bumble bee.
From The Tale of Tom Kitten
The farm across from Hill Top. The Lake District is so picturesque and peaceful - it's no wonder Londoners came here to spend summers and that preserving the old ways was very important to those who lived here. The National Trust owns much of the land now; it is still divided into small, working farms which use traditional farming methods.
Today was our last, but my favorite day! We drove about 40 minutes around to the other side of Lake Windermere to the village of Near Sawrey and Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top Farm.
From The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
The winding road from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
'Beatrix Potter was born in London on 28th July 1866. Her parents inherited money from their families' Lancashire cotton mills, and the Potters lived extremely comfortably in an elegant square in Kensington.Even as a young child, Beatrix showed artistic talent and she loved to sketch plants and animals, especially on family holidays in Scotland and the Lake District.
Beatrix had been painting for her own amusement for many years when in 1890 she had her first commercial success, selling some rabbit pictures as Christmas card designs. She also sent illustrated letters to the children of her former governess, which featured her very first story about Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter.
Several years later, Beatrix decided to write a children's book and remembered the story she had invented featuring her pet rabbit Peter. Still determined after several refusals from publishers, she printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit privately and all 250 copies quickly sold out.
In 1902, Frederick Warne & Co, published an initial quantity of 8000 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which sold out instantly. By 1905, Warne had published six of Beatrix Potter's books, including The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.
With the profits, Beatrix bought a working farm called Hill Top, in the village of Near Sawrey in the Lake District, where she wrote several of her most popular Tales.
Beatrix loved life in the Lake District and became a prominent member of the farming community, winning prizes for breeding Herdwick sheep. Over the following years, she bought a considerable amount of land in the Lake District and married her local adviser and solicitor[realtor and attorney], William Heelis.
Beatrix was also a fierce campaigner on local conservation issues and when she died in 1943, she left 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust.'
We waited our turn to see inside the house - the tickets are time-stamped so there aren't too many people in the small house at one time, and no photos inside.
From The Tale of Tom Kitten
After seeing the house, we walked around the gardens.She set many of the Tales in and around her house, farm, and village, using her pets, farm animals, and even the rats that lived under the floorboards as inspiritation for her characters.
The rhubarb patch and garden gate from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The boys tried to spot toads, spiders, bumble bees, ladybirds, beetles, butterflies, and wood mice in the garden, as an activity suggested by the childrens' brochure. They found a beetle, a butterfly, and a bumble bee.
From The Tale of Tom Kitten
The farm across from Hill Top. The Lake District is so picturesque and peaceful - it's no wonder Londoners came here to spend summers and that preserving the old ways was very important to those who lived here. The National Trust owns much of the land now; it is still divided into small, working farms which use traditional farming methods.
We walked through Near Sawrey, looking for some of the village places that appear in her illustrations.
From The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
From The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
From The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan
From Peter Rabbit's Almanac
We drove north along this lake, Esthwaite Water, the setting of The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher.
Hawkshead is a larger village where Beatrix's husband, Willie Heelis, had one of his offices. This village is the setting for The Tale of Johnny Townmouse.
William Heelis' solicitor's office, now The Beatrix Potter Gallery.
Daniel and the kids watched a movie in the car while I visited the Gallery. Among other things, the original illustrations for The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse were on display.
We waited here to take the car ferry back across Lake Windermere to Bowness. It was faster than driving back around the lake.
The car ferry coming from Bowness.
From The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
From The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
From The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan 
From Peter Rabbit's Almanac
We drove north along this lake, Esthwaite Water, the setting of The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher.
Hawkshead is a larger village where Beatrix's husband, Willie Heelis, had one of his offices. This village is the setting for The Tale of Johnny Townmouse. 
William Heelis' solicitor's office, now The Beatrix Potter Gallery.
Daniel and the kids watched a movie in the car while I visited the Gallery. Among other things, the original illustrations for The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse were on display.
We waited here to take the car ferry back across Lake Windermere to Bowness. It was faster than driving back around the lake.
The car ferry coming from Bowness.Some spent the afternoon watching a matinee showing of Toy Story 3, while others enjoyed homemade vegetable soup in the World of Beatrix Potter Tearoom then perused the giftshop.
Later, we met up at the lake and got out the dried bread and crackers we had been saving to feed the birds.
The next several pictures show Silas's evolving feelings towards swans. It went from eager to feed them to terrified of them in a few short minutes.
He watches them eat out of Daddy's hand.
He wants to give it a try.
He notices he's being surrounded.
He sticks close to Daddy.
He's getting nervous.
He's starting to cry.
He's terrified.
He escapes with his life.
He will be glad if he never sees a swan again.
We drove an hour south and stayed in Preston so we'd have that much less to drive to catch the ferry in the morning.
Strong-willed child.
When we told the kids we were going on a big adventure and would be staying at other places, Aaron got excited..."Can we eat cereal?!" After asking him a few questions, I figured out that what he remembers from our overnight stay in Dublin with Grandma Anne and Auntie Gwen is that he got to eat cereal for breakfast!
She loved the mango.
Our ferry left from Holyhead, Wales.
We got a kick out of the UK road signs. The "!" signs were frequent and used for a variety of things: rock slides, steep grades, 'badgers' here in Wales, and, our favorite one in Scotland, 'red squirrels'. Once, there was a "!" sign that read, '11 miles'. What were we supposed to be exclaiming about for 11 miles? We never figured it out.
(I had to help out this blurry picture using Microsoft Paint. I didn't inherit Dad's steady hand.)
We boarded the ferry to Dublin. It ended up leaving 45 minutes late.
The end of our trip.
Since we were late leaving Wales, we arrived in Dublin just after the All Ireland Gaelic Football Final game ended. This is Ireland's equivalent to Super Bowl Sunday. We spent an hour in stop and go traffic trying to leave Dublin city center. Might as well get a few more pictures...
Statues along the north quay depicting the Great Famine.
Sean O'Casey Bridge over the River Liffey seen from the Talbot Memorial Bridge.
All roads in Ireland lead to and from Dublin.
A green train.
Once we were out of Dublin, it was an easy two hours on the motorway to get home. What an adventure! The timing getting into Dublin was the only hiccup on the whole trip - we are thankful for God's traveling mercies! And I'm thankful to Daniel for cleaning the car :)
Later, we met up at the lake and got out the dried bread and crackers we had been saving to feed the birds.
The next several pictures show Silas's evolving feelings towards swans. It went from eager to feed them to terrified of them in a few short minutes.
He's excited to feed them...
...even chasing after one.
He watches them eat out of Daddy's hand. 
He wants to give it a try. 
He notices he's being surrounded. 
He sticks close to Daddy.
He realizes they are bigger than he is.
He's getting nervous. 
He's starting to cry.
He's terrified.
He escapes with his life.
He will be glad if he never sees a swan again.
I really enjoyed the Lake District - thanks Daniel.
We drove an hour south and stayed in Preston so we'd have that much less to drive to catch the ferry in the morning.Time to Go Home
Strong-willed child.
When we told the kids we were going on a big adventure and would be staying at other places, Aaron got excited..."Can we eat cereal?!" After asking him a few questions, I figured out that what he remembers from our overnight stay in Dublin with Grandma Anne and Auntie Gwen is that he got to eat cereal for breakfast!
She loved the mango.
Our ferry left from Holyhead, Wales.
We got a kick out of the UK road signs. The "!" signs were frequent and used for a variety of things: rock slides, steep grades, 'badgers' here in Wales, and, our favorite one in Scotland, 'red squirrels'. Once, there was a "!" sign that read, '11 miles'. What were we supposed to be exclaiming about for 11 miles? We never figured it out.(I had to help out this blurry picture using Microsoft Paint. I didn't inherit Dad's steady hand.)
We boarded the ferry to Dublin. It ended up leaving 45 minutes late.
The end of our trip.Since we were late leaving Wales, we arrived in Dublin just after the All Ireland Gaelic Football Final game ended. This is Ireland's equivalent to Super Bowl Sunday. We spent an hour in stop and go traffic trying to leave Dublin city center. Might as well get a few more pictures...
Statues along the north quay depicting the Great Famine.
Sean O'Casey Bridge over the River Liffey seen from the Talbot Memorial Bridge.
All roads in Ireland lead to and from Dublin.
A green train.
Once we were out of Dublin, it was an easy two hours on the motorway to get home. What an adventure! The timing getting into Dublin was the only hiccup on the whole trip - we are thankful for God's traveling mercies! And I'm thankful to Daniel for cleaning the car :)
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