Laura’s Life

All of a sudden it was Saturday again and time to head home.  It was such a glorious day, however, that we decided to break the long journey up a bit by stopping off at Hadrian’s Wall.  We had last been there almost exactly three years earlier but this time we decided to focus on sites at the Newcastle end of the wall whereas previously we had concentrated on the Carlisle end.  Our first excursion, therefore, was to Chesters Fort.

The wee museum there was great, chock full of artefacts and all displayed in a somewhat old-fashioned way but a way that enabled the children to engage with what they were seeing.  Chris, of course, was in hog heaven among so many Roman antiquities.  This is Aidan and Orin with a statue of Mars:

The site was vast and very open so the kids were able to roam fairly freely and really explore the ruins.  This is Aidan at (I think) one of the gates to the fort:

Chris with his favourite part of the whole site: an original bit of iron that would have held the wooden gatepost:

Aidan among the ruins:

The kids were also following an Easter themed treasure hunt and - in order to receive a chocolatey reward at the end - they had to find eggs hidden around the site, note their letters and solve the resulting anagram.  This is Aidan with one of the eggs:

Orin leaning on a wall.  He did not stop talking or singing for the whole two hours of our visit leading one of the other visitors to remark that Orin was our “permanent soundtrack”:

Aidan resting on one of the columns of the hypocaust:

Aidan among the barracks:

Orin pretending to be an Emperor:

Evan playing peekaboo among the ruins:

Down at the bath-house it was possible to see where the wall would have continued across the river:

A view of the bath-house:

Aidan’s favourite part of the fort was the latrine:

Chris and Evan sitting in one of the bath-houses niches:

Orin and Evan ascending from the bath-house holding hands:

Orin making a magic potion:

After Chesters Fort, our next stop was at the Temple to Mithras.  This was a site we had been to before but it had been in lashing rain and we wanted to find somewhere the boys could play more freely.  Which is why they took their swords and newly aquired Roman shields:

Aidan trying to look like a ferocious legionary:

All three boys scrapping:

Orin in Roman soldier pose:

The Temple of Mithras:

Orin vanquishing Aidan:

Evan being a Roman soldier:

Walking back to the car, Orin decided to stow his sword down the back of his shirt:

We drove along the remainder of Hadrian’s Wall and then it was time for the long journey home.

Our last proper day in Yorkshire was the only one to be actually grotty in terms of weather.  We counted ourselves lucky for the good weather we had experienced but it was still a shame to have that luck run out.  We headed inland to Fountains Abbey, near Ripon.  This is run by the National Trust so we found it to be very well organised and the facilities were great.

The first place the kiddliwinks headed to was the playground area where they had heaps of fun playing on all the equipment.  Aidan tackled the rope walkways with enthusiasm:

Evan was his usual wee fool-hardy, dare-devil self:

Orin, as you can see, was slightly less confident:

Aidan on a scramble net:

Spinning around in a dish:

Orin and Evan riding on a wooden horse:

Evan riding on a snail:

Orin definitely enjoyed riding the wooden horse more than he enjoyed the rope walks:

Aidan resting on a net:

Orin was not so happy on the net:

Playing on a giant swing:

Aidan on the wooden snail:

We found a yard fringed with gargoyles.  I always enjoy a good gargoyle and the kids were amused by them too.  This one with the snout was my favourite:

Orin and Evan preferred this one:

Our first view of Fountains Abbey:

Some views of the architecture:

Cheeky wee Evan:

Aidan descending a ruined staircase:

I got a tad obsessed with taking photos of arches:

The boys were apparently so thirsty that they decided to drink rainwater dripping from an overhead gargoyle:

Inside the small museum, I tried to engage the kids in some ecclesiastical history but not even the Black Death could spark their interest by this point so it was clearly time to head back to the car.  This is Aidan looking fed up with my chatter about plague:

We decided to have a bit of a sludgier day on the Thursday of our week away.  We, therefore, headed north to Stockton to take the children to a Soft Play Centre.  Evan was not impressed that this particular centre restricted him to a weenie section but he, along with his brothers, did enjoy the trampoline.  Aidan and Orin had fun clambering and sliding.

Evan and Orin inside a bus:

The boys enjoying a snack of crisp bears and slushies:

We then drove to Middlesbrough where we ate (yes, again) in a Pizza Hut before taking the boys to the cinema to see ‘Monsters V Aliens’.  I thought it had some very funny moments but was patchy in terms of both humour and plot trajectory and would have liked to have seen the other monster characters developed more.  Aidan and Orin thoroughly enjoyed it.  Evan slept all the way through it on my lap.

Our holiday cottage was not far from the line on which the North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs a steam train so that was what we decided to do on the day of Evan’s birthday.  Apparently one of their trains featured as the Hogwarts Express in an early Harry Potter movie but unfortunately their were no wizarding goings-on during our trip.

We caught the train at Grosmont station:

Here are the boys sitting inside one of the carriages:

Evan sitting at the window of the train as it puffs across the moors:

Look!  I was on holiday too!

Aidan in a daydream:

Orin actually smiling at the camera while having a photo taken.  Maybe he lifted the injuction against the mammarazzi:

We took the train all the way to Pickering where we then bought some gimungous pies from a deli and had lunch in a cafe.  Once back on the platform at Pickering, Chris took Orin and Aidan to see the train pulling into the station:

This time we found a former First Class carriage that could accommodate us with more privacy (and, more significantly, better aborption of our noise levels).  The boys really did feel like they were headed to Hogwarts and may even have expected a trolley to come around laden with chocolate frogs and peculiar flavours of jelly beans:

Evan and Orin sitting with me:

Aidan colouring-in steam trains:

Orin playing with his Shaun the Sheep sticker book:

Evan and his Daddy:

Chris reading Evan’s Shaun the Sheep book to Aidan and Orin:

Mummy’s turn to read:

Do you get the impression Evan was maybe a wee bit frazzled by this point on his birthday?

Happy again!

You may recall that a few blog entries ago I referred to Chris’ obsession with finding a particular stretch of Roman road.  Well, not content to have dragged us off in vain pursuit of it on two separate occasions in as many days, he then took the opportunity of being near Goathland to go in search of it again.  Apparently Wheeldale Road (or Wade’s Causeway as it is also known) is a well-preserved stretch of Ermine Street.  However, no one goes out of their way to aid people in finding the darn thing.  Incredibly, this time Chris was actually successful in locating it.  He did park up at the wrong point and take the long and distant footpath up to it when he could have driven most of the way there by not taking a left turn but, nevertheless, he did find it.  It was a long trek up hill and down dale so I stayed in the car with Evan while Chris took Aidan and Orin off the find it - since they had become as obsessed with its discovery as he had.

Aidan with a helpful signpost:

The road itself.  Yes, it looks like a pile of rubble or a “ye olde crazy paving” but apparently this rubble is incredible rare and exciting:

Aidan standing on the road looking proud of having found the road with his Daddy:

Can I just postpone telling you about our trip to York in order to have a rant about parking?  Crikey but it was phenomenally expensive to park in Yorkshire.  Even at the Whitby CoOp it was necessary to get a parking ticket validated at the checkout so as to avoid our pockets being ransacked.  Parking in York itself took the biscuit.  It was so pricey that we did not have enough change between us to pay for the number of hours of parking we would need.  Instead we had to try out this new-fangled but pretty sensible and efficient system whereby we phoned up and provided our location, number plate and credit card details in order to pay for our parking.  It was useful since we could top up from any location but it is indicative of how expensive it was that we payed by credit card.

But I digress ….

York is one of my favourite cities and it felt familiar and welcoming to be pounding its pavement again. 

Here are some views of York Minster:

Chris with Aidan and Orin wandering down The Shambles, the medieval street where butchery was traditionally carried out:

Our first stop was the Jorvik Viking Centre.  This is Orin eating a marshmallow kebab in the queue:

The boys loved the time travelling aspect of Jorvik, seeing Vikings carving things out of horn and wood, smelling the wood smoke from their fires, and - most of all - seeing a Viking man straining inside a wicker latrine!  Aidan also enjoyed seeing genuine Viking skeletal remains.  This is Aidan outside the Viking Centre, posing in front of a reproduction longship:

After munching in Pizza Hut, we headed to York Castle Museum, once the prison where Highwayman Dick Turpin was incarcerated.  This is Aidan and Orin playing on a canon outside the museum:

Cliffords Tower as seen from the museum grounds:

I took Aidan into the Museum while Chris kept the little two occupied outside.  Aidan especially enjoyed learning about the history of toilets!  So here he is sitting on an antique loo:

I was somewhat flabbergasted and dismayed to discover that what was basically my childhood kitchen was now appearing as a historic artefact.  Way to make me feel ancient!

Aidan and I also had fun in the Victorian street inside the Museum, solving riddles and answering questions as a way of engaging in all the little details of the items on display.  This is Aidan inside the Fire Station next to an old Fire Engine:

Aidan in front of a gaol cell:

Whitby was the nearest big town to our holiday cottage so it was there that we ventured on the second day of our holiday.  On the way, I told the boys an abridged version of ‘Dracula’ since it was while living in Whitby that Bram Stoker was inspired to write his tale and various bits of the novel featured locations we would be visiting.  So the boys were all excited about Vampire hunting!

I just had to edit this photo of Whitby Abbey to make it look more eerie:

Various views of the Abbey’s gothic architecture:

You can just see Evan coming out of a doorway in this one:

Orin and Evan standing on top of the remains of a column:

Aidan filling out answers on the activity sheet he had been given and which he hugely enjoyed.  The kids also got to do some brass rubbing and print with rubber stamps of medieval manuscript illuminations so it was a very child-friendly location:

Chris inside a body shaped hole in the ground:

Evan sitting on some ruins:

Another view of the Abbey:

Of course, the swords had come with us so it was time for the kids to pulverise Daddy who they had cast in the role of Vampire:

Orin resting among the graves:

Evan wielding a sword:

Another view of the Abbey, again edited to have a spooky glow:

We then popped next door to St Mary’s Church, which features in ‘Dracula’ along with Abbey.  Aidan decided that this grave was the one Dracula hid in:

A creepy headstone:

A view of the Church:

We then decided to have a spot of lunch in the form of an in-car feast of fish and chips.  Whitby is famed for its fish and chips and, while these may not have been the best the town had to offer, they were certainly gobbled down with gusto:

We then headed along the road to Stockton to treat the boys to a trip around Toys R Us where they each picked a new Star Wars figure.  Following that, we had to do a more mundane shop in a supermarket.  While there, we bought ‘Madagascar 2′ on DVD.  It was supposed to be accomplished surreptitiously since it was intended as a birthday gift for Evan but he spotted it and from that point onwards was ferociously attached to it.  So, when we got back to the house, the boys all settled down for a viewing of ‘Madagascar 2′:

I took 650 photos during our trip to North Yorkshire.  I think that is quite restrained for me given that I have been known to take up to 400 photos just in one afternoon in the back garden.  So prepare to be bombarded by images in the next few blog entries.

The drive from home to the North Yorkshire Moors was thankfully pretty uneventful and thanks to the invention of in-car DVDs pretty stress-free too.  It was a little tricky to find our actual holiday cottage given that it was in the middle of nowhere in a place called Great Fryup Dale but we made it there in good time.  The house is called Prospect Coach House and, as it sounds, is a converted former coach house.  It was lovely!  The kids soon made themselves at home - though Evan did so by immediately face-planting in the garden and giving himself a black eye.  Sigh.

This is the house as seen from the road.  I loved the big arched windows:

And this is the house as viewed from its rear garden with the moors rolling in the background:

The boys soon made themselves at home and started playing with their toys while I unpacked and Chris went to forage for some food - admittedly in a CoOp in Whitby.  Here are the boys sitting on the window ledges of the living room, which I think was their favourite spot in the house:

And here they are the following morning having breakfast in the kitchen:

We set off south across the moors and Chris decided to get out and try and find the remains of a Roman Road.  We didn’t find it; indeed, finding it became a saga of obsession, his Great White Whale as it were, during our vacation.  What we did get was very mucky shoes from tromping across soggy moorland.  Here is Aidan on the moor:

This is a sign we found on the moors - which were once used for military weapon training - and I have a feeling it has been used for target practice:

Our destination for the day was Eden Camp, a former Prisoner of War camp near Malton which now serves as a museum to all things Second World War.  I had been there as a child and thought it was something the boys would engage with.

This is Chris explaining a piece of military equipment to the boys:

There was an adventure playground that the boys spent plenty of time in.  This is Aidan at the top of one of the towers:

Evan inside a “tank”:

Evan on a raised wooden platform:

Orin in the tower:

The boys especially enjoyed the hut that was focused on submarines as the whole thing was kitted out as if they were on board a submarine.  Aidan and Evan also enjoyed a puppet show featuring songs from the era.  Here are all the boys outside one of the museum huts:

Aidan in front of a display of ammunition:

Aidan inside some form of shelter:

Orin and Evan inside a bomb shelter:

After Eden Camp we decided to go somewhere the boys could just run around so we headed up the coast to Robin Hood’s Bay.  This is Chris and Orin heading down towards the shore:

Chris on one of the narrow, steep streets.  Apparently this town was a smugglers’ haven because the houses were so close together that booty could easily be passed from one house to the next when the need to evade the law arose:

Orin climbing up the harbour walls:

Chris with Evan and Orin on the shoreline:

The boys had a whale of a time getting sopping wet trousers in the surf and battling each other with their swords.  The payback, however, was that we had to drag ourselves all the way back up that steep street, one of the steepest I have ever encountered.  Not the easiest feat for a woman with a separated pelvis to accomplish either.  Still, at least the views were attractive: