A Day of Rest and Good Food

Today I actually slept beyond 6:00 am for the first time on the trip. We had only two things on the agenda: The Treehouse for lunch and watching the film " Miss Potter" in preparation for the Lake District field trip.

Gaye made reservations for all of those interested in dining at The Treehouse which is a fanciful restaurant in Alnwick Garden. Ten of us signed up, and it was a delicious treat. Appetizers ranging from soup to goat cheese salad to sauteed mushrooms, entrees of roast pork and roast beef, and desserts so beautifully presented that we had to photograph them...cheesecake, meringues, creme brulee and blueberry peach pie. It was a taste treat coupled with good company and conversation.

Tonight we invited everyone to our upper Barbican flat to watch "Miss Potter". We provided the snacks for anyone brave enough to climb the Barbican stairs and most everyone took us up on our offer. I think that the students may have new respect for the climb that Merton and I make every time we leave or return to our flat.

Tomorrow we will be traveling to the Lake District to see in person much of the scenery that we watched on screen tonight. We are all excited to go, but a little afraid that perhaps we did not pack warm enough clothes. Plus the Lake District gets much more rain than Northumberland, and we've already experienced plenty of rain here, so who knows.

This may be the last post until Wednesday night because I don't know what the Internet access will be like once we leave the Castle. Think good thoughts for us as we travel.