31 July to 4 August 2023 - A Visit to Center Parcs Whinfell

Here are a few pictures from last week's visit to Center Parcs in the Lake District. There were six of us on the trip, and we met up - as pictured above - at Tebay Services on Monday morning. Sue and me, my daughter Kate, her children Jacob and Jessica, and Jacob's friend Seb.

Soon we parked up at Center Parcs and most of the group (everyone except me) went for a swim in the building to the right of the next picture.

On Tuesday, Jess was taken to play football....

... and Kate and I visited Starbucks.

That was after I'd sorted out Jacob and Seb with some Field Archery.

Jess was the only footballing girl, but that was fine - I didn't even notice at the time.

The boys enjoyed their archery.

A nearby information board was being inspected by a red admiral butterfly. Apparently global warming has resulted in far more of these butterflies than usual staying as UK residents.

We hear of aggressive seagulls. None of them here, and red squirrels were only occasionally seen. But this twenty strong gang of mallards were doing their best to invade our house.

They really were pretty tame.

Wednesday was a wet day. We cancelled a planned visit to Lowther Castle and spent the day playing pool, ping-pong, Rummikub, etc.

The sun came out on Thursday, and while Jacob and Seb went to play with crossbows, Kate, Sue and Jessica went kayaking.

This duck didn't really appreciate Jacob's attention - it deposited poo on his shorts.

There were several ping-pong interludes

Seb likes ice cream

Our team of chefs excelled

The mallard family get on well together

Here's the crossbow arena

Kayaking

Later, Jacob and Seb had a go on the quad bikes, which they declared was the highlight of their visit.

Our house - 91 Meadow View

The Prince mushroom is one of the tastiest wild mushrooms that you can find. Sue did find a clump of them, and duly took advantage...

Delicious - the pan behind has halloumi

Our house had a games room with a pool table. This kept the children occupied for hours, and we enjoyed a tournament.

The time went all too quickly, and after more ping-pong on Friday morning we headed back home. Meanwhile, Sue had taken pictures of several more fungi. I'll annotate these later.

All in all, an excellent few days with well behaved family.