We decided to head into the Forest of Bowland a bit more today, since we'd only really driven through it on the rest of this holiday! Our destination was the Gisburn Forest & Stocks Reservoir. The Dale Head Ramble was a 3.2mile walk along the edge of the reservoir then up through Birch Hills, down to Bottoms Beck and back along Egg Berry Road (a stoney track rather than surfaced road). Despite being a forestry commision plantation it was a beautiful wood to walk through, sunlight through through the green leaves and glinting off the water, blue skies above. From the bird hides by the reservoir we saw several ducks and geese, a flock of lapwings, and a barn owl hunting on the opposite shore! After lunch we drove over towards the coast driving through the ... read more

It had rained overnight and was a cloudy, drizzley sort of day so we went to Lancaster and visited the castle. We went on a guided tour and heard all about the history of the prisions (closed in 2012) and the county and criminal courts (which are still used so no photos allowed). Sadly the battlements are out of bounds so no good views of the city either. We had a tasty pub lunch after which Dad went off to visit his friend who lives in Silverdale but managed to leave his bag at the pub with his phone in it! Mark ran ater him to the car park but he'd already left. The rest of us pottered around the market (buying onion bhajis, eggs, milk sweets, books and a rag rug!) then went to the ... read more

Monday morning we all squashed into Mark’s car again and drove to the north end of Morecambe Bay to visit Arnside Knott. Mum & Will couldn't face the steep losoe rocky path to the top so enjoyed strolling through the woods below whist the rest of us when up to the view point. We it was a lovely spot with views as far as Blackpool Tower to the south and Pit Hill Castle on the peninsula to the west. We then had a lovely stroll through the woods around the top of the Knott & saw Arnside Tower. Once we'd met up back at the cars we drove to the Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, where had a tasty lunch and went round the hides on the reserve and up the tower. There were lots of ducks, ... read more

Mark & I set off after an early lunch (well, late fry-up brunch) & headed towards The North. As usual there was traffic on the M6 but with one quick stop we arrived at the Station House, Melling around 5pm. After a quick look around we put the kettle on just in time for Mum, Dad & Will to turn up with the tea! They had set off mid-morning but stopped at Tatton Park to look around the hall & gardens - there were some interesting bits in the house but Mum found the gardens a bit boring. After a cuppa and deciding who had which rooms we left mum sorting out supper (venison stew) and went for a walk through Melling - where the pub had been converted to a garage - and across fields ... read more

Our original plan for the holiday was to drive back to LA from Monterey down the famously beautiful coastal Route 1. However due to a pretty epic url=https://www.dailynews.com/2018/05/01/highway-1-closed-near-big-sur-since-2017-slides-could-reopen-in-fall/landslide in 2017 the road is still closed so instead of a day in Big Sur then stopping for the night further south we decided to day trip it to Big Sur from Monterey. Sadly landslides had also taken out lots of trails, including the Ewoldsen Trail we had planned to do so we came up with a new plan involving a short hike and several scenic stops. After breakfast we set off down Route 1 passing Point Lobos and contining to our first stop - the photogenic Bixby Creek Bridge. It was pretty good but not a patch on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, or Ironbridge! We then continud ... read more