Trip to Morecamber - Day 5

On the Wednesday of our holiday we went into Lancaster. We visited absolutely years ago as I applied to Lancaster University, but that's twenty years ago. I didn't remember much of the city centre. We had looked into going to the castle, but decided against it in the end. The market is on on Wednesdays though, so we parked near it and walked through. There were quite a few stalls and I was quite impressed by it. The first stall was a wax melt stall and I bought two lots of 'scoopies' which are very cute wax beads. The stall owners were really nice! I also bought a couple of Christmas presents and a new case for my phone as my old one was very marked. 

We went into the shopping centre and went in a couple of shops. The weather was gorgeous which was nice. I had googled and found there's a vegetarian cafe in Lancaster called Whale Tail Cafe, so we walked towards it. Lee went in a couple of charity shops and bought a record. 

The cafe is in a little courtyard, above a wholefood shop. It is so cute, I highly recommend it if you're in the area. There is SO much choice, I was very excited. There's plenty of vegan options too. I went for "chorizo" and mushroom ciabatta with crispy onions, and chips, and I also ordered some vegan garlic mayo to go with the chips. Lee went for a vegan hot dog with chips and coleslaw - he really enjoyed it. Mine was amazing, I miss stuff like chorizo now I don't eat meat and this was a very good fake. 

After lunch we walked back through the town and went in a couple more charity shops, and then went back through the market, buying crepes on the way. The crepe stall was amazing; I went for dark chocolate sauce, banana, and squirty cream. Lee had dark chocolate sauce and squirty cream. It was so sunny that we sat on a bench in the square eating them, which was lovely! 

We drove back past the castle and got back quite early to our caravan. We had already decided to not go swimming, but we went to play in the amusement arcade on site for a bit. Then as it was still early and the weather was nice, we drove along the beach in Morecambe again. We walked on to the sand for a bit and also met a cat! He was very floofy and beautiful and let us get quite close to him, but wouldn't let us touch him. 

We went back and just relaxed. Lee made pan haggerty which he always makes on holiday as it's a bit labour intensive so it's nice to have time to do it. It's a traditional north east dish; Lee's mam makes hers with the leftovers of Sunday dinner so it includes meat, but Lee makes his like his grandma did. She was from Northumberland so hers is just potatoes, onions, butter and cheese. It's so nice! We are it with Richmond's meat free bacon which is one of the better vegetarian bacons we've tried. It has a nice smoky taste! I also had some peach Fanta which I'd bought in a shop in Lancaster earlier that day. 

I had been working on one cross stitch up to then that week, but I switched over to another. It's a really big one and will take forever, I fear! It's a Zodiac chart and first of all I'm doing all the circles! 

"Chorizo" and mushroom ciabatta, I could eat this again right now!

Chips!

My amazing crepe

Lancaster castle - we must go back! 

My new phone case, it was only a fiver

The amusement arcade on site

A panorama of the beach

Me and Lee, I'm not sure why only half my face is in the photo

Another panorama

Floofy cat!

Lee got a better photo of him up close

Pan haggerty and bacon

Peach Fanta - it's delicious and I will have to find some again!

My cross stitch - the needle minder is a unicorn!

Trip to Morecambe - Day 4

On the Tuesday of our holiday we decided to go north to the Lake District. We decided on Windermere, and googled and found a cafe in Windermere itself that did veggie breakfast. So we set off around ten and got there around 11. The waiter told us he'd have a table in fifteen minutes so we went in some shops while we waited. It was raining pretty heavily nearly all day so we were a bit damp but we got seated and ordered breakfast. I also ordered a smoothie which was delicious! 

We went in a bunch of shops in Windermere and bought some souvenirs and Christmas presents which was good. Then we drove up through Ambleside but it was stupidly busy so we didn't stop. I was surprised how busy it all was actually, considering it was term time. Some of the lake was flooded. 

We then drove round through Hawkshead to Hill Top, where Beatrix Potter lived. I thought there was a tea shop there and there is a pop up cafe, but it was only open to prebookings, which we hadn't made. The person there recommended that we go back to Hawkshead cos there's plenty of cafes there, so that's exactly what we did. We randomly chose one and parked nearby, and it turned out to be a vegetarian cafe! I was bummed out that we didn't need lunch, but I had a cheese scone and tomato chutney while Lee went for a slice of vegan chocolate cake which was dark and delicious. 

While we were sitting in there, there was a power cut! We were lucky we had already got our food and drinks but other people weren't so lucky. I felt for the staff! They could still make tea and serve cake of course. I would definitely go back - it was called Ginny's - if we were in the area again. 

I needed the loo as we left Hawkshead and although there were public loos they were ones you had to pay for, we didn't have the coins needed (too much spending money in the amusement arcades!). But thanks to the power cut the turnstile just turned anyway (I was considering vaulting over it) so I had a free wee and then we set off back.

We went swimming and were told it wasn't a swimming session, which was ridiculous because it was on the sheet of paper that the lifeguard had given us on Sunday... But they let us in anyway, so again we had the pool to ourselves. It was a nice swim. We got showered yet again afterwards (I was very sick of showering, which always leaves me exhausted although this wasn't too bad as showers go) and then we had baked gnocchi for tea.

Oh and I was wearing my Clash t-shirt with a skirt that used to be a dress - a simple but comfortable outfit and one which kept me warm in the rain. 

Delicious smoothie in the Magic Roundabout cafe. The staff were a little weird but the food and drinks were lovely, and it wasn't expensive

Lee insisted on taking this photo for the blog

Veggie breakfast - the 'sausages' were like potato croquettes with peas and carrots in, but they were nice and we both enjoyed them

A very wet and windy Windermere

And the other way

See? Rained on

Here was where it was flooded, in Bowness I think

Cheese scone in the vegetarian cafe in Hawkshead

I love maps like this around towns

This bracelet is one of my faves - my friend Jacqui bought it for me a few years ago. It's garnet (my birthstone) and fluorite and pearls, with this very cute silver locket on it. I wear it a lot

My outfit, I'm standing in front of the door between the living area and bedrooms/bathrooms here, which we found to be a useful door

Baked gnochhi for tea with courgette, broccoli, and cauliflower and a Dolmio sauce, with cheese on top. Simple but delicious and perfect for autumn!

Trip to Morecambe - Day 3

On the Monday of our holiday I had booked for us to have afternoon tea at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe. It is a beautiful Art Deco hotel and I've wanted to go since last time I went to Morecambe. Afternoon tea is a very decent £21 per person so I rang up a few weeks before and booked it. 

We decided to go swimming first and we had the pool to ourselves. We got showered and then headed into Morecambe. I put on some make up and popped some contact lenses in. I was also wearing a new dress from Simply Be that I got recently. It's black with blue heart print and I really like it, except it has a ruffly cuff on the ends of the sleeves which I'm not too keen on - but they're elasticated so I pulled them up to my elbows and let the material sort of bag over the flouncy cuffs. 

It was raining heavily on and off but we ran in and got our seats in the Sun Terrace. It's lovely - one entire glass wall that our seats pointed towards, white linen tablecloths, a really nice atmosphere. Neither of us drink tea so I asked for decaf coffee and Lee asked for a hot chocolate, and the staff member assured us there was no problem in replacing the tea for these. 

I had obviously asked for vegetarian sandwiches and Lee doesn't eat red meat but again this wasn't a problem and our afternoon tea arrived soon after. My selection of sandwich was really nice and Lee enjoyed his. The cakes were SO good! The scones were still warm - one was plain and one was fruit, and there was plenty of clotted cream and jam. I ate both of mine no problem!

The cakes were white chocolate profiterole, mango and chilli posset tart, passion fruit meringue, and chocolate mint cake. I couldn't eat all of mine so brought two back with me. We left around 2.45 - I would recommend the Midland afternoon tea if you're in the area!

The weather had picked up so we drove along to the Eric Morecambe statue as Lee wanted to see it. We both did the pose and read all the stuff that is just below it, which is some of his most famous catchphrases. I tried to get photos but I'm not sure if I was successful. We played in a couple more of the 2p machines and absolutely rinsed one of them, getting loads of prizes, including the blue Mickey Mouse with Russian writing on it (which apparently means 'love'). 

We got back quite early to the caravan and I had a nice lie down and a nap. I didn't sleep very well the whole week actually, I'm not sure why. But we watched The Green Knight in the evening and cooked curry - mine was paneer and cauliflower. I liked The Green Knight - Dev was perfect obviously - but I didn't like how the ending changed from the poem! 

The swimming pool - it wasn't huge but it was warm and it was nice to swim up and down

Ready to go out, wearing some make up!

New Simply Be dress, it's very soft and lovely

A closer look at the heart print

As we left the site there was a lovely rainbow

The hotel in all its glory - this is the car park side obviously and not the side that looks over to the sea

Lee in the terrace

And me! It was quite busy but doesn't look it here

Looking out of the terrace to the bay

And the other way

Delicious cakes

And just look at those scones!

Lovely silver coffee pot and cup - it was really nice

I think Lee took these - more rainbow

And the sea was far out!

I was wearing this bracelet I made myself last year, the blues matched my dress

Standing in the doorway of the hotel

I won this with prize tickets from the arcade machines

On the prom

The Eric statue

Me trying and failing to copy the pose 

And Lee too, this photo is hilarious

Bring me sunshine!

My dad used to say this line a lot

Looking up towards the statue

This is a panorama of "He'll never sell any ice creams going at that speed!" but I'm not sure you can see it well

These pigeon sculptures live near the sculpture and are so cute

This mildly terrifying keyring though!

Here's everything we won, I need to put at least one of them on my keys!

And finally curry. We had it with poppadums and mango chutney