Our second full day of the journey began with meeting Rachel at Ennerdale Bridge to begin an epic 15-mile day into the heart of the Lake District, a national park born of multiple radiating glacial valleys- the lower parts of which are inhabited by bright green grass, sheep, stone and slate towns, fences, and lakes otherwise known as “waters” or “meres” and a few people, while the upper parts are sweeping bowls of bouldery, boggy, mostly treeless tundra. Oodles of trails crisscross the Lake District, enticing hikers from all over the globe.

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I wrote my last post as we arrived the afternoon in St. Bees for our stay at the Manor House pub thinking today we would begin our Coast to Coast walk but we pulled a bit of a switcheroo and decided to hike the first 5 miles of the trip, including a large circular swath up and around the coastal bluff looking out over the Irish Sea toward Isle of Man.

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10:40pm we began our 9-hour flight from SeaTac to Heathrow. Perfect, my bedtime!! Well, nope. I tried watching a movie and got too sleepy, then I couldn’t fall asleep and turned the movie back on. Repeat. This was how I occupied my 9 hours but it was a nice plane (777) and good service and food. Navigated the maze that is Heathrow Airport and all the signage bombardment down each passageway. The pic above stopped me a bit in my tracks. Thinking the jet lag was already having its way with me, I was wondering if perhaps we were supposed to have grown antlers while flying over the pole because clearly here was a sign directing a human/deer. (If any of you would like to pose a potential caption for this picture, I’d love to hear- please put in comments below!)

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After a super crummy April (weather-wise), we’ve just had 2 gorgeous spring days here in the Northwest. Today, our leaving day, was one of them- close to 80 degrees. Our one-hour ferry ride was uneventful (no groundings on a beach on Bainbridge), yet spectacular. The still snowy Olympics loomed over Bremerton, Mt. Rainier was in full glory and the Sound sparkled. Tom said, “We do live in one of the most beautiful places!”

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Tuesday, April 25- two days before liftoff. Tom and I will soon hike across one of the skinnier sections in the north of England along the Coast to Coast trail. Get your Google maps out or have Siri find you St. Bees, our starting point on the Irish Sea in the west, and then our ending point at Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea in the east.

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