Day 1 - Kendal

Team Shiltonpig arrive t'up north

 Saturday 24th July 2010

So the suitcases are packed and the car is full...mainly with Josh and all his stuff. In fact he has 20 bags to his name and all his dear parents have are 2!! Anyway with all these suitcases in the car....it can only mean 1 thing...the Shiltonpig summer holiday. All together now on the count of 3..."were all going on a summer holiday, no more working for a week or two". So sit down find yourself a nice cup of tea and let us take you on a whirlwind tour of Northern Britain. First up is Kendal....famous of course for Kendal Mint Cake.

Wheres Jess?

 Mr Shiltonpig spent many a penny or two of his pocket money on such things when he was a lad. These days Wetherspoons and Travelodge seem to take all his pennies with their great breakfasts and reasonable priced hotels. But as the photo on the right shows Kendal is famous for being the birthplace of.....(drum roll) Postman Pat. Yes thats right folks if it wasn't for Kendal we would not have the best Postman on the planet...if only Royal Mail could be as good as him. Of course we would not have found this out if it wasn't for a cache called "secrets of the auld town". They love their multi caches in this town that is for sure.

Thought they were supposed to be green plaques?

 One such multi cache which again is one of our favourites is "Kendal Green Plaques"...basically you have to answer 21 questions based on 20 plaques around Kendal, you learn a lot about the town and takes you to all the hot spots in the area. Sounds daunting but actually didn't take you as long as you might think. A BIG thumbs up from team Shiltonpig for this one. In addition there are a couple of very crafty nano (the evil nano strikes again) in the area including one in the main market square with a great clue. Of course one of the great things about British holidays is the weather...Britain is known for its sunshine and soaring temperatures...I jest of course

An ancient building....now Wetherspoons

 and today after waking up to glorious sunshine in Derbyshire it poured down with rain by the time the afternoon came around. It dampened our spirits and very soon Mr Shiltonpig was sitting in the corner crying that he was unable to go geocaching, while Mrs Shiltonpig and Josh were drinking themselves silly with diet pepsi (other brands are available at all good supermarkets) and juice respectively. However we did manage to enjoy a nice picnic by a church on the river....right next to a cache of course...it wouldn't be right otherwise would it? It dried off eventually which allowed Mrs Shiltonpig time to visit one of her other favourite pastimes...

"Oh if only it were real"

eating chocolates. 1657 chocolate house is a house from the 17th century still serving chocolates today. Mr Shiltonpig prized Mrs Shiltonpig long enough away to have a final walk along the river and have a look at the flood lines that have scared the town in its recent past. Kendal may be known as the gateway to the lakes but is a worthy caching town in its own right. Of course the rain came back and we had to head back to the hotel with a chinese restaurant (abysmal service) and a nice bottle of red wine. Josh settled into his travel cot with his whale and poo bear before he went to sleep dreaming of where he was going to travel tomorrow....tune in for more holiday tales soon...