Slept well our first night in Cornwall – and I keep saying Cornwall
because there’s a larger chance that people will have heard of that, but it’s
really the county/area that we’re in and covers a large part of the south of
England. The town we’re in is a tiny one
off of Newquay, St. Newlyn – and specifically we’re at the Degembris Farm
House. Britt and I slept so well that
we wake up at 8am – and that wasn’t the plan, since breakfast is served 8-9. We quickly assess and see that the others are
all up.. Thomas and Lauren have already showered and are ready (she’s been up
since 6:30).. and Dana and Patti are in the later stages of getting ready (up
at 7:30). So I used the kids’ shower and
Britt gets in our shower – and we go down to breakfast with wet heads. The showers are interesting, there is a
string coming from the ceiling and you have to pull on it to turn the water on
– Dana needed help with it last night as we were getting help with the
internet. I’ve never see water turned on by a pull string power switch.
Lauren is getting into the B&B experience, when I walk into her room to check on them, I find her sipping her hot chocolate, reading her book in the window nook.. it’s picture perfect (and I get a picture). We have little room heaters in our room and she used that to dry her hair (and I copy off of her). The whole house is old and has really settled – the door frames are at an angle, the floors slope – but none so much as Patti and Dana’s room. You walk in and walk into a dip.. Dana almost slipped and fell. No hospital!! (Touch wood)
We head to the breakfast room, and there is fresh fruit and yogurt set
up – juices and cereal.. and we try to figure it out. There are menus on the table with hot food
that we can order, full Cornish breakfast (yes please), omelets, and various
things to order that involve eggs and bacon.
I get coffee and it’s the steeped/coffee press kind – I get the full pot
to myself. Britt gets tea, and we get a small pitcher of milk the table. Thomas is drinking the milk in gulps, as soon
as she replaces one pitcher of milk he has it poured and down. The glasses are really small, we joke that
he’s doing shots of milk – we ask that he just leave enough for us for our tea
and coffee, but Hannah (our host) brings two pitchers of milk the next time she
comes and makes sure that he has his fill.
Three of us get the Cornish breakfast (English bacon, sausage, tomatoes,
mushrooms, eggs.. but NO beans again) – what does a girl have to do to get some
beans on her breakfast?? Two get egg
scrambles, and Patti gets the omelet – it’s really good, but the cheese is no
identifiable by us – it’s a rich goat cheese texture, like maybe a nice feta,
but less salty… After breakfast we went back upstairs and chilled for another
hour while we got ready. I post a blog
entry, Dana went back to bed… but eventually we get out the door (not that
we’re in a rush at all).
I go downstairs and I’m talking to Hannah about our plans for the day –
we’re going to Lands End because that looks gorgeous, but we don’t really have
any plans. Just driving down there
(about an hour away) seeing what we see and coming back.. I explain that we
just came from 4 days in London where we had LOTS of plans and now the rest of
the trip is just pretty lazy, see what we see, no plans – and she laughed and
said that this was the perfect place for that.
The couple that run the place have a son named Nicholas (he’s our wi-fi
password) and he’s just adorable. He’s
7, and at the moment he’s running around in a Sith costume wielding a light
saber. I ask if he’s a Sith and he
speaks right up and says yes, that he prefers “the baddies”, he thinks the
baddies are good, and the good people are really baddies.. that’s right, I love
the story of a misunderstood baddie with a heart of gold. At other times when we’ve seen him running
around he’s been Superman (not a baddie) and a robot (wearing a cardboard
box). At the morning breakfast its SUPER
cute because as Hannah takes our order, he writes it down in his tablet and
then we hear him reporting it back to his dad in the kitchen.
We head out to Lands End (it’s the southernmost tip of England) – Thomas is navigating, taking over the scary passenger seat from Patti, and it’s a good role for him. He’s much more calm when he tells me I’m too close (and that’s happening much less often btw). There are MANY roundabouts (rotaries), but we’re getting a system down. The gps tells us which exit to take out of the roundabout, so Thomas is in charge of telling me which exit to get out on – my job is to focus on the shifting and the gears. I’m ok with the process of the shift (the clutch, etc), but I’m REALLY having a hard time with the placement of the gears – 3rd gear is my nemesis! If I want 1st… I’m in 3rd (car dies), if I want 5th… I’m in 3rd (massive shift down).. and if I WANT 3rd? I’m in 1st (MAJOR shift down). Thomas defends me (not that anyone was attacking me) and says that not only is it at an odd angle, being on the left rather than the right, but I’m shifting with my left hand and he’s useless doing anything with his left hand; so he thinks I’m doing a great job.
We head out to Lands End (it’s the southernmost tip of England) – Thomas is navigating, taking over the scary passenger seat from Patti, and it’s a good role for him. He’s much more calm when he tells me I’m too close (and that’s happening much less often btw). There are MANY roundabouts (rotaries), but we’re getting a system down. The gps tells us which exit to take out of the roundabout, so Thomas is in charge of telling me which exit to get out on – my job is to focus on the shifting and the gears. I’m ok with the process of the shift (the clutch, etc), but I’m REALLY having a hard time with the placement of the gears – 3rd gear is my nemesis! If I want 1st… I’m in 3rd (car dies), if I want 5th… I’m in 3rd (massive shift down).. and if I WANT 3rd? I’m in 1st (MAJOR shift down). Thomas defends me (not that anyone was attacking me) and says that not only is it at an odd angle, being on the left rather than the right, but I’m shifting with my left hand and he’s useless doing anything with his left hand; so he thinks I’m doing a great job.
The drive is beautiful – rolling hills, sheep, massive windmills (that
harvest energy) – and people are trying to get pictures, but by the time you
see something you want a picture of and you get your camera out, the
shrubberies pop up and block your shot.
Damn shrubs!
We get to Lands End and it’s incredible – this is what I wanted from
Cornwall—the ground is less grass and more like a soft plush moss
everywhere. After we get some pics of us
on rocks (gotta love Britt’s poses on the rocks), we decide to head straight
for the edge of the cliffs. We think
that we’re leaders, but we can also be followers (true story), so we head down
the hill after this lady, and then once we’re halfway down we realize that it’s
not a path.. Thomas gives us a bit of a
scare when he turns his ankle slightly – but he walks it off pretty quickly and
all is well. Patti white knuckles her
way down the hill, and just as she thinks she in the clear, she slips a little
on the gravel. See? Must remain vigilant to the end. They
post signs about the nature of the paths, some are red paths (dangerous path
and rigorous meant for the physically fit) and green paths (suitable for the
elderly) - but we seem to manage both
just fine. We’re counting on Lauren for
great pics – we’ve come to the point that instead of taking a picture of
something we just say, “Lauren, get a picture of that”… Thomas wearing his
jacket – it is a bit chilly. He thought
that he’d be waiting for a while before he had a chance to wear it.
We hang out by the edge of the cliffs for while and admire the water,
the lighthouse (which Britt wanted to walk to, before we were able to see that
it was on rock out in the ocean), and a big rock that in all of our stories
will be an exciting whale sighting. We
decide to walk to the “crafts” – the brochure promised a group of artisans that
we could watch work and then buy their products. We get to the pottery place and I know
immediately that we’re going to love him because he has a Dalek (a Doctor Who
thing) on his sign. He has a little
schnauzer that looks a lot like Britt’s
dog, Hermione and they bond over their puppies.
I got a few unfinished pieces (they say Lands End, and one has a Dalek)
– Lauren got an unfinished owl (owl theme) and cute little frog that I say she
must pose with later. Patti gets a Celtic
cross that looks a lot like her tattoo.
Across the way there is a jeweler and Britt is already inside bonding
with him as we walk in. He asked her
what she does and after he learned she was a sign language interpreter he tells
her a deaf joke (love that he knows a deaf joke) – and it’s a classic, one that
I’ve heard before. It’s the one where
the Deaf man has stolen money from someone powerful (it changes, I’ve heard it
as the mafia or as a bunch of outlaws – people with guns who will kill
you). They have him captured and at
gunpoint say that they will shoot him between the eyes unless he tells them
where the money is. There is an
interpreter and she relays that information to the Deaf man, who then tells all
– exactly where the money is hidden. The
interpreter turns to the baddies and says, “He’ll never tell, he doesn’t care
if you shoot him dead!” – which they do.
The interpreter then goes to location where the money is… and that’s why
you can’t trust interpreters. The
interesting part to me is that when he’s taking on the role of the people who
sign, he’s doing a makeshift sign language gesture – and it looks very much
like British sign language (he’s touching his fingertips and palms of his hands
often, just like they do their manual alphabet) – and I think that it’s
interesting to see that the British hearing version of what sign language looks
like is different than the American hearing version of it.
This guy is a charmer, he’s told Brittany that she’s made his day just
by coming in. She asks to see some rings
(only 14 pound) and he tells her that she should also look at these, her looking
at these would make him very happy because they’re more expensive (20
pounds). She does end up with a ring and
with a bracelet with a sparrow on it. I
look at the rings too, and he tells the story of one ring that he has patterned
with the texture of the stones of Lands End – so it will always be a part of
this place. I end up with that one. He’s very funny and interesting – he also
writes children stories about the Lands End cat (his cat) and tells the story
of a legend of a cat saving a treasure from a pirate ship because it was
attached to her collar and she swam with it to the shore. Then he pulls out that very same treasure
chest (it’s pretty small – can be held in the palm of your hand) and it’s
filled with pretty shiny rocks. He tells
us that we each get one because we bought something – we’re supposed to put
that in our wallet, and if we always keep it with us then our wallets will
never be empty (it will have that rock in it).
We’re leaving the shop and he turns his sights on Lauren – he tells her,
you know what would make me Reeeeally happy? It would be if you bought
something too. J
We head up to the shopping and restaurant area – there is a promise of an atm and I’m in need. We try it a few times, but it says “bank not available” – they guy even comes over and checks it for us, but it still doesn’t work. Some of the girls get some Cornish ice cream, and we decide that it’s time for proper food and head to the “Pantry” -- we all get the traditional Cornish Pastys (not pastries, although they are pastries), except for Thomas who gets a hotdog. The story behind the pastys is that this is a large tin mining area, and the wives would make these for their husbands for lunch – it’s a full meal wrapped in an easy to go package. It tastes like a pot roast meal (complete with carrots and potatoes) wrapped in a handheld pot pie crust. That crimped roll around the edge was made to be very hard in the past, not really meant to be eaten because the tin on the hands of the miners was toxic and they wouldn’t want to eat anything that their hands have touched. So they hold it by the crimped edge, then dig into the pastry like a watermelon slice. I love it when food and history come together.
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| Pasty -- see the "handle"? |
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| Not a bad view |
We walked
over to the “first/last house” of England (depending on whether you’re coming
or going) and I find some Cornish ice cream that is clotted cream flavor (yum!
It’s like a sweet whipped cream flavor) – a small child who was nearby decided
that he wanted some ofit and came over toward me determined… before his mother
scooped him up. Very cute. Cream tea is
another goal of mine while we’re in Cornwall – it’s a Cornish thing, scones
with clotted cream and jam, and it’s different that a traditional English tea. I’m curious to know what the clotted cream is
like. When we were at lunch I spotted a
couple eating cream tea out of little kits that they bought in the Pantry and
before we leave I buy a couple of them just in case it’s the only chance I get
to try it. We walk back up toward the
center again and there is a boat on display – there is a height requirement for
the boat (like you can’t be taller than “this” – about 3 feet if you want to
play here)—but it says that kids must be accompanied by an adult, so we figure
that gives us some leeway to be on the boat.
We do our “King of the World” pose…
Before we
head out we hit the shops and get some postcards – Lauren gets a jacket that
she’d been thinking about (it says Lands End), and Thomas got some ice cream. We’re out!
And we decide we want to see what Penzance (Pirates of Penzance) looks
like while we’re in the area. WHOA. The streets are NARROW – and we’re just
driving aimlessly looking for something interesting – we keep heading up the
hills, and that’s a big mistake because the further you go up the narrower the
streets gets, but with every turn that we try to take to get out of here, it
takes us further up… the only way to go down is to turn around, and there is no
way to do that either. We get to a
point where the gps wants us to turn and go up AGAIN and it’s just an
impossible curve surrounded by stone walls.. later we said that we should have
gotten out of the car to show how tight the roads are, but we’re not sure we
could have gotten the doors open enough to GET out. Luckily we find a driveway that has a HUGE
space to turn around in, and we head back the way we came. The narrow streets are made narrower by the
parking. There is no parking lane – the
people literally just park in the driving lane, and then we have to drive into
oncoming traffic to drive around them.
On our way back to the motorway we actually see a nice little festival
happening in town – and had I seen that first I probably would have parked, but
right now we’re just so ready to be out of there that it’s not even appealing.
Just before e get on the motorway we make our first petrol purchase, and you can’t pay at the pump and Thomas figures out that we have to use our car key to get the tank
open. We find a pharmacy just before they close and Dana gets some meds – people are starting to feel sniffly and they’re blaming me. I know that’s impossible because I’m not sick, it’s just my sinuses…
We enjoy the drive back and as soon as we hit town we go to the Two Clomes - from last night to see if we can get in. It’s a Sunday, and it’s much slower. Our waitress is great and very patient with the Americans that don’t understand some elements of the menu. She tells us about the time that she’s been to American, and she stayed in Utah – no alcohol in many places and restrictions in the whole state. Like she thought it was funny that she couldn’t get a double shot of something in one glass, they had to sell her what they called a “sidecar” and then she could pour that into the larger shot and drink it. While she’s talking to us about something she slips into an American accent (like a southern, Flo, “kiss my grits” kind of accent) and then says that she’s noticed it and is so embarrassed – I tell her that she should hear our British accents, they’re horrible, and she is begging us to do it… but I can’t even muster it..
Just before e get on the motorway we make our first petrol purchase, and you can’t pay at the pump and Thomas figures out that we have to use our car key to get the tank
open. We find a pharmacy just before they close and Dana gets some meds – people are starting to feel sniffly and they’re blaming me. I know that’s impossible because I’m not sick, it’s just my sinuses…
We enjoy the drive back and as soon as we hit town we go to the Two Clomes - from last night to see if we can get in. It’s a Sunday, and it’s much slower. Our waitress is great and very patient with the Americans that don’t understand some elements of the menu. She tells us about the time that she’s been to American, and she stayed in Utah – no alcohol in many places and restrictions in the whole state. Like she thought it was funny that she couldn’t get a double shot of something in one glass, they had to sell her what they called a “sidecar” and then she could pour that into the larger shot and drink it. While she’s talking to us about something she slips into an American accent (like a southern, Flo, “kiss my grits” kind of accent) and then says that she’s noticed it and is so embarrassed – I tell her that she should hear our British accents, they’re horrible, and she is begging us to do it… but I can’t even muster it..
I order the traditional pork roast (she said that on Sundays it’s the
thing that people go out for, every place will have a beef and a pork roast
dinner and they’re already out of the beef roast). It's actually pretty bland, which the rep of English food -- I guess because it's "traditional" - It comes with a Yorkshire pudding, and I have
to try it because we describe the one that we had (what we thought we had) the
other day, and she says that’s not it – she makes hers with a pancake batter,
it’s meant to be sweet. It’s weird, I can’t even really describe it –
but it’s nothing I would crave. It’s
like a stale pancake – a day old pancake (that has gone rubbery) and then put
beef gravy on it. Patti gets a yummy pesto summer and winter chicken, but Brittany wins hands down with her order of the pork
loin wrapped with Parma ham (it was so good).. Lauren had minestrone -
Dana fish and chips (the best she’s had) and Thomas had …..a burger with
pickle mayo and the onions cooked in (not
his favorite, but he ate around them). It was so nummy, and we are stuffed
– but she bring around a dessert menu and there are things we must try. Britt gets the Creme brûlée and barely share
(rude), Lauren gets a hot chocolate brownie, and Patti and I share the Eton
mess (a distinctly British dessert with “double cream”, bits of crunchy sweet
meringue and fresh fruit (really good), .. We want to open a restaurant that
serves loose meat sandwiches and Eton mess.
We’d call it “Loose Mess”… or “Hot Loose Mess”… or just “Hot Mess” –
you’d eat there, right?
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| Meat, potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding |
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| Pesto Chicken |
.jpg) |
| Are you kidding me, yummy goodness |
We pay at the bar and head out – great place! We get back to the B&B and everyone (except for me) decides to walk around and explore the grounds a little. They’re just gorgeous – green pastures, sheep, English garden, stone walls… Lauren finds snails – they all find a “Butter well” (where you stored your butter before refrigeration)… Brittany apparently got a little winded and Patti got all gansta on her again (Britt was walking funny) – “Why you walkin like that” – then Britt was trying to catch her breath and bent over… Patti gets all gansta again, “Stand up – open your chest to get air!” …
We gather in the lounge for a blog meeting so that I get things in that
they remember and hopefully straighten out a few details. Not everything that I put in the blog is
completely accurate and as they read it, they like to point that out – I didn’t
say that, Dana said that – or I didn’t eat that, I ate this… so you really
can’t believe everything that you read.
But they’re all in bed by the time I’m writing this, so I get creative license. One clarification that I’ve been asked to
make is about Brittany’s rash – she doesn’t want people to get any ideas about
her rash… it’s on her foot. She says
that it’s her “annual rash”—but we miss hear and think she’s said it’s her
“anal rash” – it’s not. Stop it. Don’t get any ideas about her annual rash.
We get a little distracted as we chat (as usual) – we’re watching
British game shows, they love a game show!
Many of the questions are just completely unfamiliar (what brand of
chocolate used the slogan “lighter than air?” – Marsters, Aero, or something
else? – Where is the Mary Rose at port? Plymouth, Portsmouth or____ ?”). But then a show that looks very similar to
“Minute to Win It” comes on – it’s THE CUBE.
And they have to perform tasks, have limited lives.. the only difference
is that the time limit can vary from task to task, and every task takes place
inside of a large clear cube. After a
couple of shows we disperse and head to our rooms. It’s actually pretty early (about 10) – but not
having plans has not been any less tiring than having plans and we have to head
out to Cardiff in the morning.
Our total for the day is 8775 steps. 29 stairs. (3.60 miles)
Our total for the day is 8775 steps. 29 stairs. (3.60 miles)
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