Getting There: From Connecticut to St Bees

Several thousand miles, around 24 hours, 2 planes, 2 trains, and a stroll
Accommodation: Tomlin Guest House

A long day - almost as long as The Longest Day - our trip from Chicago to Tianjing via Beijing. This was our itinerary (and additions):
- drive to Jaos' in Jersey City (traffic jam)
- subway to JFK Airport, NYC (95 degrees and humid)
- JFK to London Heathrow (1 hour delay on the ground in killing heat - no ground crew to AC us up since some other plane got a hose in its engine and caught fire)
- London to Manchester (on a later flight since we missed our connection)
- Manchester to St. Bees via Carlisle on 2 trains
We enjoyed some cornish pasties at Manchester Piccadilly. It was lovely to see the Irish Sea finally from our train window. It was grey and serene and I wouldn't have been surprised to see a Selkie swimming by.
St. Bees is green and pastoral - the perfect place to start. Our hostess at the Tomlin Guest House, Irene, knew us immediately and asked about our names. She knew "Singh" should be sikh, but Devin was turbanless, of course. She was great. We got settled, ordered our breakfast for tomorrow - black pudding for me! - and went to explore. That's when the fog of travel began to wear away and we began to get excited! Sheep stared at us from fields, the rain pattered on our jackets, and a cool wind blew as we made our way to Priory Church. We stomped through an old graveyard to get there - well, the earliest grave I saw was dated 1820. The Norman West Door of the church was quite impressive, and the dragon lintel opposite, dated from the 12th C. intriguing in its serpentine knots.

In our trusty waterproof Marmots, in our first venture out at St. Bees.

The Norman West Door at Prior Church

Then a walk up to the Queen's hotel. We sat in their lovely garden room for dinner, which was chips and scampie for D and "Val's Homemade Steak and Kidney Pie" for me. Chips doused in salt and vinegar. Mmmmm. I was too tired by then to talk so we mostly eavesdropped on our neighboring diners - a group of older folk also going on the C2C for what seemed to be their nth time).
Here we are, back at the B&B, drinking hot cocoa after a shower. Lights out soon - after we review our day to YHA Ennerdale. It'll be grueling, but I hope for the best. Even if it rains I'm sure I'll love it. Go Team Merry and Pippin!