English Country Gorgeousness

After lunch we came back to our wonderful hotel and had the rest of the afternoon free.  The first few photos are of our National Park hotel, it was hard to capture the feeling of the place because it blends in so well with it's surroundings.  The rooms were in different small buildings throughout the grounds, and the restaurant and the lobby were in the buildings pictured below.

With our free afternoon, dad and I decided to go explore the trail that was right next to our hotel which meandered through the English countryside.  It was the most perfect day for a stroll, it was nice and cool with the sun shining in a bright blue ski, scattered with puffy, white clouds.  We had the green rolling hills on one side of our path, and a gently babbling river on the other side.  It was complete bliss.

We passed by this docile herd of cows, there were quite a few rambunctious baby calves that were pretty adorable.

Our trail ended at this huge waterfall.  There was a little trail leading from our walking path out to the rocks right next to the water.  We did a little adventurous rock climbing to get close to the falls, and enjoyed the refreshing feeling of the mist cooling our faces.

We headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner.  Tonight we were dining at a local pub just up the street from our hotel.  The other members of our group enjoyed a tasting of local ales, while we enjoyed our bubbly sodas.  We began our meal with an appetizer sampling of some local favorites.  My favorite was the deep fried breaded brie cheese with a spiced cranberry dipping sauce.

I am so sad I didn't take a picture of the sticky toffee pudding we had here, it was THE BEST sticky toffee pudding/ dessert we had the entire trip.  We had dessert every night, and when it was available, we ordered sticky toffee pudding, so I feel as if we are pretty qualified judges.  It was so buttery, and gingerbready, and had such an amazing caramel sauce, *grunt* it was so good!