Yorkshire Dales, Paris, Lake District

Because everyone loves a duck.

It just sort of worked out that way: three consecutive weeks of travel.  My colleague Beth showed up a few days before she and I attended a conference on sustainable development in Manchester.  Sue's brother Marty came at the same time.  The four of us -- Marty, Sue, Beth, and me -- traveled with our friend Amanda who was kind enough to put us up in her comfy home in Middleham.

Middleham, you may recall from an earlier post, is home to 800 racing horses.

We took several day trips from Middleham.  I took pictures of stone walls and Sue took pictures of sheep.

 We went to Staithes and the Whitby Abbey on the east coast of England.

Awaiting high tide in Staithes on the English Channel.

The village beach in Staithes.  Photo courtesy of Beth Choate.

Whitby Abbey.  About a thousand years old.

Our second week of travel was to Paris, but it was a working week for both me and Sue.  Sue sat at her computer every day, and every night I taught a class called A World of Food and Agriculture for the American University of Paris.  Still we both got out when we could and how bad things can be if you have to work in Paris?

Breakfast.

Ah Paris.

AUP students learning the microbiological difference between crepes and American sourdough pancakes.  Seriously.

Sue got to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa.

This is how everyone sees the Mona Lisa.

April in Paris was warm and sunny.  Warmer and sunnier than northern England.

Sue and I left Marty in Paris for an extra two days so we could take the train through the Channel tunnel for week three with my Mom and our niece, Miriam.

After Mom and Miriam fought their way through jet lag we toured them through the Lake District.

Mom, Sue, a stone monolith from the Castlerigg henge, Eric, and Miriam.

Mother and son have a discussion.

Discussion over: Mother, son, and niece pump money into the Keswick economy.

Miriam reacts to a video Grandma made on her phone.  The video was an accident.

A sheep, a lion, and a duck.

Sue doing her thing.

A Parisian lion.

We are happy to be home in Lancaster and back on schedule.  We have already had new adventures. Reports on an eighteen century cotton mill and a walk along the Pennine Way coming soon.

OK, it's a swan, not a duck, but who doesn't love a photo of a swan?