Rivers and Mountains (or hills)

I am in an unusually good mood tonight, not sure why.  May have something to do with the fact that Aaron comes to visit in a little more than a week or maybe just that the weather is absolutely beautiful here.  For the past 4 days it has been perfectly sunny, not a cloud in the sky and around 65-70F.  This is definitely not standard English weather.  While I havent been able to use my rain boots yet, I cant complain if get this weather instead. 

Since the weather has been so beautiful, my coworker offered to take David, Diana and I out on Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday night to show us the countryside around Chester.  On Sunday, we met around noon to go out on the river.  His wifes family has a 150-year-old rowboat that is absolutely beautiful.  It definitely doesn’t have the same luxuries that a modern rowboat but it was neat to be in something that old.  After rowing out of the city, we stopped so they could teach me how to row.  I had never rowed before and trying to work the oars was a little difficult.  There is a little rectangular piece that sticks out of the oar and you keep that between the two wood pieces to row (see u shaped wood pieces in picture below).  In a modern boat the oars would be fixed and you wouldn’t have to balance them so it’s a lot easier.  After about 5 minutes or so I finally got the hang of it.  Not to boast too much but my coworkers wife said I was very good, even said it came very naturally to me! yay finally a sport im good at!! The one sport we probably don’t have it Texas – love it. 

Me trying to figure out how to row

The journey was about 2 hours down the river to where we docked and then walked a ½ mile to a local pub.  The beers were delicious as always and I tried out a cheese plate.  Oh the cheese in England, they are so amazing.  After leaving the pub we rowed back and they left David and I row, just the two of us.  We were doing pretty good, definitely had a rhythm going.  I was quite impressed with ourselves.  I was the rower in the back so I had the harder job of following David and while it was tricky at first, I really enjoyed it.  Maybe I should join a rowing club?  I do live on a river so it could be fun, right?! 

Can I live in that house?

 Enough about the boat trip though.  Tuesday night, my coworker took us out to his home town, Helsby, which is about 20 minutes from Chester.  There is a hill in town that he offered for us to go walking around and again then go to a pub for drinks.  Well he first asked how we would like to go up the hill, either by the face or take the long way around.  I should preface this story that when I looked at the face of the hill, it looked like it went straight up and there was no way to get up there without having rock climbing gear.  Then my coworker tells us that his young nieces and nephews have climbed it so of course we say sure we can go up the face.  What we couldn’t see at the bottom was this little gully that went to the top.  It definitely wasn’t easy though!!  It was quite steap and several points I was a little worried we were going to fall backwards.  Poor Diana is only 5’2” or so and at several points here little legs couldn’t reach.  Luckily David was nice enough to give her a boost! 

It doesnt look as frightening here but it was quite steep!

Im glad we went up the hill though because the views were amazing, you could see Liverpool and beautiful farmlands.  I still cant get over how green everything is and they apparently are in a drought right now.  For those of you reading this who are from Texas, when we think drought, we think everything is brown, not green!!  After making it to the top, we walked down the back side and started making our way to the pub.  Apparently, there are designated footpaths all throughout England.  You could be on someone else’s land but the side of it is some designated footpath.  Kind of neat, but when you are following someone who takes you into the middle of a potato field, you begin to question.  Needless to say, we made it to the pub after several questioning remarks of “do you know where you are going?” and “are you sure we are going the right way”. 

Liverpoool on the horizon and Helsby below

All in all, I am still amazed at how beautiful the countryside of England is.  Lets just hope the weather stays this nice for me to enjoy it.  Well that’s all for me now, im off to heat up my leftovers.