| Saturday, October 26, 2002 Today I woke up at around 9am, from the sounds of paw padding and conversing Weres. Rainwolf and Gerren slept through it naturally, and so I slipped out of the room quietly to go wash up. Everyone got up right away, more or less, and started making breakfast, while MegaDog busied himself with starting the fire. At some point, someone discovered the back door, and so a few of us went wandering outside to check out the scenery. It was beautiful! Mountains, rolling hills and forests, all lush and green as far as the eye could see. I must admit, even living in Canada, I�ve never seen woods so green before in my life. By the time Rain and Gerren eventually got up it was around 10am. Razza was quite enthusiastic about going on a walk, so once everyone was done breakfast that�s the first thing we did, since it was actually quite nice out. We ended up following this trail that led us up through the forest and past the river, with the beautiful mountain scenery always in the background. We hiked for about an hour or so, and I took some pics of Weres scampering through the woods. At one point we spotted potential lunch atop of a hill (a bleating sheep). Unfortunately it was too high up to get to, so we just teased it a bit and then continued on our walk, eventually finding our way back to the barn. Once back, everyone decided that they were hungry, and so it was off to find a pub. Since we didn�t want to take all four vehicles, we split up into three groups, and Ryath, Gerren and myself got to go with MegaDog in his Land Rover. We decided to drive back to Keswick, while MegaDog and Razza kept in contact during the ride via walkie-talkie. We ended up parking a bit further away from the others since the town was just packed with people, so we had to walk for a little bit to try and find them. On a good note, we ended up running into a man with his husky, and MegaDog got some lovely doggie kisses. Eventually, after phoning someone on their mobile, we found Dave standing outside of a pub. It was a nice pub, too, and the food there was quite good (when Ryath and I saw Sandroo digging into a steak, we decided to get the same thing � it was just too hard to resist). Once we were all done eating, there was talk of going to check out a local stone circle. But before we headed off, we stopped to briefly explore a small art gallery. Some of the pieces were fairly decent, and others looked as though they�d been done by any kid. The prices were a bit too high for me to quite comprehend, but to be honest I�ve never really had any clue as to what the value of art is. Anyway, we then made our way to the stone circle, and it was rather nice. The circle was made up of about 40 large stones, and naturally we had fun climbing and jumping from rock to rock. There were actually quite a few families out that day wandering around the stones, and some of us started making jokes about sacrificing babies. It was quite amusing. We also took the opportunity to take some nice group shots, as well as getting pics of various Weres falling off of the rocks. After the circle, we stopped by a shopping center to pick up various snacks and drinks and stuff for making breakfast with in the morning. Since it was so close to Halloween, ALW suggested that we have a pumpkin carving contest, and so we picked up a couple pumpkins as well. When we were done shopping there was a bit of a debate as to weather we should go out to a pub, or just go back to the barn. No one was really all that hungry, seeing as how lunch had been quite big, but by then everyone had already paid for parking and so we all just went for a drink. Then it was back off to the barn, and somewhere along the lines we made a wrong turn and lost Dave�s group. We did a bit of backtracking, and then took the fun way back to the barn via the path that said �Unsuitable For Coaches,� while Utlah�s group followed close behind. By the time we did reach the barn, Dave�s group was already there, and Sandroo was in the process of dumping the ashes from the stove. When we all settled in, MegaDog had already began a new fire, and then the idea of making pancakes sprang up. We also decided that now would be a good time to start our pumpkin carving contest, and so we made up two teams: Razza, Utlah and Sandroo against Gerren, Ryath and myself. Since Rainwolf and ALW were busy making the pancakes, they took on the roles of judges, and so the contest began! |