I told you I'd be back...
Craig - that's a nice photo man. Could you have made it any bigger?
I had a great weekend. We went there really as a tribute to a friend of mine who died in a car crash just over a year ago. When I was younger, my family and all my friends families' would all go up to the Lake District once a year. There would normally be about 40 of us in the group and we would stay in a large Youth Hostel called Castlerigg Manor, which is situated in a small village called Keswick in the Western Lake District (Cumbria). We would walk and climb mountains and generally do strenuous physical activities during the day and take in the breathtaking scenery. At night we would play pool in the games room and as we got a bit older and discovered alcohol, some of the older guys (myself included) would wander down to the village and have a few drinks in some of the bars there. Anyway, while my parents and their friends have kept up the tradition of going, a lot of their children have stopped going as we all felt we were getting too old.
One year ago however, one of the families' children, Andrew, was driving up to the Lake District for a walking holiday with four friends when their car was hit from behind my a van travelling at 70 miles per hour. The four friends were wearing proper seatbelts and survived the crash. Andrew was in the middle of the back seats and was only wearing the lapstrap seatbelt. He died instantly in the crash suffering massive internal injuries. Andrew was three weeks past his 21st birthday. My mother phoned me the next morning crying and told me what had happened. The funeral was pretty difficult as the guy was just so young. His parents and family were devastated and have never really recovered. Andrew's brother Peter was one of my best friends at school and I tried to be there for him as best as I could. Anyway, we decided amongst ourselves to all make a special effort to make it to the Lake District this year, as kind of a tribute to the guy and we all had a great time, even though it was a pretty sad occasion. We had a bench specially made with a plaque on it in remembrance of the life of our lost friend, which we left in the grounds of Castlerigg Manor, which was a place that he loved so much. RIP Andrew. I miss ya buddy.
Here's some photos from the Lake District. I took them with my cellphone camera, so they ain't great. I will post some good ones I took with my digital camera some other time.
Thanks, dudes.
GMan
(silly git.... 
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