Beatrix Potter and Edinburgh

This morning we went to Hill Top which is the house that Beatrix Potter lived in when she wrote/illustrated many of her children's books. They did a great job of preserving her house, exactly the way it was with all of the original furniture and some of her letters and things laid out. They had books of hers open to specific pages where it was based in that specific room or was a view from that part of the house. She was a very talented botanical water colorist! We had to buy Samuel Whiskers and Peter and Rabbit after seeing all of this! They also have several galleries and museums in the area with her water colors (and her family used to holiday at Wray Castle nearby). Wordsworth stuff is all over The Lake District as well since he is from the area. 

Does this look familiar from Peter Rabbit?

With the kids in the rain in front of the house (Ethan wasn't actually as thrilled with touring the house and comparing the book to the views as I thought he might be).

Gorgeous Lake District countryside:

Car packed to the gills. Who needs to see out the back window, anyways? :)

Once we reached Edinburgh (luckily, we made it puke-free although we were paranoid she was going to puke anytime she didn't sound content), after getting situated we headed to Mums Comfort Food for dinner (Jen Pinter had recommended it and said that it was kid-friendly). The waitress was AWESOME (so good with the kids, we left her a good tip), it really made a difference. The sausages (see the daily special favors below) and mash (they probably had 12-15 different flavor of mash-I got the popular bacon and leek) were a hit! Chris got their super cheesy Mac and cheese.

Ethan hit his head on the bench and the waitress gave him this for getting over it quickly:

Treacle pudding (has dates as ingredient) is a popular Scottish dessert we had to try:

I was teasing Chris and telling him that he was "home" and that there were more of "his people" every time a redhead walked in (there really are a lot of redheads here!).