Weekend away part 2

Oh dear I am so far behind again. The Sunday of our weekend was a bit of a washout, in more ways than one. Prior to booking the hotel, I had checked up on evangelical churches in Buxton, and found that there was a reasonable sounding Anglican church.
However, on the actual Sunday morning, I had slept badly and didn't wake till 8.15 am. I made a cup of tea, then another, and decided perhaps I should check the time of the service. It was 10.00am. We were not even showered, but then we realised we should get showered quickly, and go down to breakfast. The dining room was very busy, we had forgotten that breakfast times on Sunday are different, and we were almost, but not quite the last people down. Although dressed for church,we realised that we were very unlikely to make the service, as we were not even sure of the location of the church.
Eventually, breakfast over, we had to decide what to do with the day. I was still concerned about my missing specs, and asked husband if we could maybe pop into Boots to check if they had found them. On parking in the town centre, we soon found that Boots was in fact closed. We did have to buy some lunch, and I popped into a couple of the outdoor shops, and retraced my steps in the hope of finding my specs. One shop took my phone number, but no one seemed to have found them. We walked back to the car, and drove off to our destination. We were heading for Stanage edge, with the idea of having a walk, and me doing a Keira Knightley, aka Lizzy Benett, although my garments  would probably not have flowed in the same way.
We reached the car park,  just in front of the edge, but decided, as it was drizzling we would eat our sandwiches, and see how the weather went, then husband said that we couldn't walk immediately after lunch, so we would sit and see how the weather went. Husband dozed off, and I sat and watched bedraggled walkers coming back to their cars.
I decided to walk to the toilets 200m down the road, but as I reached the edge of the car park, realised there was a machine and we should have paid. I went back to the car to tell husband, and we decided to move on. I got my camera out to take some pictures, and found that it was very muddy, and I almost slipped over, so was glad we had not attempted the walk.

Stanage Edge

Back on the road, now in pouring rain, we headed for Castleton, where I knew there were some Blue John caves. After finding the loos there, we parked near the Speedwell cavern. I knew I had been in one of the caves many years ago with some friends from my first church. It involved going through in a boat, and there were quite spectacular stalactites/gmites,and a large 'bottomless' cavern. We went in the shop, and had a browse and decided to brave the cave.
Someone from a previous party had been unable to go down. We waited a while, then a bell rang, which indicated it was time to go down. what I hadn't realised was that we had to descend 106 steps. Our guide made it sound like 160, and after donning hard hats, (I'm sure we didn't last time), he told us to take our time, and set off at a great rate. My husband is not good on stairs, the ceiling was low and seemed to be closing in on me, and at about the 20th step, I got a familiar feeling. That rush of adrenaline, which makes the heartbeat just that little bit louder, and faster, and often precludes ectopic heart beats, harmless but distressing. Suddenly my mind raced, suppose I have a full blown panic attack, if I'm ill down there how do they get me out, I have 100+ plus steps to climb, how will that affect me? I called after the young man, 'Sorry, I can't do this'. He raced back up, said 'that's ok'. husband looked relieved, and we climbed back up and relinquished our helmets, then back into the shop. Apparently, I was the 4th person to bottle out that day, the other 3 all considerably younger than me. They had photos in the shop of the coronation Street cast going there in the 1960s, how on earth did Annie Walker get down in those stilettos?
Fortunately they give refunds, and I was still apologising as we left the shop. We decided that Winnat's pass looked spectacular, so drove through there, and eventually back to the hotel, where we had a cuppa, then read and tried to doze before going down to dinner.

Winnat's pass

beautiful countryside

The restaurant was not so full and we were able to have a window table. The starter I had planned on having had run out, husband had scallops again, and I opted for the panna cotta again. Our mains were beef and ale pie and mash for him, and a crown of lamb for me which actually was 2 large chops from a beautifully cooked crown, with a sauce potatoes and veg. Then we both had a chocolate dessert, which was a sort of melting middle pudding, served with Pistachio ice cream. Coffee and mints followed, and we teased the waiter about his fondness for 1960s music, mostly Roger Whittaker.
We started our packing, then watched some TV news, then retired for our last night. Next morning we had our final breakfast at the same window table the evening before, completed our packing, and loaded the car before checking out. A quick visit to Boots revealed that no specs had turned up, but they took my details, just in case. The we set the satnav for Son's home and sent Daughter in law a text to give her our ETA. It was a lovely day, breathtaking views over the peaks, and a pleasant drive.
We knew our son would be at work, but his wife's parents were staying, so we saw them for the first time since the wedding, and had a catch up session. I also got a cuddle from baby Ethan, although it's not much of a cuddle these days, more of an opportunity for him to bounce up and down in my lap, with a huge grin on his face. At 6 months he has started on 'real food', and seems to be enjoying it.
We declined lunch, being still full of brekkie, and we set off again for home, stopping at Corley, for a drink and a snack. I was pleased to be home for a decent night's sleep.

Ethan

The Grandparents