A New Favorite Place

Since the 5th grader and I took prom pics for the teen's group over at Virginia Water Lake, the younger one has longed to return.  It's part of Windsor Great Park along its farthest southern edge, not too terribly distant from the girl's school.  We've had glorious weather lately, making up for the 6ish weeks of cool and soggy stuff we had to suffer.  Saturday was definitely a winner, with temps in the upper 70s, a nice breeze and blue skies.

Initially the 5th grader wanted to take her roller blades since the main paths are paved. However, it's a bit of a rolling landscape and so she opted to take her bike instead.  It's times like this when I'm glad we purchased a gas guzzling, difficult to maneuver and park SUV.  We threw the bike and dog into the rear and headed out for some midmorning fun.

And then we got to sit in traffic for an extra 15 min when we were within spitting distance of the lake's car park.  It seems the golf course at Wentworth was hosting the BMW PGA Championship.  I toyed with the idea of turning around, but the peanut gallery in the back seat was most upset about that.  We persevered to discover that the golf traffic at the light was turning left while we were going right.  

We had a nice time exploring the park.  My favorite part was getting a good look at the ruins.  These were removed from the ancient Roman city of Leptis Magna located in present day Libya.  The Bashaw of Tripoli gave them as a gift to King George IV, who had his architect erect them in this spot of the park 200 years ago.

Conveniently enough, there are food and beverage caravans (in Texas we call them roach coaches) along the paved paths, so the kid had to have some soft serve ice cream. It's a catch 22 - the kid works up a sweat and burns calories, so then she's starving and needs something to eat.  

We kept Ollie on his leash the entire time since he loves everybody and would gladly leave with them instead of us.  Plus he's a little guy and there were a LOT of big dogs - so many labs it looked like a retriever convention.  The husband and kid each took him for a wade at different times on separate paths during our two hour excursion.  I had taken along his doggie water bottle server thingy, but the lake water appeared to be equally tasty and refreshing.  

It's a 30 minute drive to the lake and I wish it was much closer because it's so lovely.  The parking lot is very roomy and since it's a pay & display, kept in good repair.  The paths are wide and paved.  Boating and swimming are banned, so no UK version of redneck rowdies getting liquored up and acting like fools.  Plus dogs are allowed AND they have those handy receptacles for poop bags.  I think we've found a new spot to hang out this summer.