Sunrise, sunshine...

...a little more wandering

Knock, knock, knock... early morning, a quiet knock at my door. Caroline stopped by to let me know that the sky over the lake was turning pink, a view visible from her room but not from mine. Hmm... I thought all of two seconds, then threw on some clothes and headed outside. It was a quiet sunrise, still beautiful.

It was a good start to a too short photo day. I suppose that short is better than not at all though.

We made two stops along the Thirlmere reservoir, the first with the sun peeking out from behind clouds, visible rays leading to the water.

At the second stop, I found that there weren't any features of the landscape that jumped out at me - but oh! there was a stand of birch trees. It seemed like a good time to practice vertical panning again, this time using my ball-head tripod and discovering how to move the camera in a straight line. It was easier using Charlie's tripod yesterday with a head that moved in one direction only, but I think I've figured out how to control the movement of the ballhead. I'm looking forward to seeing the photos on a larger screen than the one on the back of my camera.

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What's that loud noise? We looked up to see jets, RAF training runs, streaking above the lakes...

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We finished up at about 4, a bit earlier than our normal end-of-day stopping time the last two days. I stayed at the hotel until 6:30, visiting, looking at photos, and waiting out the Friday traffic. (You're right, the problem traffic wasn't in the Lake District; it was around the cities, people heading home from work, and people heading out for a weekend escape. Better to wait than to sit in traffic...) The time to head for Manchester rolled around; I headed north in order to drive south in an attempt to get to the motorway more quickly. It was a bit longer from a mileage standpoint, but I skipped the skinny-laned drive over Kirkstone Pass.

I finished the drive with a ridiculous number of circles around the Manchester Airport. I was looking for the rental car return - which definitely could have had better markings / signs / directions. I finally found the place in the garage to drop the car, only to find all of the rental car offces closed. Now what? Oh, there are instructions on the door telling me where to drop the contract and the keys. OK, done.

On to the hotel, one more night in England before heading out over the Atlantic Ocean. I'll fall asleep tonight to the sound of jets roaring into the open windows.