Lancaster Part II

The huge beans I had never seen
Carol and Mike
Blackpoole "Pleasure beach"

Jackie and Crawford
Rock candy stand in Blackpoole
People talking on the street in Blackpoole
A little sewing store near Lancaster
sweets for sale


During our stay in Lancaster we invited the friends we made in Cromer, “Crawford and Jackie” to come out for an evening visit. It was pouring rain and I wasn’t sure they would make it – but in true British style a little rain would not deter them. I made some homemade split pea soup ‘ala Nora’ – salad and bread. For dessert I baked sliced apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, dates and walnuts – I served them warm over vanilla ice cream – we sat in the living room and talked for several hours. It was great that they came to visit us – and we hope to keep in touch.
A few months ago we took a Panama Canal cruise and met a couple – Mike and Carol, originally from England but who now live in Scotland. All of us love to travel and we enjoyed each other’s company – we have kept in touch with them via email – we invited them to come out and stay for two nights with us in Lancaster, they said yes! Mike said they used to live in England and would be more than happy to take us around and show us some sights – Mike is a bighearted guy and calls almost everyone he meets ‘Love’. Carol is a retired nurse who is an adoring woman who loves her grandchildren. They arrived in the afternoon and shortly after took us to Blackpoole. Mike was a police officer there for three years and he had fond memories, not only of the streets but of his favorite ice cream parlor – there is one flavor and that is vanilla – you can have it with a cookie, but don’t ask for another flavor, it doesn’t exist – why? Because you don’t tamper with perfection, plain and simple. I am not a big sweet eater, but this vanilla ice cream could take anyone right back to their childhood – rich vanilla, so glorious you can taste the cream and when your chilly treat is finished, you only wish you had more. It was luscious, decadent and wonderful, eating that ice cream walking down the street. The only way I can explain Blackpoole to a Californian is that it is like Santa Cruz boardwalk area but bigger, much bigger – they start selling the rock candy and other assorted sweets blocks from the amusement rides. We did go into the ride area and walked around – but none of us would go on the roller coaster with David, so we just looked at all of the screaming people hanging upside down and whizzing by overhead. It was a cold and very windy day at the coast so we headed back to the condo for some hot homemade vegetable soup that I had on the stove (or as the British call it “on the hob”) We came back to soup, bread and salad, dessert and a few glasses of wine, tea and wonderful conversation.