Our England and Scotland Adventure: Day One (17 August)

Bob and I caught our 10:25 A.M. train from London—the trip was as smooth as could be, with the usual sights

and the added perk of free tea and coffee on board, even for lowly second-class passengers, with the train only making one stop before we reached our destination of Derby at 12:05 P.M. Bob’s relative (first cousin, once removed, to be exact) Grahame kindly picked us up at the station and once we arrived at Grahame and Josephine’s home in Burton (full name: Burton-upon-Trent), we were treated to a delicious lunch, dumped our bags in our cosy room,
somehow managed to tear ourselves away from our amazing view of Jo and Grahame's expansive back garden,
and headed out for Branston Water Park. Now in Canada, this would mean that we would have taken along our swimsuits in preparation for twisty water slides and splashing around in several chlorinated pools, but in England the words water park mean just that: a park that centres on water. Built on land reclaimed from a gravel pit, the park’s paths are lovely places to escape from the nearby highway
and the water part of the park isn’t bad either, with plenty of birds enjoying the open space.

We came across a canal and were sad to see that we had just missed out on watching a boat go through the lock,
but were pleased when we turned the other way and realised that another boat was just beginning to make its way through scenic Tatenhill Lock.

Grahame, Jo, and Bob got involved in the physical labour of getting the boat through the lock (I was, um, busy with the camera)

and we chatted with the boat captain, who thought we were taking a break from our own boat. He asked me where our boat was, and I said, “Well, right here!” and pretended to step down onto his boat, before admitting that we were just taking a stroll through the water park. Next thing we knew, the couple offered to take us on a ride down the canal, as far as we felt like going! Bob asked Grahame and Jo if they were interested in a ride, and they said they wanted to walk down the canal toward the car park, but encouraged us to enjoy our ride, so off we went for a brief stint on the water and even at the helm:
We felt lazy compared with Jo and Grahame,
and except for a bit of nervous steering every time we came close to another boat (I handed off to Bob when this happened), we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise down the canal.
A quick goodbye to the real captain of the boat (a coach driver who de-stresses by going considerably slower along canals on his days off)
and the boat itself
and our new friends were off.
We returned home for a bit of a relaxation before supper
and went for a lovely early-evening walk afterwards, through a bit of Burton and the surrounding parkland.

We saw quite a few swans on our walk,
including this rather oversized one in Stapenhill Gardens:
At the end of our first day away, we definitely felt like the rush of London was behind us.