Day out

Val, Ruth and I started our day out at somewhere new to us https://www.thequarryteahouse.co.uk/ 
It's at a place called Hunwick. It's about a 45minute drive from our homes. There was literally nothing else there other than houses and some lovely views. It also boasted a splendid outside area, including some little hut shelters, which had the weather been good we would have loved to sit in. The extra is the ladies toilet, we weren't expecting that! We will definitely make a return visit later in the year, when hopefully the sun will shine and the air will be warmer! We arrived just before midday thinking it would be a bit quieter before lunch time got underway and you can't make a booking. We were much mistaken as we were told there would be about a 15 minute wait. That was fine as there is a little gift shop attached for browsing. Several groups of people came in and waited while we were waiting; the length of wait increased with each customer! It was worth the wait as the food was especially good. I had the vegan breakfast, cooked to perfection and presented really nicely. The staff were lovely, friendly and helpful, pleased to answer anything we asked despite being extremely busy. (I wanted to know whose vegan sausages they used) we left just after 1pm and the café was then half empty. I feel they miss a trick with not taking bookings as a few people who didn't want to wait while we were waiting, just left and went elsewhere. A booking system would have filled their later gaps. Maybe they do bookings in the summer; perhaps they don't expect hoards of people at this time of year!
We went on to Bishop Auckland as it was only another 3 miles up the road. It is such a run down night street. Another one hit by the out of town shopping area! We had a browse of all the charity shops and a long browse in Boyes, the have everything store! We all bought some wares and then decided we could squeeze in a coffee stop. The coffee shop proved expensive, not for the coffees but because we just ran over two hours at the car park. The first two hours being 60p then a jump to £3.50! Unfortunately it's a car park where you pay on leaving so we hadn't realised, especially as the machine near where we parked was out of order and the other one right across the parking lot. Very annoying but it didn't spoil our day one bit.
Grateful:
For a day out, and it wasn't my turn to drive
For the chance to try a new food
For the easy conversation with friends