A New Normal - A Social Distanced Day Out To Stowe

It's felt like such a long time since we've been able to enjoy a nice family day out. Lockdown here is easing and the freedom to do more again has been so very much needed. Of course, things aren't back to 'normal' and I think that for the foreseeable future at least, we'll be going forward with a 'new normal', one where we social distance from other people, wear masks inside shops and other enclosed spaces and carry antibacterial gel absolutely everywhere that we go. It's not a hard ask, especially given the freedom that we've gained back to do more things and to see more people and of course, we'll do anything to keep ourselves and others safe from coronavirus.

Yesterday we visited one of my favourite places - Stowe. We've been twice before and I think it's such a great day out for all of the family. It's a National Trust place not far from us and it's absolutely beautiful there. We have National Trust membership so it was nice to finally be able to use it this year. I prebooked our tickets online which is what you have to do now for most places, it took a little while in the queuing system but fortunately, we managed to get a date and time that suited us and better yet - a weekend day.

When we arrived it was far less busy than it's ever been so the ticketing system seems to be working well. There was lots of gel in the toilets and social distancing markers in place for the queue outside. The grounds of Stowe are HUGE and it was all ran really well and so we never worried once about being too close to others, it was just nice to completely relax and enjoy a day out as a family in a place that we love, especially after a few worrying and uncertain months in lockdown.

We took a picnic and drinks with us and we sat in front of the lake taking in the scenery whilst eating our lunch and then we bought an ice cream each on the way out. The house there was closed, not that we ever go in with the boys being so young and there was a small enclosed cave that we usually go in but that was closed also. But asides from that everything was just as we remembered it being before and we all came home feeling really happy after what had been a really lovely family day.

I filmed a few snippets of our day which I've shared in a day in our life video on my youtube channel (also embedded below) and I also wanted to share some photos of our day too. :)