September's Holiday In A Weekend - Day One
September's Holiday in a day was going to be a great surprise. Months ago Flyfour had suggested instead of going out for just one day that he would like to go away for the whole weekend... and he'd like to organise everything as a surprise for Tops, DJ and me. It would be a sort of Anniversary gift to us and a lot of fun would be planned.
So we said yes and left him to the planning.
It took great restraint on my behalf to not google things that were happening the last weekend of September and in the end, I managed to get one piece of information out of Flyfour with regards to the weekend. We'd need to leave at 6:30 am, as our first destination was a four-hour drive away. I worked out that this would mean we were heading to the North of the UK, and so knew to pack accordingly. Out came the fleece jumpers, scarves, hats and walking boots and away went any ideas of resting by a pool somewhere in Europe!
On the drive there we were in fine spirits, the sun was out, we had plenty of snacks and I was making the most of the drive by sitting knitting a scarf for a friend. There had been an accident on the route we were taking at one point, and we ended up being sat in traffic for around an hour, but it was okay as we were together and we were enjoying the different scenery to the four walls of our home.
Eventually, it was obvious that our first stop was in Blackpool.
I'd never been, so was excited to experience the town for at least a couple of hours and allowed Top Ender and Flyfour to tell me all they knew, as they had been here a couple of years ago.
Flyfour marched us along the Promenade until we reached the Harry Ramsden's at the Blackpool Tower, where we sat down to lunch and then he announced, he also had tickets for us to go up the Tower! I was thrilled, the children (who are both scared of heights) not so much.
And yet, they trudged up because they didn't want to let their fears get in the way of something that promised to be spectacular. And the views from the top really were spectacular!
Although, only Flyfour and I were brave enough to stand on the glass viewing platform. Which is fine as I LOVED looking down, but did find it a bit hard to take that initial first step into "nothing".
We spent ages looking over the comedy carpet, finding the best quotes or jokes and sharing them with each other. I was devastated when I found out that I'd been saying one of my favourite quotes wrong for years! Although, I blame my grandparents as they were the ones that taught it to me initially!
We went to the amusements and played a few games and the children went on a ride too. Then just as we thought we couldn't handle any more for the afternoon, we headed off to our Hotel and our second destination of the day The real treat of the trip, which we still had no clue as to what it was.
It turned out that Flyfour had managed to get tickets for the family to see the second night of the British Musical Fireworks Championship, which is held in Southport. So after a quick snack for our evening meal (Hotel Kettle + Pot Noodles = Hotel Dinner), we headed off to the park/showground, found a spot to settle in and looked up to watch the three 15 minute firework displays.
They were brilliant, but I'll write another blog post about it, as there is so much to tell you all!
And yet we still weren't finished. Flyfour very lovingly then drove us back to Blackpool so we could see the illuminations.
We eventually got back to our hotel room at 1am, where after a quick blood test on Dan Jon and a warning that nobody should be awake much before 7 am, we all fell into our beds and quickly into a deep sleep.
It was a fab first day.
So we said yes and left him to the planning.
It took great restraint on my behalf to not google things that were happening the last weekend of September and in the end, I managed to get one piece of information out of Flyfour with regards to the weekend. We'd need to leave at 6:30 am, as our first destination was a four-hour drive away. I worked out that this would mean we were heading to the North of the UK, and so knew to pack accordingly. Out came the fleece jumpers, scarves, hats and walking boots and away went any ideas of resting by a pool somewhere in Europe!
On the drive there we were in fine spirits, the sun was out, we had plenty of snacks and I was making the most of the drive by sitting knitting a scarf for a friend. There had been an accident on the route we were taking at one point, and we ended up being sat in traffic for around an hour, but it was okay as we were together and we were enjoying the different scenery to the four walls of our home.
Eventually, it was obvious that our first stop was in Blackpool.
I'd never been, so was excited to experience the town for at least a couple of hours and allowed Top Ender and Flyfour to tell me all they knew, as they had been here a couple of years ago.
Flyfour marched us along the Promenade until we reached the Harry Ramsden's at the Blackpool Tower, where we sat down to lunch and then he announced, he also had tickets for us to go up the Tower! I was thrilled, the children (who are both scared of heights) not so much.
And yet, they trudged up because they didn't want to let their fears get in the way of something that promised to be spectacular. And the views from the top really were spectacular!
Although, only Flyfour and I were brave enough to stand on the glass viewing platform. Which is fine as I LOVED looking down, but did find it a bit hard to take that initial first step into "nothing".
We spent ages looking over the comedy carpet, finding the best quotes or jokes and sharing them with each other. I was devastated when I found out that I'd been saying one of my favourite quotes wrong for years! Although, I blame my grandparents as they were the ones that taught it to me initially!
We went to the amusements and played a few games and the children went on a ride too. Then just as we thought we couldn't handle any more for the afternoon, we headed off to our Hotel and our second destination of the day The real treat of the trip, which we still had no clue as to what it was.
It turned out that Flyfour had managed to get tickets for the family to see the second night of the British Musical Fireworks Championship, which is held in Southport. So after a quick snack for our evening meal (Hotel Kettle + Pot Noodles = Hotel Dinner), we headed off to the park/showground, found a spot to settle in and looked up to watch the three 15 minute firework displays.
They were brilliant, but I'll write another blog post about it, as there is so much to tell you all!
And yet we still weren't finished. Flyfour very lovingly then drove us back to Blackpool so we could see the illuminations.
We eventually got back to our hotel room at 1am, where after a quick blood test on Dan Jon and a warning that nobody should be awake much before 7 am, we all fell into our beds and quickly into a deep sleep.
It was a fab first day.