The flight, 10 1/2 hours of it, wasn't that bad. Crazy Little Man slept most of the time, and Lovely Little Girl even got some shut-eye. LEL and I slept as best we could in Cattle class, and hoped everything would go well. We got our rental car (a Ford Mondeo) and headed out of Heathrow to Blackpool to visit my in-laws. The weather was great, and surprisingly little traffic on the motorways. Even Birmingham obliged with no traffic jams. (That's a miracle for my American readers.)
The in-laws welcomed us into their hotel they own in Blackpool, and we immediately had some fish and chips for supper. Not a bad start. The weather was lovely, and the company was good as well. The next day LEL's brothers arrived with their families, and it was reunion time. My daughter, who hadn't left her nanny's side, was a bit put off by the arrival of a new girl in the form of my niece, whom I shall call G. However, later on LLG decided that not only was G a good person, but someone that she had to have around all the time! They both liked Hello Kitty, and seemed to really get along. When LLG later got a new Hello Kitty t-shirt with 2 cats on them, she explained that one was LLG Kitty, and the other was G Kitty. Very cute. My nephews are very cute as well, and CLM got along with one of them, K, quite well. It was funny watching these two little kids running all over and causing a ruckus, up to a point.
The day the family left, I decided I had to do a little cultural exchange between my British relatives and my own home country. So, knowing how much my father-in-law likes them, I got up one morning and made biscuits for them. Now, in England that would mean a cookie. In America, they are like scones. My father-in-law calls them lardy cakes, which is just as good a name as any I suppose. Whatever you call them, they went over very well. A friend of my in-laws who was there, and normally doesn't do breakfast, had 5 of them, and asked me to make them again! Again, somewhere in heaven my southern ancestors are smiling down on me.
We stayed in Blackpool for a week, during which we got to see my father-in-law's band play. (They rocked. Their name is Happy Daize. They also have another group called Grass, and the song "Brillo Pad" is really good too. Kind of like The Specials.) CLM got an England football kit with Parker 17 on the back. (That's Scott Parker, the defensive mid-fielder that also plays for Tottenham Hotspur.) LEL even bought an England team jersey because the youth sizes were on sale and she could fit into it. We also got to go to the Lake District, which is to beautiful for words. It's most famous, I suppose, for being the home to Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth and for just being gorgeous. But you should definitely go there, as it's amazing.
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| Gorgeous, right? |
We then moved on to Sheffield to visit her friends and family. While there we ate at Wagamama's, one of my favorite restaurants. (Fun fact, on the night I got LEL to finally start dating me, we ate at a Wagamama's using my winnings from a poker game I'd played in with the MSG in London. True story.) CLM, definitely displaying his Crazy side, was all over the place. He couldn't sit still. The problem with that is that Wagamama's seats are benches with no backs. He fell backwards off the bench, hit his head on the marble floor, and let out a scream. Help came running. I told them he accidentally fell off, but I was sure he'd be fine. They brought ice, and told us to let them know if we needed anything else. After my we paid the bill, they brought over two ice creams for the kids free of charge. We speculate that they heard my American accent, immediately thought of our litigious society, and offered the ice cream in the hopes that I wouldn't sue the heck out of them. As good a postulation as any, I'd say.
We met LEL's friend Ray Ray and her family, which was very nice. Afterwards we stopped at LEL's older brother's house to say goodbye. Then we headed to Yorkshire, to Bronte country. Hawirth to be exact. Almost a pilgrimage, I tell you. We were in the room Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, which might just be the holiest place for LEL. But I can definitely tell you that the Yorkshire Penines were probably pretty bleak in the winter. Not sure I'd want to live there, but a lovely place to visit. CLM, though, wasn't impressed, and began to act out a little. Our walk back to the car allowed us to see an hedgehog walking along the path, which is pretty darn cool. We then headed further north to Gateshead, home of the Angel of the North.
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| This might be Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle |
But before that, we had to stay a night in a Travelodge right outside Newcastle. The room, along with CLM being cranky, decided for us that Edinburgh wasn't to be on this trip. So we decided to head back to Blackpool until it was time to head South. First, though, the Angel of the North. (Or the Giant Flasher, if you will.) Here's a photo of that:
