Mini Break

Thursday saw us dropping off Tom at Pat and Bob's for his standard 2 night stay.  Matt and I decided to take full advantage of this and headed off for a mini adventure ourselves.  First stop was Clitheroe and the hotel attached to the Beer Hall for a night.  We checked in and then headed to the hall for a cheeky pint (there are 42 different taps in the hall - so it would have been rude not to!) before heading out to do some exploring.  Clitheroe turns out to be a very pleasant place.  We went to the Castle for a romp about and then headed into town.  It had a bit of everything: Booths, Fat Face, lots of independent shops, a micro bar, an extensive toy shop and the most fantastic, traditional, old fashioned bottle shop I have seen for a while.   We looked at the house prices - cheaper than Ingleton!  Well if it all goes wrong in Ingleton (don't know why it would), Clitheroe would be a perfectly good alternative - especially with the beer hall!!!!!

Lots of beer

We had another quick pink at the micro bar,  before heading back to the hotel for a refresh.  We then got ourselves to the bar for a session.  Luckily they do platters of 3 x 1/3rd pints so we could work our way through the beers.  The food was good as well (although they had run out of loads of things) Matt had ribs and I had chilli and then as the portions weren't massive we had churros.

It was a very pleasant evening, didn't leave until 11pm where we had to walk all of 10 steps back to the hotel!

Friday morning we woke up not hungover, result!  We decided to stay away another night and booked ourselves in for another night away - this time in Liverpool: one of our favourite cities.  I went to grab my bag to go down to breakfast...where was my bag...we couldn't find it anywhere!  Oh bugger!!!!!  We went straight to the bar to see if it was there, it wasn't.  We asked the staff, the managed looked in the safe, nothing there.  Oh no!  What to do...

We got ourselves breakfast but to be honest neither of us were in the mood. I couldn't remember leaving it behind - which is strange, I have NEVER done that before.  It had my wallet with my driving licence in it.  A driving licence obviously has your address on it.  The bag also had my house keys and car keys in it!  We checked - the car was still there.  Phew.  We decided we couldn't go on to Liverpool - we wouldn't be able to relax.  We got Craig to check our house in Ingleton - all was still ok.

We checked out from the hotel and the Manager asked if we had any luck?  We said no, he suggested we get to look at CCTV footage - and then decided to do it for us, so we went with him.  I waited in the bar whilst he did it for us.  About 10 minutes later the Bar Manager came in with my handbag asking if this was what was missing.  PHEW!!!!!  A member of staff had put it in the wrong place in the office.  Everything was in it.  I gave them £20 as a huge thank you and we left very happy bunnies on the way to Liverpool.

Fallen man

First stop was Crosby beach, somewhere both of us have always wanted to see - made famous by Antony Gormley and his 'Another Place' statues: 100 iron men dotted about the beach looking out to sea.  It was really interesting, a bit of a science experiment to see them in different degrees of erosion depending on where on the beach they were located.  They went a long w

Man with seagull

ay out to see as well and as the tide was going out, we were able to see more and more as the morning went on.  We walked along the beach - managing to find a bit of quick sand on the way meaning we were up to our knees in watery sand - oops (on our return we noticed all the signs warning of it!!!!!).

Surprisingly there weren't any cafes or tea rooms in the area, so we went to the refreshment and bought a packet of very tasty chips.  We were just beginning to enjoy them when we got dive bombed by some seagulls, so we fled to the car and ate them in there.

Anyway, I would recommend a trip out there, interesting place.

Big bed!

We then got train into the centre of Liverpool and took our bags to the hotel "Hard Days Night Hotel" just off the central shopping street.  Nice hotel and big room.  We went for a walk around the City - taking in all the usual sights - Pier Head, Albert Dock etc, Liverpool One.  Then back to check in, have a rest and decide on where to go for dinner.

Liverpool at night

We decided on Yard and Coop - a cool restaurant which offers many different types of chicken to eat. If you are lucky you get to eat in a human sized chicken coop - very novel.  It was a nice restaurant, good music.  We then carried on for another drink in another bar before rolling into our enormous bed.  A good day.

Saturday morning we took it easy.  We went for breakfast at a diner and then checked out of the hotel and got the train back to Crosby before heading back eastwards.  We went the scenic way and found a farm shop for lunch.  We got to Settle around 2pm to pick up Tom - he wasn't happy to be collected.  He didn't want to come home and only the promise of a session of lego was good enough for him to be persuaded!

Sunday - Matt spent the day working, so Tom and I headed out.  We went to see Alice and the boys first thing and then we went for lunch for two at Goat Gap before returning home. We then had a session on lego before Matt came to join us.  An easy, relaxing day.

Monday - a miserable day.  I looked up various things to do but most things were closed so we ended up going to Stacksteads for the morning with Sierra.  The kids had fun and then we went to Ireby for lunch where we bumped into the Fosters and the Nicholls before returning home around 4pm.

Then back to school on Tuesday - shame we were in a good place.