Sept 17, 2011 - Kids Arrive

Greetings All,

Our son Jonathan and his wife Amy finally arrived after a 9 month delay.  Their first vacation plans were cancelled due to unforeseen work commitments.  Panic stations set in at the very beginning as we slept through the alarm and woke up at the time we should be leaving. To top it all off Fred checks the flight and it is a half an hour early.  As it turned out all was well, when we arrived at the airport they had not cleared customs/immigration yet.  Fred went to get me a much needed tea and I waited, watching for them to come through the arrival gates.  I missed them coming through as all of a sudden Jonathan was in front of me.  We both start to well up but after hugs and kisses all around we pulled ourselves together. It turns out they sat on the runway for half hour as there was no where for them to disembark.  It could only happen in Manchester at 8:00 a.m.  We headed to Liverpool to allow the kids time to freshen up and repack what they needed for a week in London.

After a short break we headed to London arriving at the Marriott, County Hall where we stayed for the night before heading to John's flat which will be home for the week as he and Adrienne with the pups were heading off to France.  The picture at the top is the view from our room at the Marriott.

Once we were settled in we headed out along the South Bank (a promenade along the Thames River) to check out what was going on and for the kids a much needed stretch of the legs after sitting in a plane for 9 1/2 hours and then a car for 4 hours.  We stopped at a pub called Doggetts and Jonathan enjoyed his first pint with his Dad (Doom Bar) while Amy and I have a cider.  We also had supper at Doggetts with Fred, Jonathan and Amy having good old traditional fish and chips and I had a chicken burger.  With tummies full we continued our walk crossing the river at The Blackfriars Bridge and headed along the other side back towards the hotel.  As we walked along it turns dark. 
The picture at the bottom right side is the view of our hotel and the London Eye from across the river.  The kids were starting to fade as they had been up for over 24 hours.  We had one last stop to get a photos of the Parliament Buildings lit up.  Jonathan hates his picture being taken but cooperated with me so I can get a photo of him and
and Amy before we returned to the hotel and they finally get to bed for some much needed sleep.

Bye for Now,

Sandy & Fred

Festivals in Liverpool

Hi Ya All,

The end of August and beginning of September marks the beginning of festivals in Liverpool.  The last weekend of August is the Mathew Street Music Festival and this is our third year of attending.  Some of the tribute/cover band music is dedicated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Skiffle music of Liverpool.

This year we planned ahead our attack of the venues we wished to see.  The music on Sunday was Abba, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, and Skiffle music of Lonnie Donnegan.  The picture on the right is me with Kyle and Paul, two young kids who enjoyed the Bee Gee's and I who danced with in the street. The atmosphere is very laid back and enjoyable as all ages mixed together to celebrate music.  We spent a full six hours at the festival with a short rest at the Pump House pub in the docklands between venue's for a most enjoyable day.  We did not attend the second day of the festival as the weather took a turn for the worse (read rain) but again enjoyed the festival.


Next festival was the Food and Drink Festival which was held in Sefton Park.  This was our first year of attending the festival and the first time they had it over two days.  We attended on the first day and arrived early in the morning which was good as we got to cover the grounds without the masses of people that arrived later in the day.  The giveaways are numerous and the best was at the Peacock, a restaurant promoting Cuban food and drink. They were giving away lamb-burgers, hamburgers and jerk chicken. We partook of these giveaways and I had a nice mojito and a Red Stripe beer for Fred.  We wandered around and purchased sausage, cheese, pita chips, bread and sample what was offered.  The most unusual was deep fried jam butties.  We left with our purchases very satisfied with our day out.

The last festival we attended was the River Festival.  This was a week long series of events at the Pier Head.  It started off with the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth on the Thursday.

The ship arrived early and left at 10:00 p.m.  We went into town to see it leave and the fire works display.  We were amazed at the number of people that turned out and were at first disappointed with the fire works, only seeing a few and think how disappointing and that we were at the wrong spot on the pier and started to leave.  It turned out we were so wrong.  The fireworks didn't really start until the ship has pulled way from the dock, so we ended up turning around and headed back to get some amazing shots.  We headed into town and stopped at The Lady of Mann Pub for a nightcap before heading home.  We attended the Festival again on Saturday with Bryan, Fred's cousin and his wife Alyson.  We have a great lunch at Jamie's Italian then visited the docks to check out the Tall Ships, Arts &Crafts, and Racing Boats.  The docks area are a crush of people with a lot happening all along the dockland area. The last day of the Festival was haircut day for Fred so we checked out the Queen Mary 2 that had arrived in and had a leisurely lunch at La Tasca one of our favourite restaurants.  There is another festival which we will miss The Hope Street Festival.  It celebrates Food, Entertainment and Restaurants in the area but for good reason as we will be  enjoying London with our son Jonathan and his wife Amy who finally get to enjoy their wedding gift from us.

Stay tuned for our adventures with them.

Ta Ra,

Sandy & Fred