Thought I'd write a trip report seeing as I love reading them myself and it is a few years sine I have done one.
On this trip were me (Jude), my husband Alan and our 9 year old son, Barney. We are not sure how many times we have been but think this might be the 12th time for Barney and the 14th time for us. We have a house over there so the main reasons for this trip were to check that the house was ok and also to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter as Barney has gone HP crazy since Sept this year, watching all 7 films since then and starting to read the books. Plus we got flights at an excellent price using Virgin airmiles so we just had to go!
Friday 10/12/10
We were staying at Manchester airport Marriott on the Friday night but before we could do that, we both had to work all day and Barney was at school. The plan was for us to try to finish work by 4pm and then get off by 6pm. However, the best laid plans and all that.....Alan got back from work at about 3.30pm but still had several hours work to do (we are lucky that we can both work from home) so whilst I finished at 5pm, he didn't get all his work done until 6.30pm! Luckily B was at his grandma's so at least we were able to get everything sorted without having to worry about him.
So, it was after 8pm when we finally got to my mum's to collect B and then finally we were off, well we were for five minutes until B realised his Nintendo DS stylus was missing so back we went for it!
We got to the hotel at about 10.15pm and although the snow seemed to have mostly gone, it was windy and cold. We got checked in and then quicky ordered room service before they stopped serving food. We had booked a family room but only had one bed, however we were all so tired we couldn't be bothered to change rooms so we all snuggled up together. Maybe not the best idea with a wriggly 9 year old but hey ho, you live and learn!
Saturday 11/12/10
We got up at just before 7am and after a quick bath, we were dressed and ready to get the shuttle which came just before 8am. I had booked us in online and printed our boarding passes the day before so all we had to do was drop our bags which took about 10 mins and then we were through secuirty in about another 15 mins. After a quick breakfast and a trip to WH Smith to buy the book of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it was time to go to the gate. The flight (Virgin) left on time and was long but ok. Food wasn't bad, chicken and mushroom for me, beef cobbler for Alan and pasta for B although he never eats plane food as he is one of the most fussy eaters in the world. Alan and B watched a film whilst I read and then B read HP and the Deathly Hallows for a couple of hours which was lovely - made me smile as it wasn't long ago that I had to make sure he had a bag full of stuff to do on the plane to stop him getting bored.
We landed slightly ahead of schedule and were through immigration quite quickly and also got our cases in good time. Then it was off to Dollar to pick up the car. One Dodge Charger later we were on the way and got to our house, on Cumbrian Lakes, just off the 192 in about 30 minutes. It was good to be back home and there were some houses already trimmed up for Christmas which looked lovely.
Alan did his customary tour of the house to make sure everything was in order and then we were off to Walmart for essential supplies. For Barney, this meant Harry Potter Lego as his birthday is on 6 December and he had been give $405 dollars which was burning a hole in his pocket! When we got to Wamart we went straight to the toys where he picked up Lego Hogwarts which has 1290 pieces. We also got beer, water, juice, bread, butter, milk and cheesecake (what else do you need?!) and then the tiredness suddenly started to hit us so we stopped for a take out from Chili's on the way home. B and I managed to stay awake until about 9pm and Alan managed until about 10pm.
Sunday 12/12/10
We were all awake by 6.30am which wasn't bad (I remember one year when Barney woke up at 3am the fir
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Looking forward to the next installment!
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