To capture all the memories, I'm breaking out the trip into separate blog posts to follow, all including our wonderful memories, funny happenings and quirky differences between the UK & US:
- Andrea & Alan's wedding
- Southport
- Liverpool, The Beatles Story & Lambananas!
- Chester
- Ingleton Falls in the Yorkshire Dales
- Trafford Centre & Fish Pedicure
We left Friday from Dayton in the early evening and flew to Philadelphia. There was inclimate weather over Philly so they circled for a while - we expressed our concern to the flight attendant about making our connection for an international flight with a short window of time that was crunching in... she said we should be fine and they soon decided it was safe to land. We landed at the end of Terminal F and had to take a tram and run, "Home Alone" style, to Terminal A. We missed the flight to Manchester by 7 minutes! I blurted out profanities with which Mom was less than impressed, but I was so heated. Evidently they left behind quite a few people - you'd think with international flights and being able to monitor that connection fliers have landed they would wait. But I suppose if they always waited, everything would be thrown off. The four girls at the service counter seemed to take their job less than seriously but one was helpful and re-routed us through London so we left less than an hour later.
The 7-hour flight wasn't bad... Went fairly fast. I was in the very back row with an extra seat to lay down. Watched a funny movie with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and made friends with the flight attendants who kept me stocked on free gin & tonics - which I regretted when we landed in London and I was exhausted. I was by the bathroom door so it was impossible to get proper rest. Landing in Manchester is really neat - there's a special park on the side of the runway where people gather to picnic, play and watch planes come, such a fun concept!
Rather than arriving at 8:30am we landed in Manchester at 2:30pm so it wasn't a tragic loss of time except it didn't leave us any time to relax or nap before the evening's event. But of course, they left our luggage back in Philly! Evidently this happens a lot - they said they'd send it the next day on the flight from Philadelphia and would deliver it to Andi's parent's house.
The first thing that grabbed my attention in the Manchester airport was quite the spectacle - two men - without shirts! drinking beers! carrying a baby! For the love... in America their asses would be arrested lol.
Andi & Alan took me to Matalan - a members-only discount shop to grab a dress for her "Hen do" (bachelorette party) that evening. In less than half an hour, we found a cute one-shoulder summery dress for £10 which is a steal! It was a little big but we made it work - wasn't going to wear the jeans and top I'd been in since 10am Friday, that's for sure. Then we just sat on pins & needles hoping the luggage came in time for the wedding Monday since my bridesmaids dress that was perfectly-tailored by MR's mom was in my bag!
We went to a lovely little restaurant in the country called The Yew Tree - sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the sprawling English countryside and had drinks then a delicious dinner in the old stone house - quite charming. We shared a few dishes for starters - that's one of my rules, everyone gets something different so you can share and try as many things as possible. The traditional Bury black pudding with mustard & tarragon cream sauce and crispy bacon was incredible - once you get past the fact of what black pudding actually is (ultimately, a cake of blood and guts)! I ordered paté with mint jelly - fabulous combination. The double-baked cheese soufflé with emmental cheese & krisch cream sauce was very rich and flaky. We also enjoyed the crab cakes and mushrooms stuffed with Lancashire cheese and bacon - anyone who says British food is bland has not eaten there properly.
For "tea" (dinner) I ordered the stuffed chicken filet (fill-ET as they say), with cream cheese, safe, proscuitto, asparagus and a spicy red pepper sauce. Andi's chicken Anderton with spiced rum & tomato cream sauce was incredible - I'm tempted to email the restaurant and ask for the recipe for the sauce! By the end of the evening I was literally falling asleep on the table... my eyes were in pain as I fought to keep them open, going on 36+ hours without sleep. But the boys had been hanging out all night so when we got home I put on her pink Snuggie and we hung out with their friends and didn't get to bed until 3am - I was knackered!!!
Sunday Andrea & I went to downtown Preston to shop for my shoes for the wedding. We had lunch at an adorable café - I had a duck wrap, quite yummy but a bit oily and messy with the hoisin sauce. Found fabulous shoes at Debenham's - very similar to Macy's - very high cream silk stilettos with an open-toe and a flat-pressed bow on the heel. That evening we had a BBQ at her parents - ribs, sausages, burgers and plenty of Scrumpy Jack, mom's and my favorite cider - much less sweet than ciders here like Woodchuck. Then the girls drank cocktails and played with the hilarious slang flashcards I brought for Vicki, the other bridesmaid and slept over since it was wedding-eve and the boys when back to Andi & Alan's. Oh - and our luggage finally arrived around 6pm, less than 24 hours until the wedding - ah! They were so laid back - if it didn't come, they said we'd go to the bridal shop in the morning and find replacements - Andi showed me a cute purple dress in the window that was the "back-up plan." It made it so much less stressful that they were calm. Thank God it came - they thought MR's mom did a wonderful, professional-looking job on my dress. Andi and I slept in her brothers room and giggled like we were 13 again, shocked that her wedding was the next day.
We had a fast, busy, fantastic great first weekend in England catching up... and then, the excitement began. And so the series UK 2.0 series continues...
 |
| All the ladies in the garden before Andi's "hen do!" See £10 one-shoulder dress ;) |
No comments:
Post a Comment