Newcastle with Amy

Amy stayed with us on the Sunday night and we woke bright and breezy - well almost breezy :-) - at 7.30. That is a time of the day Milly and I rarely see!. Breakfast and then off we go. Alan drove us to the station and waved us off from the platform :-) It brought back many memories for us - I waved him off so many times when we were courting and he was heading to different parts of the country. He was in the Royal Navy and there were many tears spilt on various platforms over the years.

The girls settled in and I sat opposite. I had my ( well technically it's Milly's ) Kindle and my phone with music and guided meditations on. The train was busy but I did manage to do a meditation :-)

We ate at the station, put our bags in the left luggage and set off to find the shops!!

Milly was on a mission to find Argos to buy a monster high doll. Amy ( being the generous type of gal that she is ) was ok with it being first on the agenda.

We ended up visiting two Argos stores but neither of them had the required doll. Disappointment and a slight dip in the excitement for Milly. Primark next - such a busy, messy place!! However Ames found a lovely outfit of purple skinnies and a couple of T'shirts. Milly tried a lot of things on but was not really that keen on any of them and decided to save her money for the next store. Claires soon perked her up - a new bag and some stationary, notebook, hair slides, headband and super novelty sunglasses were purchased. The sunglasses were priced at £4 but the lady on the till pointed out they were on special offer 5 things for £5. She went back and checked out the other sale items and bought three things for herself and a belt and purse for Amy. Amy bought the bag she had wanted and a lovely set of flowery hair clips. We then went to Waterstones and enjoyed deciding on purchases there :-) Time to head back - quite a long walk back to the station to pick up luggage and then the short walk down to the Quay area.

Seemed much further with all the bags and luggage. Even travelling light I had a reasonable sized case on wheels and Amy had the biggest rucksack I have ever seen ;-))

Met up with Amy's Mum who was staying over as she had a couple of days placement ( work experience for her course ) at a barristers. A meal, a chat and then bed.

Amy decided to spend the night in her Mum's room across the hall from us. The sofa bed was not the most comfortable thing in the world. Milly started the night on the pull out section but then ended up with me in the double bed.

A good nights sleep - so glad I remembered my ear plugs as we overlooked the street.

Milly woke sporting a mohican look ;-))

Tuesday was to be Wet and wild day :-) After a very hearty breakfast we set off to walk to the metro. Found the whole ticket machine thingy a little confusing but were helped by some very friendly people.We found that the case on any occasion we got flummoxed,  there was always a friendly person to help us out :-)

Six hours in wet and wild!! I didn't go in. I had decided it would be best to conserve my energy by sitting at the cafe/viewing area. Basically spent six hours in a Sauna!! I had jeans and a dress over so I took my jeans and shoes off and ( when it wasn't tipping with rain ) I sat outside. I had a paper and my kindle though and people watching passed the time. The girls had a wonderful time.

Metro back to town and then the walk back to the Quay's.

We slumped in seats in the lounge and decided not to go back to the room before eating ( it was about 8pm by now) We ate and then the girls had 20 Min's on the Internet before we got ready to go for a walk along the Millennium bridge. A wonderful warm evening to sit and admire the bridge and watch the world go by.

Can just make out the two girls in this one. They both loved spending time on the bridge. They both said it was the best part of the stay:-)

We enjoyed it so much the girls asked if they could go again before we left the next morning.

We hadn't noticed the night before but on the way to it there was an area made to look like a beach, complete with sand and a volley ball pitch :-)

We sat for a while before heading back to check out and get a taxi to the Centre for life.

We stored our cases in a crate there. £5 deposit but you get £4 back.

First up was a ride to the deep sea on the motion ride. That was only five minutes long. It was enjoyable but  I ( and Amy ) have been on a roller-coaster one that was much better.

One of the exhibits enabled a little bit of acting out their own fast ride!

A Wallace and grommit exhibition was on which was quite good fun. We got to see both the shows that were on. The one in the Planetarium was about astronomy ( Milly needed to go to the loo within five minutes of it starting and Amy and I stuck it out but were glad it was only 20 mins long) The other in the science theatre was a display of science experiments to do with Pressure. Marginally better. Quite interesting -  it lacked any pizazz though and was quite a low energy delivery. Mixed reviews and not sure we would do it again. Bearing in mind we had had a pretty full on couple of days and (certainly in Milly's case) energy was low, so maybe not the best shape to be in to take full advantage of all it had to offer...

We left earlier than we had planned to and made it to the station in time to get an earlier train home.

 A quick call to Alan from the platform in Newcastle and he was waiting for us when we got back to Carlisle. We walked into town and treated Amy to a KFC meal where we all had great fun telling Alan about our trip. Spirits were very high in the car on the way home - lots of  laughter .

Milly got out at Amy's when we dropped her off and they played out together with Amy's brother and sister and a few other friends til ten. 

We are planning our next trip together. Blackpool is high on the list, but could be Glasgow or Edinburgh. Wherever we end up I am looking forward to it. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with both of them. Great fun and lots of giggles. Wonderful memories to treasure.