Water park wash out....

The plan for Wed was to have a very relaxed start and then to head off to the Sandcastle water park.

I woke with a stonking headache at four in the morning and although I took pills it didn't shift. I went back to bed and managed to get back to sleep.

In the morning I  made the girls some sausage sarnies and then I can't quite remember what happened. I do remember lying down in the lounge and I think the girls played and chatted around me ;-)

They then went off to Liz's van to hang out and Liz came to mine for a cuppa and a chat. After a while we talked about plans for the afternoon and checked out the closing time for the water park.

They closed at 4.30!! It was gone one and we still hadn't eaten yet and would have the half hour or so journey time as well, so it really wasn't doable. No point paying the entry fee for what would have been an hour or so:-( A few other ideas were discussed but in the end I think we decided to hang out til it was time to go for fish and chips in Bispham. The weather was horrendous and my headache meant I was more than happy to take more pills in an attempt to get it under control and just lounge around for the afternoon. Liz and Cat went swimming and Milly and El came in to watch a DVD and ended up having a tickle fight :-))

 By about 4 ( I think ) we headed off to town.

 Liz acted as my guide every day and I followed her on the journey from the site into Blackpool - it made it so easy for me and I was so grateful :-)

A tram appeared more or less as we approached the stop. Getting on the tram was not the smooth operation it could have been though.

We attempted to get on but Milly felt she needed the loo and found the prospect of getting on the tram and not being able to get off  (we asked the ticket collector he confirmed this would not be possible ) during the journey too much to handle and there were a few tears :-(

Throughout the holiday Liz ( and the children )  had been so understanding of Milly's anxiety and didn't bat an eyelid when we had to let the tram go. I have to admit at this point ( being very tired by now ) my patience was wearing thin and to have her support and understanding helped enormously....

We did find out from another conductor there was actually a ticket option that would enable us to get off if needed and headed off to find a loo.

Finally we got on a tram and Milly loved it ( she is now keen to take Alan on one when they visit again together ) and we made it to the restaurant. The weather was awful but the food at the chippy was delish! A massive slice of Strawberry cheesecake to complete the meal meant I could hardly move :-))

Then the evening took a rather unfortunate turn. Into the gale and rain we went, hoping to get on a tram to view the Illuminations. We saw one coming and were pleased we wouldn't have to hang around too long :-)  The tram went sailing past with the driver gesticulating and pointing behind :-(

 I assumed he meant we were at the wrong tram stop should have been at the one further along. There were other people at the stop who did move off to the other one but we weren't too sure what to do. The rain was lashing down and the wind was howling. The children were tired and bored and Milly needed the loo and was getting more and more anxious, we didn't know how long it would be before another tram made an appearance and the road was blocked with tail to tail traffic viewing the lights. We only had 45 minutes left on the parking tickets on the cars and ran the risk of getting a fine.....

Nightmare!!!

Over an hour we watched Illumination tour trams passing and got excited every time we saw the lights of one thinking it was one we could get on, only to have hopes dashed as they drew closer and we could see it was a tour tram :-( There were loads of other folk waiting with us as well. No one knew what was going on - the trams usually run every fifteen minutes... The children got cranky - I got cranky - Liz got cranky. The kids had to run off to an alley when they needed to go to the loo. It was not a situation you would want to be in but we had no choice apart from walking -  we were always hopeful a tram would appear though and didn't want to risk moving off and missing it ...

Eventually an inspector came and explained that one tram had broken down and four had got backed up behind it. How happy we were to hear a tram should be there in ten minutes. Not one but four trams turned up! Ah well at least we got to choose which one to go on and got to go to the top at the front toget a great veiw the lights :-)

 Happy children and happy Mum's.

 Within minutes there were ohhhs and ahhhs as we saw the lights and it was as if the last hour had never happened - how quickly moods can change :-)

Back home around 10.30 and Milly went to sleep with Liz and the children in their van.

 I spent time transferring my photos of the night onto the laptop ( to free up space on my phone for the next day ) before going to bed.

To cap off the things that went wrong that day I can't find the folder anywhere in my system!!

Ah well, not the evening we might have wished for but it was spent with good friends and there were still giggles and high points :-))