Manchester

"Sunday morning I arose early as usual and walked around outside to enjoy the surrounding farms and fields.  As the kids were loading the vehicles I noticed a woman watching us through the dining room window and I thought, “I bet she’s counting how many of us there are.”  I was right.  She came out and chewed me out for running her Saturday evening waiting to get me the info to check in and then called me out for lying about how many of us there were—there are 7 of you aren’t there?  I nodded in agreement and apologized and just wanted to move on. “What if there had been an emergency I hadn’t known how many of you there were?” The kids went in to eat while Lisa and I waited in the room.  When they were finished we started loading up the cars.  Natali said the host wanted to talk to me.  I went inside and she proceeded to chew me out again and said there are 8 of you but you agreed with me that there were 7 just a bit ago.  I didn’t have an argument and didn’t want to argue.  She called me a thief and said I owed her more money.  She charged me another $50-60.  As I got my wallet out to pay I had the distinct thought—don’t try to use the American Express.  I handed her my Visa debit card and she said with disdain, “Is that an American Express?”  I smiled and said no, apologized again, and gladly left the premises.  That night I talked to the kids about honesty and how I should have been better there. I resolved to be honest in the number or guests staying in a room when booking.  Ironically on our last night in Inverness we stayed at the same Courtyard I had previously booked and I had only put 2 guests rather than the usual 3 that I put per room and the gal at the front desk said, “No big deal, don’t worry about, people do it all the time.”  Nonetheless, I can do better.  And stay calm when others are upset at me. 

Despite the drama, we were on the road just a few minutes behind our plan of 9:00 AM."

Still feeling sick I laid in bed till the last possible moment - avoiding all the drama.  The kids felt pretty uncomfortable and we were all glad to leave.  They had smuggled me out a few breakfast items rather than wasting them, since she cooked each of them three eggs 😳 and we headed to Carlisle for church.

Lily reenacting hugging the target balls like she did when she was little.

"As we passed a massive castle in the middle of town I slipped through a yellow light that caught Lisa (this was a common occurrence). Apple maps led me to a dead end and my cell signal wasn’t working so I was completely lost or stuck.  I drove in circles hoping for a signal and ended up in a grocery store parking lot to wait and keep trying.  Eventually the data clicked and I was able to find the church on a map and we arrived during the first speaker, a recent convert from Africa.  (Lisa's car arrived on time) After sacrament as we were headed to the back door a gentleman caught us in the hallway and started a conversation. “Well I want to join your choir. Where are you from?”  Idaho.  “Is it near the border of Oregon?” He proceeded to tell us about a small town on the border where people shopped in Oregon to avoid the sales tax.  You could feel the world getting smaller.  How did he know this place?  “Woodgrain.  What’s your maiden name?” Dame. His look said it all as his eyes filled with love and tears. Joe Dimany, another convert from Africa, had been a high councilor in Bournemouth 8 years ago, assigned to the Guernsey Branch and had spent a lot of time with Reed and Linda on their mission.  He remembered so many details and expressed his love for them.  We ended up talking for 30 minutes and getting to know the young speaker who was a Liverpool fan and worked at McDonald’s so he and Andrew bonded."

Our lunch grocery store stop was a fail with some pretty nasty carrots and gross guacamole but food is food.  Natali bought a meat pie that was pretty sus.  At some point she was passing it around the car challenging everyone to "touch the jelly" gross.

We took a little detour through the Lakes District a drive that proved to be my favorite of the trip.  It felt like we had stepped right into "All Creatures Great and Small".  Stone fences, tons of sheep and lush green views as we navigated the impossibly narrow roads.

It took a bit of creativity but we eventually found our hotel, got changed and walked over to Old Trafford, home of Manchester United.

"I had bought 8 tickets only to find out afterwards that they weren’t going to be together.  We didn’t learn our seats until we were able to print the e-tickets the day before our trip began—it was pretty much a best case scenario as we ended up with 4 pairs of tickets all in the same corner of the stadium.  Mack and Andrew sat together, Natali and Emily, Lisa and Kate, and Bob and I.  Bob and I were in the absolute furthest back seats, an isolated group of seats with space for wheelchairs.  The game against Fulham was entertaining with Fulham taking the lead and Jadon Sancho and Bruno Fernandes scoring to give United the lead.  De Gea saved a penalty and United prevailed. We couldn’t understand many of the chants even though they were in English, but the best was “We want the Glazers out…” It’s not always easy to be the owner! "

I was pretty sure they were screaming "We won't blaze your house, we won't blaze your house."  With a serious eye roll the boys explained the "Glazers" chant.

At the end of the game the players families came on the field.  We all loved cheering for the little guys running all over the field and scoring goals.

After the game we tried several restaurants but they were all booked out.  In the end we begrudgingly headed to Dominos pizza but even that proved difficult since my map sent us in the wrong direction - where is Dominos?!  We eventually found it and everyone was happy to take it back to the hotel and fill our bellies.

I was surprised to hear Andrew and Mack talking about restaurants and snacks that we had to try.  Where did they learn about all these places - duh soccer adds, and all the soccer stuff they watch.