Drove up to Manchester to do the keynote on the last day of BrainStormer since it is in the North of England and it was on a Friday, I asked Cheryl if she wanted to come along. I would do the keynote and then we could see some of Manchester. Cheryl decided that we should spend the weekend in Blackpool. I have discovered that the British name places really well. Brighton is a nice name, nice place. Windsor is a nice name, nice place. Slough not so nice name, well you get the idea. Blackpool, come on do I have to go on? We show up in Blackpool and discover the hotel doesn't have parking it will cost us an extra £25 every day, all in one pound coins, to park the car and I have to drag the bags a couple of blocks to get back to the hotel. Cheryl meets me at the door and says, "You are not going to be happy." She is right; the hotel is really a bar that used to be a hotel a very long time ago. It still rents out a few rooms; I assume it also has an hourly rate. 

We tell the front desk that we are concerned that the noise from the bar will keep us up, but lovely lady at the front desk assured us that since we are on the 2nd floor we would not be disturbed. Yea the check is in the mail, I love you, and the bar music will not disturb you all the way up on the second floor. We look around at the other hotels in Blackpool and decide we have very limited options, and that we will not be spending the entire weekend in Blackpool. 

We walk past the arcades, shopping outlets, and candy shops if this place had a prime it is well past it. We play a few video games, buy some candy for the kids, and let them go on a few amusement rides. It is getting late so we decide to go out for dinner, the kids want McDonnell's but I want to get something local. Here is some guidance don't get dinner at a place that has any of the following; a sign that reads, "Chef special only £2.20 with two free games of Bingo", a sign that says, "No smoking at the counter" or charges 20p per satchel of ketchup but only 10p for a cup of tea. 

I forgot to pack my brown topsider shoes. I wore a suit, tie, and my wingtips. I packed a pair of jeans, some shorts, and my Dockers. I would have look pretty silly walking along the beach in any combination of these, so I decide to buy some sandals. This is England so of course they only come in black. I change into my jeans and my new British black sandals to go for a walk on the beach. My new sandals get wet which means that the bottoms of my feet are now black. Blackpool, black feet coincidence? 

The hotel tells us we have to make reservations for breakfast. It is harder than it sounds since Cheryl and Matthew have to eat as soon as they wake up and Katie and I like to eat more of a brunch. We decide that 8:30 is a good compromise. Early the next morning someone bangs on the door, Cheryl answers, "Thanks." I assume it is a wake up call, a rude but effective wake up call. I am really tired but since the music shook the room until around 03:00, I assume it is 08:30. We discovered that neither of us ordered a wake up call and that it was only 05:30, can you go from zero stars to minus one stars? Breakfast is on par with what you would guess. Our plan was to look around Blackpool and decide if we wanted to spend an extra day there, after breakfast we took the kids to the beach, they played until the tide came in and there was no more beach. We packed up headed home, two more cites, Manchester and Blackpool I don't think we will be heading back to them before we head back to the states.