Annie's Birthday Jaunt

So Thursday was my sweetheart's birthday and she has been such a doll over my daft birthday party and all, I wanted to do something to make her day special this year, too. We'd been emailed by the Hilton chain in January about their "January Sale" and so we'd decided to book a suite (it was a bargain, honest) in their hotel on the seafront, in Blackpool. That's only an hour or so drive away from here and is a very traditional "seaside resort". Nowadays it does a raging trade in hen and stag parties and other events involving way-much alcohol. There are also traditional piers and amusement arcades, though we did none of that this time!

We were taking our Millie with us, so we knew we wouldn't be parting to wildly, as Mill simply wouldn't stand for it!

The hotel was very nice and the suite really huge, so that was all fun. We had champagne and doughnuts when we arrived, mid-afternoon and then went out for a walk along the sea-wall. There was no beach to visit as the tide was right in. Millie adored the walk but was frustrated by the wall, as she just couldn't jump high enough to see over!

So Millie let me pick her up and we posed for our portrait - but you'll see how hard I'm hanging onto that collar, I didn't want her flying over the

wall! I'm not sure what my very solemn look is about though!

That night we had fish'n'chips eaten in the car, looking at the sea and then on Friday morning we set out to Morecambe. That's another little drive north, up the same coastal stretch, and the next bay up really. I'd told Annie that we were going for two nights, but not that we were moving, so that was a little surprise.

The beach in Morecambe is flat and has quite a complex ecology, (featuring for example these green rocks below) but is easy to get onto and so we had a good walk/run (you can figure that out, right?) when we got there.

Then we drove around and had a look at this town, which we don't really know. It's much more delapidated than Blackpool and hasn't been doing so well as a resort in recent years.At one time though, it was really very trendy indeed. In the 1930s a stylish new hotel was opened, right on the seashore and it is supposed to have had many famous guests over the years.Annie and I had seen an item on tv about this art deco hotel (http://www.midlandhotel.org/history.html) having a facelight, prior to being reopened. So, you'll know how much I enjoyed saying "Look there's that hotel we saw being done up, on telly! ... Guess where we're staying tonight" :-) So here's the hotel today, with some rather elegant stone cormorants, on the seafront. I took the one below in the evening on Friday, and it's my favourite shot so far, but we're surely going back there, what a lovely place!

Our room was in one of those indented curves, on the first floor, looking out over the sea and with a small balcony to sit on too. The room was refurbished in a modern way, mostly white, with splashes of very bold colour. Millie and Annie are modelling the turquoise chaise longe, below.There was also a stunning piece of furntiure on the other side of the room, which was wardobe, tv cabinet and such in the bedroom, but when you walked around it also housed the shower and so on, on the reverse! I didn't try to photograph that though, so you'll have to take my word for it. When we arrived there was also a stuffed pooch waiting on the bed, so that amused Annie and she wanted a portrait with both dogs. Millie clearly felt quite sad for the stuffed thing and actually cuddled up with it later that night!The light streaming in from the windows was so full-on that my picures have a slightly ghostly quality in that room. Just outside is an old stone jetty, which leads out to this lighthouse, which was a railiway terminal, back in the day!

So we had a lovely trip, loved the hotel and will go again. We got back here yesterday and have just been out today to have lunch with a bunch of friends. Officially that's the birthday done for this year, and we fly out to the wide open spaces of Mi, tomorrow morning.

Millie is off to doggie day care and we will surely miss her, but I imagine she has fun there too.

Loads of love :-) (Planting commences when we return, so allotment posts soon!)