Saturday, march 31 Day 9

     We slept in and boarded our bus today at 10 am.  Only a 40 minute trek to Liverpool.....and of course the BEATLES MUSEUM!  It was a self guided tour with so much interesting information about their humble beginnings and their amicable parting.  They completely skipped the "Yoko" years, which was a mystery, because the generally accepted understanding/myth is that she was responsible for the demise of the Beatles.  I know the parents enjoyed the tour, so much so that Steve bought a DVD to watch on the bus.  I think the kids tolerated the tour, as it was light and fun, and a nice outing.
      After 2 hours, we re boarded the bus, and headed to the stadium to watch Everton FC v.  West Bromwich Albion.  Tim Howard the goalkeeper for the US National Team, just happens to be the goalie for Everton.  We arrived 40 minutes early, and 30 of us chanted "USA, USA"  and Tim Howard turned around and gave us a wave! Needless to say the boys were ecstatic!!!  The stadium was packed, with a much more mellow crowd than we experienced at the Arsenal game.  Everton prevailed 2-0 and we headed straight for....wait for it....THE MEGA STORE. We knew this would be the last mega store, so we emptied our wallets as the boys handled, begged for and admired all it had to offer.  We arrived at the hotel at 6:30 and had dinner and cake to celebrate Mick's 39th birthday. Some stayed in hotel pub to watch another football game, and some retired earlier.  Tomorrow we have a game at 2 against Lakeside, a local football club. The boys don't know it, but they are going to have a party for us afterward, with a bounce house, band, food and drink. Should be a really great way to end our trip.... We'll head back to London tomorrow after the party, to spend the night near the airport to fly home on Monday.                                                  
      I can honestly say that traveling with this group of people has been easy and fun. Although, we see each other 10 months out of the year, and spend most of our weekends together watching our boys play soccer, we still enjoy each other's company...Tomorrow night we'll have a pint and toast to this fantastic trip, and start thinking about the journey home.  If I can post tomorrow, I will. If not, we'll see you all soon...Cheers!

March 30, Fri Day 8

      We got a little British weather today. Cold and gray with a light, but bone-chilling breeze. The boys didn’t seem to notice as they ran around the Manchester City FC training grounds with coach Gavin. They lined up with their balls and worked on passing drills and finished with a small-sided game. The parents walked around the track surrounding the field or watched from the stadium chairs.
      After the training Gavin gave us a tour of the stadium. It was slightly more posh than other stadiums, probably due to the wealth of the club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The boys seemed to particularly enjoy the Press Conference room where they sat in the big chairs in front of the press and pretended to be the top players while the tour guide asked them questions. We didn’t get to see the players’ dressing room since the kit manager was preparing it for tomorrow’s game. We moved on to the inevitable stop at the megastore and then to the Old Trafford Mall.

     The Old Trafford Mall isn’t old and resembles a typical American mall except for having mostly different store names, a wading pool in the middle and dim lighting—which I thought was strange given the gray weather. Both parents and children played an exciting game of lazer tag. You had to choose a game name to play. The green team, which included Billy (aka “Iron Man”), Megan Flood (aka “Snow White”) beat the red team, which included top-scorer Mick Luckhurst (aka “Viper”) and low- scorer Matt Carlson who managed to get negative 250 points. We also played miniature golf and shopped.

     On the way home we stopped for dinner at a traditional English pub and had meat pies, bangers and mash, fish and chips, among other things (beer).

     It was a relaxed day and everyone was glad to get a break in the action.