our BIG adventure 2013: Day 7

Blackpool Tower at Night

We started the day by heading to Manchester, Our Sidekick wasn’t aware of where we were actually going. We realised we were early so we went for a potter around the Trafford Centre (They have free parking! Why don’t we get that in MK or Bedford?). Around the shopping centre, there are these painted elephants.

Here we go lots of #elephants. #eletour #elephantparade

Elephant Parade has travelled the world, its vibrantly decorated statues raising awareness of and funds for the conservation of the Asian Elephant. Money raised from the sale of the tour elephants will be donated by sponsor intu to international charity, The Asian Elephant Foundation.

The boys grabbed lunch in Nando’s. I would have had some but it was just stressing me out a bit trying to work out what I can and can’t eat while being on Slimming World (The app is okay but isn’t specific enough).

While the boys ate I sat writing down what we’d done so far and tweaking some other bits to write blog posts. I’d been taking notes on serviettes while we’d been out – especially as a rule we have is to ban phones/tablets at the dinner table unless special permission has been given.

When gadgets are banned at the dinner table...

We arrived at Old Trafford and started snapping pictures from there. We were still a little early for our tour so went to the Red Cafe to get a drink. We then headed to the meeting point for the tour. Our tour guide was called Ethan and he was so lovely. When people had questions he nearly always knew the answer or knew where the information could be found. There was a lot of walking for the tour as we went pitch side, press areas, the dugouts, various stands, the memorial clock and various other places. We also went to the dressing room and sat with all the footie shirts.

We all went into the Megastore at the end, Our Sidekick bought a plaque thing that was made of grass from the old pitch as it’s been relaid recently. It was really informative and for Chris and Me who aren’t really football fans, we still found it really really interesting especially when it came to all the history of the club.

Having fun at #manchesterunited