Our big adventures

​In the final leg of the driving road trip, we traveled from Liverpool to Nottingham to watch Brayden’s third game. Over the past week, Nate has driven nearly 1,000 miles through England and Scotland in our itty-bitty Fiat.  The Bullets fell to Nottingham 26-27 in a game that can only be described as UWE beating themselves. The penalties, lack of conversion of extra points and missed tackles were tough to watch. But perhaps they needed this to be ready for the rest of the season. And Bub long snapped - something his recruiter said didn’t matter because they don’t kick here… well, they do now.  We spent the night at the Garner Hotel in Nottingham’s city center. It was a great IHG in a good location. Nottingham itself was the dirtiest city we’ve been to, which was a bit disappointing. We did happen upon an old cemetery in the middle of town that was pretty cool. It was also the hardest city to navigate, both in the car and on foot. It took three tries to find our hotel using App...

​What a great surprise this city was! It’s cool and grungy. There are SO MANY PEOPLE walking around - it seemed like more than anywhere else we’ve been. Pros: The friendliest people, sun was shining!, good music/night life on Mathew Street, variety of food options, Christmas village, people watching Cons: Not enough time, wish we could have gone to today’s football game (soccer) against Manchester United Lodging: Hampton Inn Liverpool City Center  - try somewhere else. Parking is hard to figure out, location is great, rooms were fine, breakfast just ok, had a bar

​A historic stop on our journey, and we definitely needed another couple of days. This home to the Beatles has turned into the UK version of Memphis, and we were here for it! A tour of the Beatles Experience followed by a ferry tour that resulted in a local, retired bricklayer named Eddie giving us a personal voice over of his city. Did you know the largest brick building in the world is in Liverpool? It’s the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse and was built  with 27 million red bricks. It was impressive.  Mathew Street is full of clubs and pubs and local music. It includes a rebuilt Cavern - using the bricks from the original where the Beatles played 292 times. This was definitely one of our highlights.  They’re also getting ready for Christmas, so we had drinks at the base of a Christmas tree.  Overall, great city with incredibly friendly people. 

From Edinburgh we felt like we needed to get more into Scotland and see a loch. Loch Lomond was about 90 minute north and was a great choice. Reminded us of the Ozarks except the lake is fed by glacial waters and VERY cold. On our morning walk, an older Scottish man was sitting on his porch and chatted us up for a bit. Reminded me of my grandpa Dowell. Pros: Super cute town, beautiful sunrise, very walkable Cons: Unfortunately no monsters in the loch, pitch black dark at 5 pm Lodging: The Lodge on Loch Lomond included dinner, breakfast and an hour in the sauna rooms