Travels with Frankie: Farewell Sedbergh, hello Blackpool

So its our last morning in Sedbergh. One last never ending breakfast , then back to finish packing and checking out of our room. A fond farewell to our new friends, and Nancy and I are off to pick up her new jacket. Stores don't open till 10 which we have forgotten so we arrive about 45 minutes early, fortunately there are benches in front of the store and so we just sit and wait. The owner shows up about 15 minutes after us and opens the shop for us. Such nice people in England. Nancy's jacket fits perfect and looks great, we are just checking around for possible gifts to take home to her sisters when in walks one of our fellow walkers wondering if we'd care for one last tea before we go....so off we go,. we see another walker who also joins us, then its back to the hotel to wait for our cab, by the time we get back pretty much everyone has left so its much quieter than its been. Our cab arrives with the same lady who brought us, which seems right somehow. We are now seasoned train travellers but when we get off at Preston to make our connections for Blackpool we make several trips back and forth trying to figure out which rail we are to be at to catch our next train. The train to Blackpool is so different, sort of like moving from 1st class to economy. lol. we are on a train that doesn't have the nice spots for our luggage, and is crowded so we end up sitting in different spots surrounded by our luggage and people. I look over at Nancy and think what the hell have we gotten ourselves into.....she appears to be thinking the same thing. Just as the train is pulling into Blackpool the guy beside me asks me something, I know he's speaking English but have no idea what the hell he is saying lol, After a couple attempts I figure out he's just asking if this is the Blackpool station, he's a tourist from Manchester with yet another English accent. I explain that I'm from Canada so I'm the bigger tourist. We are then off the train thru the much smaller station, one of the first things we see is a bunch of young guys with tee shirts that say so and so's stag do. Yep they really do up tee shirts. We then catch our first Black Cab, which is pretty cool, after a 5-10 minute cab ride we are at our hotel on the board walk. I'm sitting in the lobby waiting for Nancy to return from the loo and a guy in a bright yellow and blue super hero costume walks by with a guy dressed as a banana, then 3 people walk by dressed as Where's Waldo. This is definitely going to be an interesting place. We get checked in to our room and the first thing we see is the tv is on with a Welcome Nancy Milhousen across the screen. cool. We then head out down the board walk, on the light posts we see some pretty tacky mermaids, as we continue to walk they turn into different art work signs which are kinda nice. The board walk is a mixture of many things, there are rides for kids young and old, souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, then on a side street we find a shopping mall with more high end stores. This place has everything. The beach goes for miles as the tide is out, there are steps going down to the beach that double as seats. We see some women dressed in feather boas and tiara's apparently on a hen night. there is another group dressed as crayons apparently celebrating someone's birthday. there are also several men walking around in animal costumes not unlike you would see on little kids at Halloween, never did figure out what that was all about. We find out that the illuminations are on and start at 7:30 and you can catch a tram at the end of the boardwalk. These are a light show that I've been hearing about since I first mention that I was going. We make our way down and just manage to catch the first tram, which is decked out like a kids toy train in bright yellow green and red, covered in lights. The boardwalk comes to life with lights, those tack mermaids look very pretty lit up, as do the wall art signs, there is what looks like chandeliers and crowns floating above us. People are stopping to look at the train and wave, ya kinda feel like a celebrate. We get down past our hotel and to the other side and there are moving light pictures along one side. The trip is very pretty, much like a Chirstmas light tour. It was a lot of fun. We finally finish our tour and make our way back to our hotel and call it a night. Its been a fun day with a lot packed in but well worth it.