Blackpool Tower Rocks

 by Dorothy Gibbons

It was a cold wet winter's morning. Snow lay softly on the ground. We loved trying to catch snowflakes as they whirled their way downwards. 

Dad's words echoed in our ears, “What a hellish day to drive to Blackpool.” Such a grump. 

So we all ignored him as this was our Christmas trip highlight of every year. A day in the Tower! Going to see the pantomime, dancing in the ballroom, bouncing in the balls at Jungle Jim’s. This year there was another attraction: The Tower Dungeons.

Would we be brave enough for a voyage into the darkness? Creepy, very very creepy, we thought.

Off we went singing our favourite car song: Puff the Magic Dragon. Why that one? Because he lived by the sea.

Leaving Leeds behind down the motorway and heading to our favourite destination, good old Blackpool, there was always a prize for who could see Blackpool Tower first. Who would win this year's prize? Only time would tell.

We stopped for lunch. We only wanted to reach Blackpool so all of us ate quickly to continue on our journey. Approaching Blackpool Tom saw the tower before me so that was the first argument of the day. He wanted a stick of yummy Blackpool rock and we went to the rock shop before going to our hotel to book in. The smell was so fruity and we got to taste some rock - we all got a different flavour each. 

The next stop was when we arrived  at our hotel: The Royal Sea Bank. We were greeted by the manager and were shown to our rooms. Excitement filled our room when we saw the mini Christmas tree decorated with dazzling balls and crackers. How we loved our turkey and tinsel break!

We had visited Blackpool for the previous nine years and it was like our second home.

Hurriedly we ran to mum's room.

“Can we go to see the tower, please?" 

Mum gave in to our begging and off we set along the glitzy promenade towards the tower, passing Coral Island - another favourite haunt of ours. But our eyes were gazing at nothing but the tower. We were desperate to visit and spend an action packed day there.

We were all early to bed that night as we wanted to be wide awake to spend our time enjoying all  the activities the tower had to offer. Hot cocoa, with marshmallows on top,  helped us relax for a good night's sleep.

In the morning we got up at the crack of dawn to go to shop for dad's paper and our pic 'n' mix. Down for breakfast Cocoa Pops and a fry-up always filled us until evening dinner. Now it was what we longed for: our trip up the tower.

We were laughing all the way up to the walk of faith. There was awesome blue sea and sand. We saw cars zooming along the busy promenade. Tom acted as though was the king of the castle and we all giggled. He looked through the spy view to see how far he could see. All the attractions were such fun and the day passed too quickly.

Sighing, we returned to hotel. Afterwards we all agreed we had enjoyed the pantomime circus best of all this year. It was Mooky's Winter Wonderland. 

 

Roll on next year's visit!