Full boat for a family weekend

Decided to stay an extra day at 'Little Moreton' so I could visit the beautiful house - well these moorings aren't busy. So BH Monday afternoon saw me walking in sun and on dry grass across the fields. Left Eb tied to tree outside while I had a look round the Tudor house - declined the tour as I had done it twice before in last 10 years! On Tuesday, sunny and warm, I continued on to Congleton and moored on the embankment opposite the magnificent railway viaduct. Here I was able to walk down old railway line into town for a bit of retail therapy (bus back), polish the 2nd side of the boat (at last!) and enjoy the scenery. Wednesday afternoon I was collected by boating friends Graham and Lyn who live in Congleton, and was driven to a local reservoir (would look it up in atlas but Eb tore it up whilst I was out the other day!) and then for a very good meal in a pub nearby. Thursday was shopping and preparing for crew.

Daughter Lesley, husband Phil and Louise arrived Friday afternoon after a prolonged trip from Lancashire. Saturday set off about 10am to travel to Bosley locks. 2 boats waiting so decided to have early lunch, then Louise went for a nap while we set off up the locks. Phil keen to steer so Lesley and I went to our outdoor gym (BW pinched this phrase for their vans from me after I filled in one of their questionnaires!). Despite a few knocks on the walls Louise slept all the way up the 12 locks! After topping up the water, etc at the top we decided to make use of the only visitor mooring here. This was ideal as son Steve, wife Julia and Lauren (5) had now purchased their trailer tent nr Nottingham and were heading for their campsite 10mins from us. They joined us for a meal, sadly having to go back to the tent at 7.30 as Louise sleeps in the lounge!

They joined us again for a cooked breakfast before taking Phil back for his car, then driving back to Devon. What a lovely gettogether it was. We then set off, in strong wind, for Gurnett Aqueduct but realised we would not get to the pub for an early lunch so decided to stop at the Fool's Nook at Oakgrove. Here we had an excellent Sunday lunch and delicious dessert. Returned to boat to find dog had a bad case of Separation Anxiety again and had shredded a 1 foot pile of canal and family history mags, plus road atlas etc - which I was meaning to 'sort'. Took quite a while to tidy up before we could erect Louise's cot and let her have a nap. She was asleep before we set off!! Less than an hour later we were at the Aqueduct - where we had great difficulty in mooring in the even stronger wind. After a stretch of legs for all, we had early tea and then the three set off home, Louise already in her PJ's! A really lovely weekend seeing lots of my lovely family. Well at least we had a dry weekend and only one brief shower. That makes 7 dry days in a row - more than the 5 odd dry days in August!