Landed in Manchester on Thursday morning at around 7:30AM GMT. Winn met us and we took the train back to Preston. It felt good to be back. Commence mission UNPACK.

Kyrie was not happy with me beginning at...oh, say, the beginning of the trip. All 4 of our check on bags weighed around 50 pounds each and, I admit, it was difficult to schlepp them around. Derek helped us to load the car and drove us to Michigan City to catch the South Shore Line into VanBuren station. The train was brand new and extremely nice! The conductor..not so nice. He shoved a bag up onto the train and it hit Kyrie's foot and split her toenail. He admitted to us later that he was angry at us when he saw our bags...and he got mad again when a handicapped girl boarded at the next stop. Which meant that we had to move all our luggage, since he told us to put them in the handicap space!! He laughed at us each time we had to move them...what a putz!

In Chicago we ran into a rain storm and got drenched...so much for good hair....but bless Nick, Kyrie's boyfriend, who risked life and limb to pick us up on Michigan Ave and drive us to O'Hare!

The flight was good in that there were no real incidents. Since we were a bit delayed on the ground (the south runways had flooded) we sort of beelined across the Atlantic and didn't go quite as far north as usual.

Customs was a bit interesting. The border guard kept asking me questions and more questions. You know that commercial that says...Never let them see you sweat!..? Well, I was sweating pretty good by the time he was finished. End result...he stamped our passports and no further incidents occured.

We trained to Preston...they have such nice trains here!!! We got a black cab back to the house and the cabbie kept joking about how the bags must have been packed by women!! Grrrr...

Kyrie had her first Indian cuisine on Friday night at the King Korai...Winn's favorite restaurant. She handled it very well! Last night we went for dinner to the Lane Ends Pub where we met Graham, Winn's brother, Barbara - Graham's wife, and Richard - their son. We had...what else....cheeseburgers!! I'm still irritated that Kyrie got more chips than I did. ;-)

This morning we went to church at St. Walburge's in Preston. It's a beautiful old gothic cathedral. They are currently renovating it and when it's finished it should be amazing again. The acoustics in it are gorgeous!

After church we went to Jo McDonnell's house for tea. She is the mother of Winn's best friend, Mac. We saw Jo at church and after mass she just started walking away with Kyrie...oh yes, we were going for tea! Winn says she is the most powerful woman in England...her invites are not to be turned down. What a great time! Mac and his wife Marion and their two daughters, Helen and Rosie were there too. We laughed so much! Mac and Winn should do stand up comedy! When we left Jo made me promise to take Winn around to see her more often. I promised...hey, she may be in her 80's but she could break me like a twig!

This afternoon we walked with Rosie - Winn's dog - around the park until it started to rain. We headed home to roasted chicken and potatoes. It tasted amazing!! I tried to call folks at home but only got answering machines. So, now we're just chillin'.

Tomorrow Winn goes in to work on the early train so Kyrie and I are on our own...look out Preston...Yanks on the loose!!!

Well, that's all for now! More updates later!