We decided to combine a trip to the seaside with a night away and a trip to Cheshire Oaks, which looked good on paper and turned out to be a superb plan. We drove from home to West Kirby (which is just to the left of Liverpool) and easily parked on the seafront. West Kirby was okay, its most notable feature is a bizarre path which separates the 'Lake Marina' from the sea, giving the distinct impression from the shore that people are walking on water. It's a very strange phenomenon, and a very windy one too when you get out on it.
Rose had scouted out a potential 'baked potato' outlet in the 'The Tee Room' which we finally located with a bit of help from Google and a couple of Morrisons' staff members. However, on arrival it was plainly closed, and a quick look at the sign on the door confirmed that it was to remain that way for the duration of said day.
Along the street we could see a pub sign, but after peering in the door and seeing the disgusting swirly carpet we decided this was not a place we wanted to spend any time at all. So we walked back the way we'd came and investigated what looked like a seafront ice cream parlour, but was in fact a restaurant.
It was rather nice inside, albeit the staff were dressed up like it was smart Halloween (black shirts, orange tie) and we ordered a couple of baked potatoes while staring longingly at the carrot cake in the fridge. Of course they didn't do anything normal like beans, so we both had ham with our baked spud, which was okay. Astonishingly they managed to serve the potato in what can only be described as the 'French' style. In other words luke warm. I don't know how long it takes for a baked potato to go cold on a warm day, but it must be quite a while...
After leaving there we walked both ways along the bizarre 'sea-path' before heading back to the car and into Chester (stopping on the way to buy cat litter at a Tesco we spotted). After checking into the Hotel we got into Chester about 4pm, which didn't leave us an awful lot of time to look around, but we just managed to scoot down to Boots, browse BHS and Pia and secure some treats from Hotel Chocolat. The latter being of utmost importance, obviously.
We headed back to the Hotel and Rose went to the gym and I had a swim in the 'oh what a surprise it doesn't look as big as in the pictures' pool. Fortunately there was only one other person in the pool so it was perfectly adequate and I completed an epic 80 lengths in just over half an hour.
Our room was quite nice, with a pointlessly huge bed. What is the purpose of the five feet gap in the middle? How is this 'luxurious' exactly? I mean we don't want a tiny double bed, but this always seems a bit unnecessary.
The room was nice enough, without blowing us away but the rest of the Hotel interior was very nice and after all, most of the time you spend in your room you are asleep. The guy who booked us in recommended booking direct in future as Booking.com often end up giving you a twin bedroom. This may (or may not) be true, but the fact is booking with them saved us somewhere between £100-150, and with all the space between us we might just as well have slept in separate beds!
The menu in the restaurant looked good but the cocktail list in the bar was rather paltry and uninspiring, so I hit on the idea of looking on my phone to see what other options we had in the area. I found a place called 'Barlounge' but I couldn't get the menu to load on my phone so I decided to go and check it out while Rose had a shower.
The menu was okay, but a bit pricey, while the cocktails looked promising. However, there was a nasty smell of booze pervading the lower floor and I couldn't see what the upstairs looked like, this combined with a previous experience of a Crowne Plaza restaurant convinced us that we should eat in the hotel and then maybe go out into the town for a drink after. And in fact, missing the turning on the way back I noticed a cocktail bar called 'Kuckoo' which having consulted their website back at the room had a bewildering array of drinks to choose from.
We showered and dressed for dinner and then presented ourselves to the greeter (Amy: Welsh, hyperactive, sleep deprived and on a double shift) only to be told that there was a party of 40 Italians just seated and that we'd have to wait 45mins. So we settled in a corner of the very nice bar, only mildly annoyed by the live football on the screen. The time passed reasonably quickly and soon it was time for dinner!
We had previously eaten at the Marlowe Crowne Plaza and been very impressed (though not with the pudding selection on that occasion) so we figured this was a good bet and so it proved to be. We both had burger and fries (which were magnificent) and we both had sticky toffee pudding (which was huge and magnificent also!). Throughout our meal Amy kept us entertained and confirmed that Kuckoo was an excellent place to go.
By the end of our meal we were both stuffed to the gills and after a brief pause we strolled out of the hotel and around the corner to 'Kuckoo'.
Well, it was completely awesome. The whole place was very cool and bathed in red light and the drinks were superb. For the first round I had a 'Kuckoo Kolada' and Rose had a 'Strawberry Mashtini', and then for the second round I had an 'Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie' and Rose had a 'Rainbow Road'. The 'Kuckoo Kolada' was served in a coconut, with a slice of pineapple, a blackberry and a raspberry on the side, the 'Rainbow Road' was served with a rainbow made of glow sticks and the 'Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie' was topped with melted marshmallows simulating the meringue topping. It was completely and utterly excellent and a fantastic place to spend an evening.
By the end of that we were feeling even fuller (and a bit drunk) so we headed back to the room and watched 'Eurotrash' on TV for half an hour before crashing out. We thought we might do the gym/pool again in the morning if we woke up early enough, but in the event we slept quite well and we wanted to get to Cheshire Oaks for 10am so we gave it a miss.
Breakfast was served by Amy (looking even more tired than the previous night) and was perfectly fine, with fresh fruit and All Bran available to those of us on the Slimming World diet, perhaps next time I will get to try the sausages?
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