On Friday of the half term holidays we took a trip up to Morpeth, which is around a 15 minute drive from Gosforth up the A1, to meet my friends Andrea, and Natalie and their children Francesca (6), Jacob (8), William (11) and Faye (8). Alan unfortunately had to work to keep the wheels of North East sign industry moving, so it was just me and the girls.
As the weather was looking a bit dodgy we headed up to Treasure Island softplay first to let the children run off some energy and to have some lunch. The lego room (the party room stacked high with tubs of lego) kept the boys entertained, while the girls did a treasure hunt around the climbing frame and had their faces painted as spotty dogs (£1 extra charge). The children had a platter of nuggets, hot dogs, crisps and fruit and we had jacket potatoes. The freshly brewed coffee for the Mammies went down well too.
The weather started to improve and the sun even started to peak out so we headed out of the soft play into the town centre en masse to complete the Morpeth treasure trail. We are big fans of these trails and are working our way round the North east having done Newcastle Quayside, South Shields and Durham previously. Parking in Morpeth is free for 3 hours with their disc scheme so we were on a deadline to get completed in this time frame. We managed to park where the trail started at St John’s church just opposite the Chantry in the library car park.
The trail led us around Morpeth passing Morrisons and onto Oldgate, the main shopping street ticking off the suspects along the way. I have to say we were possibly a bit more chilled than when i do them with Alan. Lots of nattering and corralling of kids meant we missed a few clues and had to retrace our steps on more than one occasion-oops! Passing some gorgeous homes that gardens slope towards the river we reached the pedestrian bridge and were told to follow the direction of the water. It was quite a calm day and we headed in what we thought was the direction up Lady’s Walk only to have to retrace our steps. A simple turn right or left would have been good at this point.
Down at the river we found the stepping stones and Andrea volunteered (or was volunteered by us) to take them across and back. After the stress of dealing with the 6 kids over the river, she suggested a quick prosecco break in the sun at the nearby Riverside Lodge. Sounded like a plan and it went down a treat. There’s nothing better than a bit of daytime drinking in the sun.
We were reluctant to leave our sunny spot but the trail needed to be completed. The last part took us to the market square and into Carlisle Park bringing us back to the chantry. We all learned a little bit more about Morpeth and enjoyed getting out and about in the local area.
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