I’ll admit that this visit has been largely motivated by my discovery of two amazing and independent cafes in Liverpool which sell some of my absolute favourite foods! These foods are a bit (a lot) fattening though, so we included some fun winter Canadian style sports to burn off the calories… As such, Canada was the perfect pretend location for our ‘stay-cation’ this weekend.
Breakfast
Let’s start with this excellent small chain of coffee places in and around Liverpool – Moose Coffee! Specialising in American and Canadian breakfasts it was the obvious place to start our journey. Pancakes, waffles, maple syrup (hello Canada) and bacon all round. The food was delicious, the coffee was authentic and the atmosphere was lovely.
They have a children’s menu which was perfect for Penny and Freddie and Penny declared it to be the best breakfast ever. Will I be back? Hell yes! I jut hope they open a branch in Formby next. (Also an honourable mention for the Kiwi’s pancake which had bacon and sausage actually inside it).
Winter sports!
It wasn’t the warmest weekend in the UK but the sun was shining brightly and it certainly isn’t winter; so how to create a Canadian winter sports environment? Two potential options were explored https://www.chillfactore.com/ or https://planet-ice.co.uk/locations/widnes/ which both looked fantastic.
We will definitely visit the Chill-Factore soon as I’m keen to let Penny try skiing before she has some lessons in New Zealand this summer. In the end though, thanks to a generous gift from some friends who have been skiing in France recently (and a loan from another friend) we found something much closer to home.
These may be great sledges in the snow, but they work just as well on the sand and we are blessed with a beach full of sand dunes five minutes from our house. Armed with our National Trust card (free parking) and our coats we headed out to play in the snow (sand) at our local beach. In my opinion, Formby beach is one of the best beaches in the UK and I feel very lucky to live so close.
The kids loved the sledging, it was very genuinely our favourite activity yet and it got us out and onto our beautiful local beach. Our dog, Bo, finally got to play too, plus it was a great way to burn off our maple syrup calories. Go and do it – and not just on Canada day!
Dinner
I had been looking forward to dinner at Caribou Poutine all week! For the uninitiated, Poutine is a Canadian dish of chips, cheese curds and gravy. I had never tried it before (but I like chips, cheese and gravy very much), so I was delighted to find this absolute gem of a cafe/takeaway right in the heart of Liverpool.
I had been warned by several teenage boys (who I teach) to be very hungry when I went, but even so I was defeated by the sheer volume of this hot mess of chips, cheese and gravy. There were amazing toppings too and I loved the laid back and friendly vibe of the place which was just on the right side of busy.
The Kiwi, however, ate all of his and most of the kids as well (Penny preferred her chips plain and Freddie ate only the melted cheese). He then needed to go for a long walk to think about what he had done.
Bedtime
I have loved the Anne of Green Gables books for as long as I can remember and have always wanted to visit Prince Edward Island where they are set. My little people are too young to enjoy the books yet (you need to be about 9 or 10 I would guess) but I found a version which was rewritten and illustrated for younger children. It was lovely to end our journey to Canada with the ultimate Canadian children’s story and Penny, I think, has fallen in love with Anne Shirley too. Read about out other North American adventures here.
