Imagine!

What do you get when you drop three chatty Beatles fans into the Beatles Story in Liverpool?  If you meet and chat up the right guys, you get a private tour of an exhibit that's not even open yet to the public.  Here's the story...

We arrive in Liverpool, check into our hotel conveniently located right beside the train station and a hop, skip, and a jump to the Albert Dock where we find one of the two buildings housing the Beatles Story.  Being a little confused about the whole set up, I ask these two guys wearing the official shirts how the whole thing works.  And the banter begins.  Katrina presents them with some Mountie pins.  They're pretty stoked about that.  We tour the exhibit, British Invasion as well as Beatles, and when we come out, these guys are waiting and give us some of those souvenir pennies...you know, the kind you can press and flatten.  We take a little group photo and they tell us there is a new exhibit opening the next day -- George, Eric, & Me...a personal collection of photos by Patty Boyd.  Oh, and would we like to see it? A little sneak preview? A personal tour? Are ya kidding? Sign me up!  And wow! What awesome photos.  If you know anything about me, you know George is my favourite Beatle, so the collection was especially poignant for me.

  

Then it was off for the main event, in another building, down the docks a way. I was so pumped... 

...and so I hate to admit this, but -- I was a little disappointed.  Maybe it was the excitement of what had just happened; maybe it was having seen that freaking awesome Rolling Stones exhibit the day before.  Maybe I was expecting something different.  It just lacked any real impact except for a series of photos of John at the end and his white Imagine piano. Sorry, Beatles fans.

But hey, I'm in Liverpool and I have another whole day to soak it all in.  And the weather is amazing. And there was a sunset over the Mersey.

Does it really get any better than that?