All night long, it rained. It rained so hard and the wind blew so violently, that I thought I might find myself in Kansas, or something, like Dorothy. We were staying at a Caravan Park for the first time. Basically, imagine a whole bunch of trailer houses set up as bungalows with a whole bunch of amenities like the pool, playground, entertainment etc. on its property. The price was fantastic because I booked in advance, and the place fit us all. It had two bedrooms, living room/kitchen and bathroom with hot shower (which was fantastic after a long wet day). We did have heaters in each bedroom, but the one in the living room did not work properly the first night. Robert’s couch/bed was in there, so he had to pretend to be a polar bear that first night and sleep in the cold. It really was not a bad place, but it did feel like we were going to get blown away in that stormy weather.
When we woke up on Saturday morning to the gray stormy skies, we were still determined to have fun. We had a plan to go explore the coastline at Lizard’s Point, no matter what. I googled beforehand in search of some awesome beaches down south. First we headed to the Dollar Cove where it is believed a Portuguese ship carrying gold and coins crashed a few centuries ago. Some say, if you are lucky, you might find a silver coin buried in the sand.
Robert knew we were going to this beach, so he brought his metal detector with him.
Unfortunately, he and Katya didn’t find anything significant, just an old fishing hook.
Mark was exploring nicely without getting wet.
…For a while…
And Alex took only five minutes before he was soaked, despite warnings DO NOT GET WET!
It was raining on and off with wild winds gushing over us. It was still beautiful to watch this stormy sea.
In fact, while researching beaches the night before, I read lots about storm watching in Cornwall, and how people actually organize storm watching trips to go see wild weather and crazy waves. So we just pretended we were on a storm watching trip as well. And that’s me below, in my winter down coat…in April. I hate being cold, so I packed this coat just in case, and actually used it.
After about thirty minutes at the Dollar Cove we went to the neighboring cove that was much wider and had more sand to walk on. By the time Alex was done with the first cove though, he was ready to go back home, get different shoes and clothes. Well, that is not how it works at our house—gotta be tougher than that, especially when you made the choice to get crazy close to the water and get wet.
I am not sure what in the world happened to the pictures I took at that second cove. Alex was sulking that he was uncomfortable in his rain boots full of water, so he took off his boots (with me pulling on them because they were simply glued to his wet feet) and put on plastic bags as liners, as if it made him feel better. In any case, he did not do much exploring there…plus he opted to walk barefoot on the way back to the parking lot (crazy kid! it was rocky and muddy).
So it was only 11:30 in the morning when we got back to the car, looked at each other all wet and cold from the rain, reminded us of our motto for the day to have fun no matter the weather, and headed to Porthleven for some hot food.
Porthleven is a super cute little fishing village on the coast. We found the best chippy (fish and chips place) in town and got ourselves some fresh fish for lunch. The Top Chippy became one of my top three fish and chips places in England. Yum!
I will warn you in advance, the next part is very….picturesque. Lots of pictures that is. Oh, and first of all, I have to say that I am indeed aware of what my children are wearing and how mismatching their outfits are..we just had to wear what we brought in this weather, and if it meant that Katya had two jackets on (seriously, I fought hard but gave up) than so be it.
Porthleven is also a popular place to watch the sea in stormy weather. That famous clock tower in the background is in numerous pictures of the crazy waves hitting the pier in the wind.
I wanted to share all four of these pictures to demonstrate how animated Mark has become.
Yep, he is a character.
This is a plaque commemorating Fred and Edgar Giles, who were from this village, and who died in the Titanic disaster.
And this is the pier that was closed due to high winds and dangerous seas.
A little further, we found Porthleven’s sandy beach. It was low tide, so we had plenty of area to play on. This rugged beauty was still amazing.
And then we found a piece of wood..
And had fun…
“Hey, kids, come stand on the board all together!”.
“Oh, you want to do a jumping picture? Okay, let’s try it”. One, two..
Mark: “I have already jumped twice while you were counting…”.
Katya: “I’ll help you! Let’s jump together!”.
Okay, almost…
Alex: “Oooohh, a “creek”…I love creeks…sorry folks, not interested in jumping any more”.
Katya: “And we can keep trying. Alex, get out of the picture!!!”.
Oh yeah, notice my best hairdo in years! Not everyone can get their bangs/fringe stay sideways like that, seriously.
Katya is so easy to photograph now.
And here is my handsome husband.
Ummm….who can jump without moving his arms and legs?
Oh, and who can pretend to be a ballerina or something?
…And who can show off his skills as a …goalie?
Back to Alex: “Look, I have this amazing creek over here, and I bet I can create a natural disaster using this creek”.
Katya: “Let’s try it again. For a hundredth time. I know, I know. LET IT GO!!!”
Alex: “Yes, I am still here, digging in my muddy water…”
”Oh, by the way, can you name three most devastating tsunamis of all times? Yes, and the dates when they occurred as well, please”.
“Sticks are boys’ best friends”.
Katya: “Singing in the rain….lalalala”!
All right, all right, I’ll stop.
Can you see what these boys are standing on? Robert put our piece of board across two rocks, and they are apparently trying out how strong that board is. No one got hurt.
It was early afternoon when we were done with the beach and walked back to the village. We got some delicious milkshakes for our treat, bought a stuffed lobster (a toy one) the size of a small dog, and headed back to Hayle, where we were staying. After all it was turning out to be a great rainy day!
No comments:
Post a Comment