After our two mammoth walks last week - firstly our urban adventure then our trip discovering pondlife - I asked the Madhouse Mini-testers what they would like to do this week, on the second week of their holiday, and was rather stunned when they said "another walk" ! Well, OK, can't argue with that !
So we had it all planned. Today was all set to be a day at the beach. Then we got up and it was raining. Towards the end of the morning, it brightened up slightly so we decided to go ahead, taking our Hello Kitty Play Tent to protect us from the elements on the beach ! (I was amazed at how many bags we could hang off the pushchair and still push it, as you can see in the top picture ! That, combined with my Lunaling Capri pants, must have helped burn off a few calories, hopefully !)
It was a slightly shorter walk this time - "only" 6km, which is about 4 miles. But that was still plenty long enough for a few adventures.
We got up close to a huge group of seagulls, and even shared a few crisps with them !
We checked out the fish that was fresh off the fishing boats. I quite fancied buying some of these plaice actually but there was no way it would have survived a whole day at the beach !
We walked past a building in the port with a lighthouse at the top. We also wandered past all the big boats and watched the bridge open up to let a fishing boat come through, followed by dozens of screeching seagulls.
We looked at all the little crosses on the Operation Dynamo Memorial and I briefly explained the role that Dunkirk played in the war. (Click on the picture to see it bigger - they are all tucked around the plaque above the poppy wreath.)
But the beach was to see happier times played out today and within minutes, we had a bright pink Hello Kitty tent pitched on the empty beach !
Who needs beach huts ?!
We all managed to fit inside to eat our picnic and were very impressed that our sandwiches remained sand-free !
Pierre couldn't wait to get his socks and shoes off !
While the Madhouse Mini-testers played on the beach in front of the tent, I settled down with a very aptly-named novel !
Sophie made a huge sandcastle.
Pierre and Juliette dug a big hole ! They also rolled around in the sand an awful lot !
Everyone had great fun bouncing around on the trampolines.
Pierre spent the first 6-minute session bouncing on his knees but really got to grips with the bouncing on his second go.
The tent made the perfect changing room for changing into dry clothes for the way home - you can see why we had so many bags attached to the pushchair now !
Sophie said farewell to her sandcastles ... then was gutted when a little girl (AND her mum !) jumped all over them as we headed home. (To be fair, I don't think they knew Sophie had made them !)
The only bad thing was, it never even crossed my mind to take suncream as it was such a grey day to begin with and we all came home with red faces - that's a big fat #mummyfail then !
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Looks like a fabulous day
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