The Deep - Hull

Lots to look at.

Jack decided that he wanted to go The Deep over in Hull for his birthday treat. Nice to have a weekend off decorating!! It was a straight forward trip along the M62 and we soon arrived.

After a short wait queuing we headed  into the aquarium complex. Finlay wasn't sure about the low lighting and needed a little encouragement to get started. He soon got his head around everything, I stayed with Finlay and talked about everything we looked at, he soon forgot about the environment and enjoyed looking at the various aquariums.

Jack trotted around the building with his friend Sam and was happy to spend time with is 'mate'.

I thought everything was amazing, I could have quite happily spent all day gazing into the tanks, the sheer size and scale of some of the aquariums is breathtaking. The kids kept moving on and didn't spend much time looking in detail, typical kids!

Look at Finlays' Face!!

At lunch time we headed to the cafe which is up high in the building with great views over the Humber.

We spent the afternoon going back through the aquariums, this time the kids did better and asked lots of questions about what they were looking at.

I enjoyed looking at the bigger fish, sharks and rays in the huge central tank. I also liked the diversity of fish in each of the tanks. The kids liked the large lobsters and the colourful tropical aquarium.

We left the aquarium mid afternoon, on the way home we detoured over the Humber bridge. The kids can say they've been over the bridge now!

It was a good day out and everyone enjoyed the visit. It's always the same with the kids, they rush through everything and me and Andrea end up keeping an eye on them, spoiling our enjoyment! The joys of kids.

Pateley Bridge Camping

The BMX Boys

We originally wanted to camp over at Kirby Lonsdale, but the site was fully booked so we ended up at one of our favourite sites in Pateley Bridge.

Arrived at the Riverside Caravan Park at 5pm.  It's amazing how hard the brakes have to work on the van when coming down the hill into Nidderdale, the smell was pretty scary! 

The kids wanted to go straight to the BMX track so I followed them over the bridge and onto the track. Both Jack and Finlay are pretty good these days and they were quite happy bombing around using the jumps and finding places to do other stunts !

Saturday we met up with some friends. We walked up to The Sportsmans Arms Hotel along the river Nidd and had a few drinks. The kids played in a small park near the pub. Typically Finlay ended up covered in Cow muck, not that he cared!

Debbie and Andrea, what a performance!

Andrea decided that we should walk along the other side of the river back to the camp site. "Follow me, it's a nice easy straight forward walk". After about s mile we came to a stream the flowed into the main river, there wasn't a bridge. So the easy walk turned into wading through 2 feet of water, shoes and socks off and trousers rolled up. Finlay was waist deap!

To be honest stuff like this are memorable and I'm sure we'll be laughing about this in years to come,

Andrea booked us into Olley's Restorante & Pizzeria, as always the food was great and we had a nice time. The kids ate all their food so it must have been good.

Sunday morning and a last chance for the kids to play on their bikes before we had an early lunch (bacon sandwich ) and headed for home , just as it started to rain.

Normally we like to keep going to new places, there arn't too many places that we re-visit but The Riverside is a great place for keeping the kids entertained and letting us go for walked around Nidderdale.

Skipsea Bank Holiday Camping

I took the afternoon off work so we could get to the camp site early, but typically I got dragged into meetings and didn't leave work while 2:30pm. We jumped in the can and set off across West Yorkshire, just beating the rush hour traffic on the M62. Within a couple of hours we were at Skipsea Sands Camp site. We were meeting up with several friends and everyone had already arrived. Thankfully we were all pitches together, we got the kids bikes off the van and had a beer or two!

BBQ in the evening

 It was great to relax amongst friends and we had a cracking evening sat outside chatting and joking, good fun. The kids were happy playing together and looked after each other the whole weekend.

The weather was kind to us and we spent the whole weekend outside. The barbecue was heavily used, bacon sandwiches in the morning and burgers and sausages in the evening. 

On Saturday we went down onto the beach and I was amazed at the erosion, mud cliffs as far as the eye can see in both directions falling into the sea. The kids went for a paddle and quickly got wet through, Andrea conned me into having a 'paddle' I stripped off to my underpants and charged into the sea, Andrew one of my mates did the same and we spent 20 minutes swimming around, it wasn't freezing and as long as you stayed in the water it was bearable. Andrea and the other girls nicked our clothes and tool them back to the camp site. We had to walk back onto the site wearing only wet underwear, lots of pointing and laughing!

In the evening the kids hit the arcade, Finlay was determined to will a crab toy on the 2p shove. He sat all night loading 2p's into the machine and won the damn crab which cost a fortune!

Paul with his big fish!

Paul is a keen angler and bought a weekend license for the lake on the camp site. Finlay had been sat with Paul and had been eating maggots, his attitude was that if the fish thought they were okay it was worth try it out. All the girls thought this discussing, but all the blokes laughed at it, considering Finlay doesn't like veg and struggles to eat his tea to eat maggots was pretty good!  We were all sat talking when the kids came running over excitedly, Paul had a big fish on the line and we should come quickly! After a bit of fight Paul landed a nice sized carp, everyone was crowding around looking at quite a big fish, amazing!

We had another barbecue in the evening, it was a testosterone team effort to do the cooking. The girls sat back drinking wine while the blokes took it in turns to flip the burgers!

After dark we lit a small fire in an old barbecue, the kids used this to toast marshmallows.

On our last day we headed for a nearby car boot sale and market at Skirlington. Finlay was on the lookout for a small penknife, he soon found a suitcase and routed out an old knife, a bargain at £1.

Finlay spent the rest of the holiday whittling branches. He was only allowed to play with the knife while under strict supervision!

All too soon it was time to go home, Steve and his kids decided to stay on for a few days but everyone else was busy packing up. It was a quite run home, another great weekend, to say that there was 8 kids and 8 adults we'd all got on great. 

Bradford Kids Saturday Bike Club - Go Ride Games

Go Finlay!

Looked on the East Bradford Cycling Club web site and noticed that there was an open day 'Go-Ride Games' at Richard Dunn sports centre so I loaded the kids bikes into the car and off we went!

Since doing the Bradford Sky ride we've been trying to start doing the Saturday Morning club with the kids, but with holidays and other commitments we've not managed it.

It was a really good day, from 10:30am through to about 3:00pm the kids were kept busy doing all the activities. There were kids of all abilities and ages. Jack and Finlay were in their element, both got stuck in and were enthusiastic about all the events.

Jack insisted on taking the racer.

One of the coaches had brought an Olympic torch and all the kids got to run with it as part of one of the events, this was really well appreciated by my boys.

At the end of the games everyone got a goody bag and a certificate. Jack came second in one of the events so he was well chuffed. As always Finlay was happy and content to be joining in with all the activities.

The kids still have not joined the club, as today wasn't a regular Saturday club, but we'll try again soon!!

Summer Holiday - Near Cherbourg

Finlay Digging.

We headed further north and towards Cherbourg, only one night at Le Grange Large Camp site near to Les Pieux. We arrived mid afternoon and quickly set up camp. The site was adjacent to the beach so we headed straight down to play in the sand. Finlay started making sand castles and digging holes. Me and Jack played bat and ball for a while, as the sum went down we went back to the camp site and got some tea from the take away.

When it came dark there was a fireworks display, a fitting end to our last night away. Early set off in the morning and we headed to Cherbourg for our crossing on the Catamaran. The motor home in 2.95M high and there's a 3.0M height restriction on the ferry so it was good fun getting onto the boat.

Jack in action.

The crossing only took 3 and a half hours and we also gained an hour with the clocks changing. We got off the ferry at Poole mid afternoon and headed straight up country and arrived home at 6pm. All safe.

It had been a great two weeks away, we'd bean to some ace places and had great weather. We did 2,500 miles! Great holiday!!!

Summer Holiday - Quinquis / Brittany

Swing!!

The longest days drive to get to our next destination. Steve, Liz and their daughter Laura moved out to Brittany last year. They have bought a house and some land that they are in the process of renovating. It's the first time we've seen them since last September and we were made very welcome. Finding the place was good fun , the Sat Nav took us all over the place and we ended up using some maps that I'd printed out before we set off.

Jack in Finlay had been told to be on best behaviour  it was Lauras' 6th birthday, I think our kids were happy to see someone English who they could play with and were as good as gold. Steve had made a tree swing which Finlay tested to the limit. There was also a small swimming pool which was great to cool off in. 

Wally the Dog!

We caught up and spent a couple of evenings barbecuing, drinking and laughing about past adventures. Steve took me for a ride on his BMW bike into Carnoet showing me some of the places that they hang out.

It was pretty emotional saying goodbye, but we had to move on, heading nearer home. I'm sure we'll be seeing Steve, Liz, Laura and Wally again, maybe next year!

Summer Holiday - Murol / Auvergne

The Castle and Church at Murol

We were glad to be leaving the Cote D'azur, it had been red hot and none of us had much 'get up and go' with the heat. Ironically the day we left it rained and the weather was cloudy and wet, so it was just as well that we were hitting the Peage. We retraced our way along the south coast and headed in land, we were heading for a village called Murol in Auverge, Camping L'Europe.

The kids had spent all day in the van and wanted to go for a swim in the pool, it was pretty funny watching both Jack and Finlay get into trouble for running or going down the slide backwards. They couldn't understand what the lady was saying to them and just looked surprised to be in trouble!

Over night it came very cold, this was a relief after the heat of the Med. I checked to see how high above sea level we were and was surprised when I found out were were over 2800 feet up!

Finlay!

Next day we walked down into the Murol and found the streets filled with a second and market, we pottered about looking at all the stalls and took some cool photos of the imposing castle above the village. The kids would't go for a look around the castle and both were adamant that they were NOT going into the castle!!!

Andrea went for a run after tea, she's got a club run when we get back to Britain, so needed to at least go for the odd run!!

We headed back to the camp site and chilled out for the rest of the day. In the evening there were several hot air balloons overhead, the views were pretty good from the ground so it must have been spectacular from the air.

Out on a bike ride!

We decided to go for a bike ride in the morning and set off with a rucksack full of drinks. The cycle tracks around the village were perfect for the kids, most of the trails were away from the roads and the lanes were very quite. We did several miles, Finlay moaned about a couple of the hills, but the kids did okay considering how hot it was.

We spent more time in the village, this time the market was even bigger. Please must come from miles around, both stall holders and shoppers, the car parks were full and cars parked on all the grass verges leading into the village.

We all spent more time in the pool, sorry that we'd be moving on again in the morning.