We set off for the seaside, my sister, the 9 year old, the 7 year old and I. We’d been planning a day at the coast for a while and this was it.  We packed up the car and we were off to Whitby.

We decided to brave the A64 past Leeds Fest as we reckoned that revellers, the majority of who are teenagers, would be snoring in their tents at 9.30 on a Sunday morning. Our theory was proved wrong as mud covered people emerged from hedges – looking worse for wear and tried to push their cars through the mud to the exit of the field … that we were passing.  .  My Sister reckoned we’d be there for just gone 11 and the children were behaving in the back so it was quite a pleasant trip.  My Sister and I don’t see each other as often as we’d like, life kind of gets in the way, but a road trip was the perfect time to catch up with all of our gossip.

We arrived in Whitby at 1pm, two hours later than planned, due to two serious road accidents that slowed us to a standstill at various points.  Still – that was two extra hours of catching up time.  We parked up and laden with our seaside goodies wandered down to the beach.

The children immediately set about digging as we tried to get lunch underway.  I’d never had a BBQ on the beach so my sister had bought a disposable one from Aldi. The BBQ refused to light, and we were starving. 75 matches later and only a slight whisp of smoke to show for our efforts we decided to go for Plan B, a rather horrid sausage sandwich from the beach cafe, which took them 45 minutes to make.

We didn’t let that put a damper on our day though as we played in the sea, made a volcano, played giant frizbee and just enjoyed the beach.  The kids ran from our camp at the top of the beach to the sea for four hours and loved every minute of it.

We left the BBQ whisping away behind us until it decided, four hours later to light sufficiently to BBQ corn on the cob and sausages for tea!

My one regret was that we left the dogs at home.  Part of the beach is specifically for dogs to run wild and I watched happy dogs frolicking in the sea.  Next time I’ll take them.

We hiked back to the car, because that’s what it feels like after a full day of sandy fun, and left our stuff before wandering into Whitby. We had a two pronged mission – ice cream and penny arcades. Neither disappointed.

We set off home at 7pm with wind chapped rosy cheeks, tired but happy after a day at the beach. The 7 year old kept mumbling about the amount of sand he had down his pants but they had both had a fab time.

It was a revelation.  I have never been a beach sort, when the children were little I found it stressful keeping an eye on them and constantly having to shadow them while stopping them eating sand.  This was a lovely relaxing affair though, Aldi BBQ aside, and one I’ll be repeating.