Holiday 2020 days 13-15

This year we’re foregoing our usual jaunt to a Eurocamp somewhere hot in France (like last year). Instead, we’re playing out the dreamed of and longed for road trip to visit family. The lovely Bill over at A Silly Place imagined the end of lock down and passed the baton to me, having received it himself from Renata at Buffalo Sauce Everywhere.

See what we got up to during days 1-3 and days 4-6 and days 7-9 and days 10-12.

Day 13, town and golf

After a rather sleepless, very hot night, interrupted by hot sleepless boys at 2.30am, my parents and I went on a hot and muggy run. Dad’s faster than me according to Strava, and went further too. Although there’s something distinctly suspicious about our Strava maps and the fact that I was ahead of him all the way until he took a diversion.

Showered, breakfasted and caffeinated, dad and I went into their local town to pick up some eggs and bits and then to see my other Gran who’s in a nursing home there. The boys had made her a lovely video before we left and she was so pleased to see them virtually.

When we got back to mum’s we found the boys had played with small boy’s RC car and were setting about origami and drawing. Then small boy decided to count grandma’s books published by Penguin and grandad’s books by Charles Dickens.

After a picker lunch (yes again, we love bread and cheese, pate and pastry bits), we went out to play footy golf at Boston West Golf Club. Small boy found kicking rather challenging, himself had a few really wild long shots and I was remarkably straight while large boy was consistent too. We finished with himself on 6, me on 3 1/2, large boy on 2 1/2 and small boy got an honorary point for getting his ball in a hole in 7 kicks on about the 5th hole of 12.

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We stopped into the village shop (with the same “open” sign as 30 years ago) for ice creams when we got home, then tried to cool down and mostly failed.

After some screen time and a game of Catan (we finally worked out what we were doing wrong to always have a stale mate), I had an excellent idea of a water fight for the boys. It turned out to be a disaster as large boy threw water at me immediately despite clear instructions not to. Cue tears over being told off for not listening. After a bit of water play we filled a washing up bowl with cold water for them to cool their feet in. Then pizza for their tea.

Once they were in bed I made my famous lamb chops with hummus and roasted tomatoes. My parents seemed to like it and it gave mum another day off cooking – she gets quite stressed in the kitchen when catering for more people than usual.

Day 14, tea treat

Another hot and sticky night with disturbances from a fox fight, owls, some chatty inebriated teenagers, a tablet buzzing because it was almost out of charge, and a boy with a huge sneeze. We got up slowly and chilled out in the morning, my parent went for a run and they we had a round of Exploding Kittens.

Late morning, himself and I went out for afternoon tea for lunch at the Tea House in the Woods as a birthday treat for me. The boys stayed and made chocolate chip cookies with my mum, then had lunch and played with the Lego.

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Himself and I had delicious sandwiches, scones, lemon posset, and cake then went for a wander through Woodhall. We saw the RAF memorials and found a second hand bookshop, where we sourced a pile of World Book Day editions from previous years to spoil the boys with. Back at my mum’s, large boy devoured one in 15 minutes flat!

We went for a scoot over to the village’s bigger park for a change and had a little game of boules in the garden, ending when small boy sent a ball flying into the flower bed and it took me 10 minutes to find while he cried that it was lost. The boys helped grandad collect the onions that had been drying in their bed, just in case the rain came.

We had homemade pancakes for tea with cheese, ham, and a creamy mushroom sauce, made on my parents’ fancy French six-welled pancake making hot plate thingy whatsit. The boys loved it, at last small boy ate a meal at the same speed as everyone else and large boy wolfed down 10!

After the boys were in bed we had some biscuits with yummy cheeses and a chat about what we might do for Christmas this year. Its tricky with my gran in a home, my grandma an hour away and my brother and his wife to weave into the mix. We didn’t manage to come up with a plan. I moved small boy from our bed to the spare bed he shares with large boy when we stay here, only to discover he had sweated profusely and my side of the bed was left rather damp. Lovely.

Day 15

I got up early and went for a solo run, almost 4km at a really good pace. Mid-morning we went out on a day trip to the seaside. We drove out to Skegness, marvelled at its tackiness and stopped at Chapel St Leonard’s. Down on the beach we flew kites, small boy’s flew really well but large boy’s is bigger and didn’t want to stay up. After almost an hour we were rather windswept and starting to get hungry.

We drove along the coast to Mablethorpe, parked up and found burgers and hotdogs on the sea front. We watched the waves and the brave people on the beach paddling despite the strong wind and cooler temperatures. At least it was 18°C rather than the chill we’d had in Lossiemouth 10 days before. A little wander along the promenade and we saw the air ambulance land.

Our afternoon activity was a trip to the Seal Sanctuary. It was quite quiet and they had loads of other animals as well as the seals. There were lots of birds that were out and about in bigger enclosures than you sometimes see. Plus they weren’t hiding away, the parrot even said “hello” to us. It’s a bit frustrating when you pay for a wildlife park only to find that half the animals have hidden themselves away. The gibbons, coati, and squirrel monkeys and the lemurs were very active, the lynx and the pigs were sleeping – the pigs made the same snoring noise as himself. There was a funny seal who kept popping its head up for a breath and then blowing bubbles from the bottom of its pool.

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We took a lovely long drive back through the Lincolnshire Wolds to get home to my mum’s, then ordered a chippy tea from the best chip shop in their nearest town.