Holiday 2020 days 16-17

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 and days 13-15.

Day 16

I was awake early, listening to the boys chatter and then go and disturb their grandparents. At 9am my parents and I went to do “not parkrun”. I went at my pace and ran the whole way, another longest distance since hurting my knee. I went off way too fast with some rather quick splits and then tired in the muggy morning. Still 32 minutes for 5km is very respectable.

At some point large boy asked his grandma if he and small boy could stay with them another week and me and himself go home, so they could keep doing interesting things and not be bored. What a sweet thought he had, to ask to spend more time with his grandparents. My dad cynically said he thought it was because they’re a soft touch and large boy thought they’d get lots of treats. He’s probably right in part, but I don’t think that would be enough to make him want to stay. I think it demonstrates the love and affection he has for them.

We lazed around the rest of the morning, had freshly baked sour dough bread for lunch and went out for the afternoon. First stop, Old Bolingbroke Castle.

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This is a fantastic ruin looked after by English Heritage, but free to enter. Almost all the outside walls remain and the boys had loads of fun climbing about on them, peeking through old windows and peering up garderobe exits. I took the big proper camera and took some good shots of the boys with their grandparents. At some point large boy caught his shorts on a stone and developed a hole in the bottom – nothing compared to himself’s rip at the fruit farm though! After a good explore and without anyone falling in the moat, we went on to the Viking Way just outside Woodhall Spa.

The boys rode their bikes while the adults walked along, it was just lovely to stroll about with my parents chattering away about anything and nothing. Both the boys were very sensible as they met other cyclists, dog walkers and a horse while going on ahead of us. Altogether we did another 3 miles.

Back at my parents’ house, a bit of screen time and macaroni cheese for tea was in order. I had a G&T to celebrate my morning run’s success.

Day 17

Overnight the heavy rain that had been forecast for the last 4 days finally arrived. It poured down, I don’t even know what time it was but I closed the window in the boys’ room to keep the curtains dry.

I managed a lovely lie in til 8.30am, best all week, only to find that small boy was still asleep too! It was so tempting to climb in bed and cuddle with him as he slept, but that would surely have woken him up so I resisted.

Small boy finally dragged himself out of bed at 9.45am, which meant we could get on with wishing grandma a happy birthday. We gave her big hugs and some gifts to show her how much we all love her. Dad put a joint of gammon on and mum made a tian, I did potatoes and carrots and helped mum with chestnut stuffing – not seasonal but so delicious that who cares. The heavens opened again just before lunch and small boy had fun sticking his arm out of the open patio doors to feel how heavy it was.

There’s nothing like a roast lunch at your mum’s. I may have had seconds of everything, thirds of stuffing and finished the bits of stuffing large boy left. The boys did a great job trying new foods, they hadn’t had aubergine before but large boy ate all the tian. Small boy hasn’t had gammon before but really relished it. Celery sauce was a step too far for both of them though.

Chocolate cake for pudding (seconds for both boys) left us all feeling nicely full and satisfied.

We packed the car up straight after lunch and hooked up the boys’ DVD headrests so they would be chilled out instead of over excited after chocolate pudding. The traffic and weather were good to us so we made good time, nevertheless I managed an hour long nap in the car which I always enjoy.

Home safe and sound after a bloody brilliant 2 weeks road tripping, just as we’d imagined (well more or less), now just to unpack and do the mountains of washing before getting back to work tomorrow.

Post scriptum

Edit, 2 hours later: TV showing image retention even though it was off, himself frantically Googling what to do. Trying a reset of some sort. Tesco delivery lady came an hour early so at least there’s food. And gin.