Thursday 5 August 2010

Happy Camping!

You may remember this post from a couple of months back. Well, we had a night away in June to give the tent a trial run, then this week we've been away properly.

OK, so when it comes to tents 'happy camping' may be a bit strong. I'm never going to be a 'material as walls' kind of girl, call me strange but I like bricks! But, it was a means to an end so we packed up on Monday and headed off over to the East coast.

Now, I do love it over there, it is beautiful. I spent many summer holidays over there as a kid:

The beauty of a tent is it's up and you're in within an hour. Even just an hour with a 3-year-old's 'can I get in yet, can I get in yet?'! Eventually we let him in to test out the air beds:

We went for a look around the site, went for a swim and then went back to the tent for a proper camp tea cooked on our new shiny camping stoves:

Camping fajitas eaten in the tent on our new camping table, not bad:

We then took the kids down to the 'entertainment' for the night. Em got all dressed up for the disco:

While Xander spent the night on the dancefloor joining in with all the games and dancing:
Me and Rob found a table and grinned and bared the constant repeats of 'A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut'!

Early doors for us Gillards, we put Xander to bed then me and Em did a bit of tent knitting in the dark:

The next morning, we headed off to Filey for the day. After a brew on the seafront it was down to the beach for the obligatory sand castle building:

And beach posing by both Xan:

And Em:
Then it was time for a beach picnic (if only for Rob to use the gag 'sand-wiches' constantly!):

Love Filey! We were shattered when we got back to the tent as we'd walked miles and had lots of good old sea air! An early night for us (well, as early as fellow drunk campers will allow, not much sound proofing in canvas! Thank god for earplugs!).
We woke up to rain the next morning but were still determined to make the most of the day, so headed to Scarborough. First up, fish and chips by the sea; it's a seaside must! OK, so what if it was freezing and raining, we couldn't not:

They were deeeeelicious! Why do fish n chips always taste so much better by the sea?
After a wander on the front, we headed down to the beach so Xander could have his first ever donkey ride:

He loved it and said it was very bumpy!
A quick walk along the beach:

And then the cold got the better of us and we headed back to the campsite for a bit of campfire cooking then to pack the tent up. We were supposed to stay an extra night but we'd been so cold the night before that we decided we wanted our own beds (plus not being woken at 1am by the camps 'revellers' returning from the club!).
So verdict? Well, Antigua it ain't! PlusI ain't ever going to be a camper, I like not having to put my trainers on when I want a wee! But for a couple of nights it's OK, it's fun for the kids and it's quite cool cooking outdoors. The days out were great though, the East coast has such great seaside towns, so the odd weekend here and there in our 'holiday home' would be good. Maybe not a fortnight though eh? 14 nights of that air bed and communal washing up just ain't happening!

4 comments:

. said...

Half of those look like you stole my holiday snaps from last year! I'm sure we ate fish and chips on that bench!

Glad you had a good time hun and sorry the weather got the better of you.

xMx

Ladkyis said...

I recommend you try looking at "family" sites with no club. This deters the drinking fraternity and eliminates bunches of hen and stag night campers. Wearing socks in bed keeps you warmer and a blanket on the air bed under the sleeping bag keeps the cold air one more layer away.
It really is a great way to holiday with children I have camped since I was two years old so 62 years and only now have I reluctantly realised that getting back up from the airbed is now too difficult for an old fatty like me.

Uma said...

sounds like a brilliant time, get scrapping those photos!

kim said...

We're trying to get braver about the family camping--DH and I both grew up camping and loved it, but it is so much more work when you are the adults! And I agree about having walls--I have a hard time sleeping with the noise, and the heat and mosquitos that come with our east coast camping.

Abe will be so jealous about the donkey ride--that is his dream!