Tom's First Holiday

We are just back from Wales, had a lovely time. Tom behaved himself on the whole and we have all come back home more relaxed than when we left.

Friday afternoon was spent loading the car and then driving to our cottage in Cefn Brith (just off the A5 between Llangollen and Betws-y-Coed). Beautiful location, very rural, lots of hills and sheep grazing at the back. We unloaded the car and then headed into the nearby village of Cerrig-y-drudion to find some dinner. We were hoping to have an early dinner in a pub, but the one pub in the village showed no signs of life. However, the butchers was open, they told us that the pub didn't open until 7pm (way too late for us) so we went in and procured some very good looking pork chops instead. Got back to the house and took Tom through his usual bedtime routine. As the cottage had two bedrooms we decided to give Tom his own room and see how it goes (we took the moses basket with us). He went to bed and we ate our lovely pork chops (great crackling)

Saturday
Tom did well in his own room. However, I did decamp to his room around 2am as the mattress was too soft and the floor uneven, meaning that Matt and I kept bumping into each other, keeping both of us awake. Anyway he didn't need feeding until 7am - could this mean that he has cut out his night time feed? The weather wasn't all that great, so we had a leisurely morning. (Me opening my presents and cards, Matt making breakfast) before making our way to Betws-y-Coed to meet up with Kate (one of Matt's translator friends) for an early lunch. Once she was on her way, we decided to take Tom on the miniature railway there. The railway was VERY miniature - Matt and I could only just squeeze into a coach with Tom. Tom seemed to really enjoy it - was the only time he was fully awake during our time there! On return to the car park, I decided to feed Tom as it had been 5 hours since his last one. Sat in the back of the car to do it (quite comfy). As soon as I moved him he brought the whole lot up in a projectile vomit - I had never seen anything like it before, it was as if he had a hose pipe on full pressure! He soaked himself, me and the car. I had spare clothes for him, but not for me. So I spent the rest of the day smelling of sour milk - nice!

Once we had cleared up the car as well as we could we set off again to Sygun Copper Mine - Matt was hoping to find some copper jewellery - he's been trying to replace his copper ring for years now, but copper rings seem to be very hard to find. It was still raining as we got there, so we dashed out to get the tickets in an attempt to get underground and try as soon as possible. The mine was ok - but not really worth the ?8.95 ticket and there was no copper jewellery. Next stop was Beddgelert where we had tea and a bun and then a wonder around a really good craft centre where I purchased a really nice plate with my birthday money. In the craft centre was a full size wicker work motorcycle which Matt had his eye on (good job the car is full with all of Tom's gear). We then decided to go to Trefriw where there is a woollen mill to see if we could purchase a new blanket for Young family patches - no joy, but we did find a butchers which sold very good looking homemade pies which we got for Sunday. Then back to the cottage through some more stunning scenery. The weather in the afternoon cheered up considerably, we even managed to see Snowdon.
Sunday
Sunday didn't dawn very nice, so we decided to hunt out a steam train to have a ride on. Decided on the Ffestiniog railway to take us from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog. Blaenau is as lovely as last time we were there, felt as run down and miserable as last time - although it was raining again. We got there too early, so found a cafe that was open (blimey!) and had a drink and a bun. Tom had a bit of a screaming match (lucky the place was empty), but managed to calm him down and feed him. The train left on time (was a bit of a squeeze getting the pram on) and we chuffed through the countryside, very picturesque. This all passed Tom by as he fell asleep and stayed asleep for the whole journey.

On arrival at Porthmadog we went searching for fish and chips (I was starving - it was way way past my usual lunchtime) thought we were out of luck when we stumbled across a restaurant. Unfortunately there was only one waitress who was completely out of her depth and seemed to be trained by the Tavistock Pasty Shop, which meant that Matt got frustrated and I started writing her a training manual in my head! However, although the service was slow, the food once it came was very good. Spent the rest of our time browsing in Porthmadog, managed to get a new blanket.

Having seen the photos of the first class carriages in the leaflets, we decided to pay the upgrade for our return trip. We got the best place in the observation coach at the end of the train which was very plush. The guard let us on early so Tom could have a feed. As we set off, Tom started to get sleepy again, and as the furniture was free standing we put two chairs together and laid him down. He was very comfortable and looked very cute. The weather on the way back once again was much better so the trip was lovely. Came home, did Tom's usual routine, however, today for the first day he refused to go to sleep. It took a good hour to get him down, then he woke again when we were in the bath meaning I had to go dripping to help him out. However, we got there in the end but he did need feeding at 3am so we might be back to night time feeds...

Monday
Today dawned beautiful with clear blue skies. We decided to go up to Llyn Brenig for a walk. Got there before the visitor centre opened, so decided to go on the nature trail which was a mile and a half. We followed the signs, but seemed just to be walking around the lake and not a nature trail? After about 45 mins we decided to turn round and head back. Once we were back at the visitor's centre, we discovered that you are supposed to drive to the nature trail - it was about 5 miles away on the other side of the lake! Oh well, we had a drink and then decided to walk across the dam which we did. Spent some time by the lake shore before heading back and lunch. We then returned home via a bison farm where we had another long walk.