A day at the seaside

Cricket or baseball?

Saturday dawned bright and clear, definitely a day for going out.  We asked Tom what he wanted to do   - he requested a bike ride in Morecambe so we planned an itinerary for the day: 1) Cricket at Hess Bank whilst watching the trains, 2) Lunch at Archers Cafe in Bolton-Le-Sands as recommended by Paul of Enjoy-a-Ball, 3) Bike ride on Morecambe Prom.

So, that is what we did.  We had a really good session of cricket and actually managed to get Tom to do some runs when he hit the ball (about 20% of the time).  His biggest problem was that he would only hold the bat with one hand, and then he would miss the ball.  It took some time, but he gradually got the hang of keeping hold of it with two hands.  Of course this was interrupted every time the level crossing went down when we had to stop everything and wait for and watch the train.

Is this the best way to play tennis?

We also played a bit of velcro tennis - this didn't go as well.  He would hold up his velcro catcher, but then close his eyes as we would throw the ball towards him - this meant of course that he couldn't see where the ball was going and couldn't re-adjust the catcher so it would be in the path of the ball.  It meant that our throwing had to be spot on - but that isn't the point is it?  Oh well, hopefully he'll learn - he did get bopped on the head with the ball a couple of times because his eyes were shut!

We all suddenly realised that our tummies were rumbling, so decided to go and find a cafe that Paul had told us about - on the beach in Bolton-Le-Sands.  Matt didn't know of this or where it was so we were pleasantly surprised to find it in a lovely location on the beach.  It was a good cafe in a farm caravan site and the food very good quality - will definitely be back again.  We figured that it would be a nice walk from Hess Bank to this cafe, so that's a plan for another day.

Suitably full of food we headed to Morecambe.  We found a free car parking space quite a way out and got out Tom's bike for a ride.  The plan was to ride to the stone jetty and back (Matt still hasn't been there when it's been open)  I thought it would be too far away, but I was proved wrong.  Tom was as happy as Larry on his bike and as long as we stopped for rests on the way he was fine.  So we visited every play ground and had photos taken with Eric (compulsory these days) - we think Tom will like Eric's humour - must look for a Christmas special this year for him to watch.

Tom insisted on this pic

We got to the Stone Jetty in no time at all, the boys shared an evil looking Millionaire's Shortbread as a reward.  We then headed back to the car - Matt and Tom raced each other all the way back - once again having plenty of rest stops on the way.  I was surprised and very pleased how well Tom did (remember the horrific episode I had with him last year where he suddenly refused to move and I had to carry him and wheel 2 bikes back to the car!).  Matt did really well too (I just power walked the whole way)

Ingleborough from the Stone Jetty

Anyway it was one of those magical days - beautiful day - we could see for ever, all the Lake District mountains were visible from Morecambe Bay, we could also see Ingleborough which was looking quite magnificent.  Everyone was on great form, in a good mood and we had a lovely day.  Such a shame the weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday!

Yep, Sunday dawned cloudy and grey.  We decided to go to White Scar Caves as Matt had heard that if you are local and go once, they then let you in again through the year free of charge.  We turned up, paid our money and then found out that it wasn't true - no resident discount here.  Oh well, we had a good time, Tom enjoyed it and we got some exercise - it is the longest show cave in the UK.  Only thing I would say though was maybe it is too long as I did feel like I was being hurried the whole time and didn't really get time to take it in and enjoy it at leisure.  The group was so big that we missed a whole load of features - people were supposed to pass on messages down the line, but that wasn't happening.  Oh hum.

We decided to have lunch at The Sportsman - a pub we have passed on the way to Dent (in the middle of no-where) on a number of occasions.  We satisfied our curiosity: it was an average pub, with some local characters and great accents going on.  Food was ok, but not spectacular.  As we were nearby, we then went for a look at Dent Station (the highest mainline station in England).  When I say we, I mean 'they boys', I was cold and decided to stay in the car where it was warm - outside was raining and miserable.  The boys were happy though and managed to see a stopping train which was good going as  there were only 3 scheduled for the day.

That's it for the weekend.  Oh, we have some news: we've finally booked our tickets to Australia - so are heading out on the 23rd June and returning on 20th July - exciting stuff.  I also weighed myself this week and was horrified by what I found out, I knew I had put some weight on but had no idea it was so bad, so I am now on a strict diet using Slimming World which is what I did last time to shift weight (pre-Tom), fingers crossed it works and the weight comes off - let's hope I get good results in the first 2 months.  Now the clocks have gone back and we are beginning to get some nice days we are taking it in turns to go for evening walks - this should also help.