and take a bath (one of the very few they had during the next six days):
There was also the packing. Packing to go on a camping trip with two small children--one still in diapers--is an epic effort and took me about two full days, despite my efforts to miimize stuff by making packing lists. While the lists helped, the genius idea to pack the three of us into one big duffle bag (Jim's idea and...hmm...Jim got his own bag) resulted in my having to repeatedly unpack and repack to find anything for anyone.
Packing the car, which we rented because there was no possible way to get to where we were going with all our stuff and children by train, was Jim's project and took the better part of 3 hours, with the constant anxiety that for some reason we didn't know about we were going to get a parking ticket from one of the eternally circling traffic wardens. Luckily, we read the signs correctly and didn't violate any parking laws. Finally, multiple last minute bathroom trips and one cherry chapstick confiscation related meltdown later, we were off...only to get stuck in London traffic for about an hour.
Despite all the early annoyances, it was really fun to be on a road trip. We ate our packed lunches and listened to Fresh Air podcasts (I couldn't help feeling like my parents and remembering how annoying we thought it was that they were always listening to NPR, although we did enjoy A Prairie Home Companion as a family). Evie, drugged on Dramamine, snoozed in the back and Millie played with her toys and ocasionally made the 'give me food' noise.
The trip to Bath was short, but just to be safe we stopped off at a 'rest area' so that Evie could use the bathroom. This particular rest area was highly superior to even the nicest truck stops in America, with M&S, an arcade, coffee shops and pretty clean bathrooms. Also there was a video gambling area which Evie was VERY eager to get into. I'm not sure this bodes well for the future:
What she and Millie WERE allowed to do was ride on the thrilling small airplane. Millie is never too excited to be in Evie's lap and I think Evie was a little underwhelmed by the whole airplane experience...but that didn't stop her from wanting to go again and on other similarly lame rides:
Millie preferred the pink camp chair to the rides:
We decided that making a 5.5 hour trip with two kids who weren't used to being in a car might be a little too much, so we planned to stop off at the Combe Manor hotel in Bath, where we stayed the last time we visited. They were very accomodating and welcoming and Evie and Millie enjoyed free ranging on their grass and swimming (Millie had her first pool experience and Evie was very brave and jumped in and went under water without panicking). We saw a deer and some rabbits and the only slight snag that we hit was the fact that we were all in one room and Evie didn't want to go to bed. Jim's solution to this problem, was to go to bed at 8:30. That seemed a little extreme, so after the first night we just let the girls stay up late (which also helped with prevention of the 5:30 am wake ups).
Millie takes in the view:
Evie makes her way down the steps of the Combe Manor:
Then she headed down to the fountain. After a few minutes of that she decided she needed to use the bathroom and stripped down. Now that she has mastered potty training, we are working on the concept of when it is and is not appropriate to take one's clothes off (not appropriate on the front lawn of the hotel). If Evie had it her way, we would all be naked or wearing princess dresses all of the time.
We ate dinner outside every evening, so the girls could run around and entertain themselves while Jim and I talked to other couples who were staying at the hotel. When things got a little frazzled ('things,' in this case, refers to Evie and Millie), we packed up and moved to our hotel room, where, general chaos around bed time ensued.
On our second day in Bath, we decided to go into town and show the girls the sights. Before we headed out, Evie wanted to say goodbye to the plaster dog in the hotel's reception area. She announced, proudly, "I picking he nose!" I can't imagine where she got the idea that nose picking is hilarious.
In Bath we ate some yummy food (Evie seen here eating falafel):
And wore some funny hats:
We enjoyed listening to some beautiful music outside and all around:
We stood in front of Bath Abbey and then INSIDE Bath Abbey, where Evie sang in the choir section (video to come):
We did not--again--visit the Roman baths, because there was a line around the corner to get in. Plus, being the ancient history buffs that we are, we wanted to get back to the hotel and go swimming.
On the fourth of July we got up, dressed the girls in red, white and blue, and ate our last breakfast at the Combe Manor before heading out into the Welsh wilderness for our camping trip. We debated whether to head straight to Wales and try to go to the beach or to stick around the Bath area a little longer, rent some bikes and cycle along the canals. You might remember that our last cycling experience was not a great success (see France), so this time we strapped Millie into her own carriage in her car seat behind Jim and put Evie in the other carriage behind me. Millie fell asleep in about 5 seconds flat. Evie would have preferred riding on the back of the bike, but we didn't have a helmet, so she had to take the safest option. Here we are, making our way across an ancient Roman Aquaduct:
And Jim, off in the distance. I don't care what anyone says, spinning class might be a good workout, but it's not as good as actually riding a bike (which Jim does on a regular basis and I do not. So guess who was huffing and puffing?).
The canal was lush and green and full of colorful houseboats. Everyone we passed in boats and on bikes said good morning. This was a distinct contrast to the London style of totally ignoring other people in your vicinity and looking startled and shocked if someone is actually friendly.
We stopped for a snack at a cafe, which had a rabbit (not on the menu):
And then we stopped again, soon after, for lunch (we are hungry people) at a funky pub. The food wasn't great, but the ambiance was nice and we got to witness a polite argument between a cyclist and a dog owner who was letting his dog walk on the cycle path off leash. There were no raised voices...just a civil debate/reprimand from the cyclist. For some reason, we thought it was funny.
And we also thought this was funny, you know, just in case you didn't notice that you were about to go off into the canal:
Back at the bike rental place, we woke both girls up from their post-lunch slumbers and headed off to go fishing...for a giant rock. Evie was a little concerned when she couldn't catch said rock and Millie just was happy.
Finally, after procrastinating as much as possible, we headed North to Wales and many narrow and winding roads and cows later we arrived at our Nomad Tent. The tent was large with two 'bedrooms' and was set up on a partially covered deck with a camp kitchen and a basket full of camp dishes, pots and pans, etc. There were also two Adirondack chairs for us to lounge in during the few times when it wasn't raining...but I'll get to that later. Each room had a padded mattress to sleep on and raindeer pelts to keep us warm. Personally, I was not a fan of the reindeer pelts because they kind of grossed me out and they also shed all over the place, but Evie was thrilled. We set Millie up in her own little tent and everyone was very excited about our camping adventure!
But, alas, at the beginning of our adventure, we didn't have any food, so we headed off to a cove nearby for a pub dinner. The pub was right next to the beach, so Evie, who has been jonesing for some beach action since last September and loves to watch the video of herself running on the beach in Cornwall, raced towards the waves. There was no way to keep her out...and so she went in.
Millie seemed curious, but only stuck her toes in and then gave a great tremble. She got over her timidness the next day.
When we finally headed home (some of us sandy and naked), it was around 10:00 and the young camp employees were having a bbq outside of the main lodge house on the campgrounds. They were very jovial and welcoming (and, in retrospect, we probably should have known this was a bad sign). We, on the other hand, were dirty, tired, and ready to go to bed. So, after a little hanging out on our deck, we did.
....or at least we tried to go to bed, but that was kind of impossible with the all night party going on at the lodge. Finally, at about 2am, when someone started yelling "Can you say JAGER!!!???" I sent Jim out into the cold, dark night to put the kibosh on the good times. The girls, amazingly, slept through the whole thing:
The next morning, surprise, surprise, all the young partiers looked fresh and well rested. We were looking a little rough. Also the rain started, which is usually what happens when we plan a holiday that involves being outside, so after breakfast we headed on an ill fated trip into Cardigan to go to a Farmer's Market and get some food. On the way, both girls fell apart--Evie was car sick and Millie was just sick of being in the car seat. When we got to the market, Evie was swinging on my arm and I let go of her, not realizing that she was hanging upside down. So she smacked her head on the concrete and then screamed bloody murder. Moving quickly out of the farmer's market, we headed up to check out a churchyard, at which point Evie decided she needed to use the bathroom and started to disrobe amongst the ancient tombstones. I dragged her to a bathroom, where she stated, "It smells bad!" Too bad. More screaming on the way back and I was starting to wonder if this camping trip was actually a terrible idea.
Luckily, after lunch our moods, and the weather improved, so we decided to try our luck at the beach nearby. I need to point out that I ALWAYS go to the beach in the UK thinking that somehow, by some miracle, the weather will be warm and sunny and we will swim and get a tan. And I am always 100% wrong and end up in jeans and a sweatshirt, muttering to myself about how next time we're going to a REAL beach, etc. etc. But I'm the only one in our family who has this attitude and everyone else had a fabulous time freezing to death and eating sand. Plus the beach was just spectacularly beautiful.
When we got back to the campsite, bathing was definitely necessary. Evie took a shower with Jim, which didn't go very well at all (soap in eyes, slipping all over, tears). I gave Millie a bath in the portable baby bathtub that we brought and Evie spent the time that she wasn't getting soap in her eyes, trying to convince me that she, also, should bathe in the baby tub. After the baths (the only ones they had while we were camping, despite sandy bottoms, etc.) they went to bed early, there was no sign of the party set, and we relaxed:
I'm going to quote from my journal now...on day three of camping:"Enthusiasm for this camping trip is waning after an almost full day of rain and a night of screaming children." Yes, it's true...both girls woke up several times each on our second night of camping (and I got up and tripped on all our stuff, once I had extracted myself from my sleeping bag) and then it rained almost the entire next day. But it started off as a pretty nice day, so we did manage to go to the beach again and this time we packed lunches, took towels and our sun tent.
Millie, after her ups and downs in the night, slept through most of the beach:
Evie was very happy to play in a tide pool and make "birthday cakes" in the sand (she has a slight obsession with her birthday and celebrates it on an almost daily basis):
We didn't really NEED the sun tent since the sun wasn't out that much...but it was still a nice, sand free place to eat our lunch.
And then Jim buried Evie in the sand and it started to pour and we all crammed into our little sun tent, which, as I suspected, might be sunproof, but is definitely NOT waterproof. So much for our sand-free tent AND Millie took this claustrophobic opportunity to wake up and start crying.
Can't you tell how much fun I was having?!
When the rain eased off, we made a break for it and got back to our tent before it started to pour again. There was nothing else to do but watch Disney movies. So we did...until the DVD player died.
The evenings proved to be the nicest part of the trip, with better weather and stress free family time.
On the third evening, though, the inevitable discussions about whether or not to spend another night in the tent began. We opted to go home.Of course, as luck would have it, the day we decided to leave started off rainy, but as soon as we hit the road, the clouds parted and it was beautiful and sunny. We were consoled, though, by the weather forecast, which predicted heavy rain and 30-40 mph winds for that evening.
On our way back to London, we stopped off at a Wildlife Center in Pembrokshire. It was beautiful and had miles of walking trails, which we would have enjoyed exploring if we weren't completely exhausted by that point. We did have a nice little walk and Evie spent the whole time seeking badger poop (after seeing a picture of it on one of the information signs).
This blog might make it sound like we didn't have a good time in Wales, but we did. It was fun to be all together and it was an adventure. We laugh at ourselves and our inability to rough it, even in our 'posh' camping set up, but don't think that we have given up on camping! We're already planning a short camping trip closer to home and definitely think it will be a fun thing to do another longer trip (maybe even more than 3 nights!) when the girls are a little older.
The End
