So, last week, we headed to Cornwall for the first time in the summer and the first time with Evie. In past years we have gone to Mousehole, which is on the South shore and we have gone during Easter, which is a hellish time to be on the train and also a pretty terrible time for weather (see my blog about our last Mousehole adventure with Meg and Dan in the March 2008 blog) but this time we decided to check out the Northern Shore of Cornwall. We stayed in a place called Mowgan Porth, which is the Port of St. Mowgan,the nearby, picturesque village).
We started out at Paddington Station, early in the morning.
Using her lightning fast reflexes, Evie promptly threw her pureed pear breakfast all over the seats across the aisle from us. Fortunately no one was sitting there yet.
Reflections provided much entertainment:
And Evie took safety very seriously.
There was never a dull moment. The 10 hour flight home in a few weeks should be pretty interesting.
We stayed in a place called The Park at Mawgan Porth in a small cottage. The beach was nearby, so our first order of business was to get there. Evie dressed in her beach finery (which clearly identified her as a GIRL...despite the pink shirt she wore all day, people kept calling her 'him' and 'little fella.')
Even though she got to have fun rides on Dad's shoulders...
we had to stop for an emergency bottle, halfway to the beach.
And once we got to the beach, she was clearly thrilled.
Not even being forced to put her feet in icy sea water could cheer her up! So we called it a day at the beach and headed home.
Back on the homefront our sullen baby returned to normal and promptly became entranced with the three year old from next door. We were kind of surprised at how big Evie looks next to a small person. Clara and her brother Zander came over to play with Evie every day. She was very impressed by them.
Here is Jim relaxing on our porch, which overlooked...cows. In Cornwall, the mix of cows and sea makes perfect sense.
We started our second day of the Cornish Adventure with a coastal walk to Watergate Bay. It's necessary to point out that our walk would have taken half the time if Jim hadn't stopped every three steps to take a picture. But without his pictures, this blog would be half of what it is! So we are grateful.
Some of Jim's spectacular pictures:
After a rest, we gave the beach another shot. Jim did some boogie boarding and Evie and I hung out with her borrowed beach tent. She liked the tent, except for when the wind blew the stakes out of the ground (my fault. I am not a skilled stake inserter.) and the tent billowed around her wildly. I would say that if Evie were capable of rating her beach experience on a scale of 1 to 10, she would give it about a 2. The sand was one positive (fortunately it didn't go in her eyes).
Swinging was a highlight.
As was the pool (which she previously hated...so we are making progress. But we have quit swimming lessons anyway.)
Another exciting thing to do was to go to the children's yurt, where there were many new toys and friends to play with. Evie would probably give the yurt a 10.
We also took a trip to the famed fishing village of Padstow, which was pretty much a disappointment and pretty much a big tourist trap.
Fortunately, they had a cool swing which kind of made up for it.
Driving in Cornwall is very curvy and narrow. Add driving on the other side of the road than what you are used to (and shifting on the opposite side) and a screaming baby in the back seat and you have the perfect mix for stress-free travel! Don't I look relaxed?
On our second to last day in Cornwall, we walked to the Village of St. Mawgan, which was very pretty. I think they actually won the 'best kept village' award. We enjoyed it!
Evie loves walking with her Dad (and other Dad-related adventures, which I will eventually blog about. Maybe by next Father's day at the rate I'm going with this blog these days).
We saw the biggest turkey we've ever seen:
And some nice houses along the way:
Evie is a well trained model:
She slept through the Japanese gardens that we visited:
P.S. Jim made me do those poses. Evie would have liked all the wind chimes and pretty plants. Next time!
At the suggestion of a villager, we took an alternate route back to Mawgan Porth. Unfortunately there was little shade, many horse flies and bodies of water to ford. Actually, the fording was unnecessary, but some of us 'ford' ahead before seeking out alternate routes in the form of footbridges over the water.
Evie's trusty umbrella holder protected her from the sun. We did have to put the umbrella down once, though, because a young horse came along who hadn't ever seen an umbrella before and her owner was concerned that she was going to get scared.
After such a hot walk, we went swimming again. Here Evie contemplates her future as a woman with large feet. Her method of coping was to attempt to eat my shoe.
We decided to do one last coastal walk the day that we left. Yay for Cornwall!
