Family road trip to Minehead!
As I am working a lot through the school holidays and Steph goes back to work next week after her maternity leave ends, we have decided to try and make the most of the days we have together. So today, after I didn’t get called into work (woohoo!), we went on a family road trip to Minehead.
ROADTRIP!!!!
I love Minehead as we used to go there all the time when I was a child. Before my parents divorced, they owned a static caravan in St Audries Bay which is not far from Minehead. There are so many landmarks there that bring back memories. Most of them are fond memories but they are also slightly tainted due to the unpleasant nature of my parents divorce and the enforced sale of our holiday home.
But while I have childhood memories in this beautiful part of the country, I’m now in a position to be able create memories for my own children that I hope they will look back on with fondness as they grow up.
Family
As parents, Steph and I haven’t always been the best at taking Isabelle places. There has always been an excuse for this, money, time etc. but now we have Poppy as well, we are determined to put that right. It is so hard being a parent, juggling all of the responsibilities that come with it. I think at times we have failed to prioritise the fun factor with Isabelle. She absolutely loves being out and about so its harsh to keep her cooped up in doors.
So todays trip was great for her. We set off just before 11, I know that’s late but I was on call until 8 and we’re a nightmare for getting ready! Once there we were greeted by everybody’s favourite type of British summer weather, rain. Seriously, its the end of July and it was miserable!
Luckily the rain didn’t last and other than the brief shower here and there it stayed dry. We had a little walk around the town centre and found a fish and chip restaurant for lunch. I’d have been happy to go to one of the chippy’s on the seafront and sit eating by the beach but Steph wanted to eat in. Once in said restaurant, Steph was moaning that she wanted to do lunch “old school” style outside and eating from the paper. Seriously woman?! I’m telling you, I cant bloody win with this one lol!
I’m not big on fish from takeaways as I often find the batter to be too stodgy but the cod at this place was beautiful. It literally fell apart when you cut into it and the batter was light and crispy. After we’d all eaten, we went in search of a Mr Whippy! We all love ice cream in this family, who doesn’t right?! So we found a nice little place that did Mr Whippy for Steph and Isabelle while I had a pot of proper strawberry ice cream, I hate the cones so much I cant eat them!
Ice cream chops!
This coincided with another rain shower so we sheltered from the rain and ate our ice creams. Once we were done we took a walk around Blenheim Gardens which has the most quaint little bandstand at its centre. It also still has the little 18 hole putting green that I used to love as a kid. It’s an odd thing to see these days as most seaside towns and holiday attractions would usually only have crazy golf rather than putting greens.
Isabelle loving the gardens
After an expensive stop at a pick and mix stall, (over £5 for a bag of sweets!), we made the mistake of going to the arcade on the seafront. Of course Isabelle wanted to try one of those annoying grabber games. You know the ones, you move the claws over the cuddly toy, line it up perfectly and the damn things are never strong enough to actually lift the toy up! I swear these things are a scam and after several failed attempts, Isabelle was inconsolable that I couldn’t win her a bloody unicorn!
We managed to quell the tantrum by going on the beach, which is another thing we don’t do often enough with Isabelle as she loves the beach. Man, I’m not really making us out to very good parents here am I?! Still, it did the trick and after playing in the sand and dipping her feet in the sea, it was time to head back to the car.
Isabelle and Steph carefully make their way to the sea
It was a lovely family day out and just goes to show that you don’t always have to visit expensive kids parks to have a good day out.
Do you have any days out or trips planned?
What are your favourite destinations or childhood holidays?
