This past holiday (well, US holiday) weekend we took to the sea side to the tourist town of Great Yarmouth for 2 days in the sun with the sea. Destination was driven by 3 things in my mind. 1)Finally no rain, we MUST do something outside 2) Since there is no mountains, it would have to be the sea and 3) a last minute B&B room had to be available. Hence, Great Yarmouth.
We loaded the car and was there under 2 hours. Along the route, the ever not-so-surprising views of agricultural lands. Look Olive, Horses. Look Olive, Sheep. Look Olive, Cows. Look Olive, Tractor. Look Olive, Windmills... I believe we are lucky to be here during Olive younger years when she still gets excited to see these things over, and over and over again. If she was 12 instead, we'd get the eye roll, exasperated sigh, and then hear music flood from her ipod in protest. Can't wait for those days.
So we made it
there before 10am. And anyone who's ever been in England knows NOTHING is open before 10am. People leave there house at 10am to go where ever they are headed. We walked a bit in the cold foggy morning waiting to do something (sun, where are you?). We ended up in an arcade. Basically a training ground for future gambeling habits. There were pence pushers, claws for manky stuffed animals, video games, basically the works. Olive and Josh quickly went to work attempting to win big, waiting for the landslide of coins... they never came. Introduced O to skiball (not yet the arm, we'll get her in training) and whack the shark with a mallet game. She love it. More importantly she was content just shoving coins into slots.
Later we moved on for lunch in a tea shop with old toys. We found several interesting items in GY.
Exhibit A: Why is he so Jolly sitting there with his hands in his pockets?
After lunch we checked into our B&B. A four star establishment with great reviews. We were greeted by the owner, Gary, and taken to sit in the leather sedet and booked in. Looking around there were black and white photos on canvass from the US 1950s and 1960s mo
vie icons, karate awards, mini bar, plastic toys, small TV, ton of kitsch, and about 15 air fresheners in different forms and all of unique odors. Nice people and really care about the place. Nice room. Like the food was good enough as well. Olive had Gary's special fruit parfait for breakfast the next day, you'd of thought we'd given her ice cream.
That afternoon we took to the beach. Olive scored herself a pirate bucket & played in the sand (the sun did grace us for a little while) After a nice Italian dinner in a basement restaurant, we took Olive to see all the lights- the beach in rainbow colors, Circus Circus and all the other arcades. Then we found these.
Exhibit B: What does one do once you win 1 booby?
The next morning we went to go see the Brittish Navy's new ship, the HMS Dauntless. Que time to get on the shuttle bus =2 hours. Arrive at dock to get onto the ship, que time = 1 hour. Tour = 25 minutes. Que time to get back on the return bus = 1 hour. Therefore, DONE with ques for awhile.
Hit up the amusement kiddie rides, grabbed a fish and chip lunch, and headed back to the beach. More digging holes and making of sandcastles for Olive to squash and we were ready for ice cream. A whole whippy Olive devoured on her own while Josh and I had difficulty containing laughter. A stereo-typical football jersey, bad teeth, ugly faced, thug looking man out of Austin Powers was standing waiting on some friends. Every time he opened his mouth, egad, it was the stuff running gags are made of. Tried to get a photo, but at that instant he finally shut his mouth. Also on the walk along the beach we found this equally disturbing bit.
Exhibit C: Just a Pound!
That about concludes are trip to the seaside. This weekend we're staying in, meeting with a few folks, and going to purchase the most expensive runty bruised pumpkin ever. Here's to autumn!
want O to become who she wants to be, but selfishly I want her to love all that I do. So today I took O to Cambridge to explore some of the free museums at the University... the science ones. Can't help it, I want her to think rocks, fossils, and smelly preserved invertebrates are COOL. I think I might have succeeded. We first went to the The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. Olive was welcomed by a dinosaur skeleton and was completely won over. She loved the Allosaurus and then asked all sorts of curious questions about the ammonites, ancient bear, and other oddities in the collection. We also got to see some of Darwin's collections with his script beside the specimen. The enormity of this was lost on her, however, but I stood a gasp. (picture- O making Dino face as seen above)
More bones and specimens awaited us. I had to read ALL the names no matter how obscure the Latin, and help reinforce the differences between turtle and tortoise, moose and deer, and parakeet and parrot (I don't know that one do you?). She even sat down for a half hour lecture on skeletal importance and evolution. Seriously, I wanted to got to lunch. She sat there very politely listening and watching the slides. Score for patience when she got to handle a 3000 year old deer leg and got to wiggle elephant tarsals.
