The good old British seaside

“Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea …”  Whenever I go to the seaside town of Weston Super Mare, that song always plays in my head.  For me it is a typical example of the good old British seaside and growing up, it was the only seaside I ever visited; well apart from a crazy day trip to Aberystwyth and that doesn’t count as it was raining so hard I couldn’t actually see the sea.

We live in the Midlands.  So, for us there is no sea.  Rivers, lakes and all other expanses of water but not sea as I have often had to explain to my children over the years when they ask why we don’t live near the sea.  Where we live is lovely, teetering on the edge of the Cotswolds, there are some beautiful places all around us but there is a small part of me that yearns to live nearer the sea.

So our summer day trips were always to Weston Super Mare.  I can still remember the excitement as we reached the main road going in and watching the B&B’s knowing that we would soon be at the beach.  I loved it.  The atmosphere, the pier, the donkey rides, the arcade games, the beach and the fresh doughnuts; that delicious smell of freshly cooked doughnuts, amazing.  I still have some early photos of my mum and I at Weston Super Mare, eating ice creams and riding on the donkeys and even though they look dated and faded now, they hold precious memories of great family days out.

As an adult, I see Weston with more experienced eyes and haven’t really taken the children there much preferring to go further afield where the sea is a bit bluer and the sand doesn’t look like mud.  We are also lucky that my in-laws live in South Wales and the beaches that are half an hour away from them are some of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever visited in the UK.

Fortunately though the play group that A goes to run an annual play group trip to Weston Super Mare.  They started it when L was there and I stood there incredulous when they told me about this trip.  Leaving at 9 and getting back for 3 to fit in with school hours and at least three hours on the coach would mean that we would get a couple of hours actually there. Madness, yes?  But L was keen to go and so the first year, we rolled up with a picnic and a blanket and off we went.  The weather was glorious and we played games in the sun on the beach or chatted while the children played. eating freshly cooked chips and ice creams.  It may have only been a few hours, but it was lovely and four years later, L can still remember it.

Last year, it was A’s first time and again, I may have moaned a bit about the timing but we went and had a lovely time, so this year I was quite enthusiastic.  The weather has been beautiful over the last few weeks so I had visions of us lazing on the beach in the sunshine while the children played, but you can never count on the British weather can you?  Wednesday was beautifully warm and sunny but yesterday was decidedly different.  Not to be deterred, there was much excitement getting on the coach and the children were all asking ‘are we nearly there yet’ in unison after about ten minutes.

We drove through rainstorms and black clouds but I still had that little flutter of excitement as we drove into the town, looking for those landmarks that I searched for as a child to show that we had nearly reached our destination.  The coach driver laughed as he helped us all off with our picnics and pushchairs and he drove off shaking his head as if we were all insane.

Over the years, the ladies from play group have found an excellent spot right at the far end of the town with a small secluded beach with shelter from wind and shallow water which is perfect for the children to paddle.  It was cloudy and cols but within ten minutes most of the children were in the water and having a whale of a time. My daughter had her bikini bottoms on in a flash and ran from one end of the beach to the other and within minutes, she was absolutely covered from head to toe in muddy sand.  She loved it.  As much as there was a small, actually no large part of me that was crying at the state of her, she had the most amazing time playing with her friends.

As for the weather, it was pretty kind to us.  There was a small shower as we were eating lunch and we must have looked funny all sitting there in raincoats and sun hats huddled up eating our lunch in the rain, but who cares?  It soon stopped and the fresh chips were an excellent addition to the picnic.  There was time for some more play before we trouped back onto the coach at which point the heavens quite literally opened and we drove back through hideous thunder storms, so it could have been worse.

As we left Weston, I reminded myself again that I really should take my children more often as I know that they would love it there just as I did all those years ago.