Clacton on Sea

Another weekend, another adventure.

We live a charmed life.

The last week Leon was put on a deal that was a little crazy and intense, so basically we didn't see much of him at all. I mean he would come home at 10pm-12:30 am. He was exhausted when he got home. The poor man just works so hard. We are lucky to have him. Plus, we had two children who got a stomach bug and were taking turns vomiting all over me, yippee. It was a hard week to do by myself. So when the bug was gone, I was so excited to have a weekend where we could get out of the city and be together as a family. 

The weekend was supposed to be in the high 80s, so we were excited to head to the sea. We woke up to a beautiful and warm London Saturday morning. The fact that air conditioning is non existent in this city is really getting old. We got together our beach stuff and walked to the train station. After gathering our train snacks, we boarded the train and got to enjoy family time telling stories and enjoying the english country. Literally five minutes before we got to our destination, we looked outside and realized that the sun what gone. What?! We were sweating this morning, how in the world is it hazy only an hour and a half away? Well, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. So, we got off the train and started making our way to the pier.

On our way to the pier, there were lines and lines of arcade games and family fun center stuff. We stopped at a claw game that was full of plush My Little Pony toys. Ellie absolutely loves My Little Ponies and really wanted us to win her a Rarity pony. It was 10p a try so we threw in a pound and took 10 tries and failed miserably, but walked away with our pride.

Apparently Clacton has one of the oldest boardwalk piers in the country. We were excited to see that it was full of fun rides and yummy food. We got Ellie a wrist band that allowed her to ride all the kiddie rides as many times as she wanted and let us ride with her. She was a huge fan of the alligator roller coaster and elephant ride. She would run and scream giddily to each ride. It was obvious that she was just having a blast. Plus, I could start to see the sun fighting the clouds and winning. It was turning into such a great day.

Welcome to Clacton Pier

Dad and his girl

Her first roller coaster

An elephant ride...A PINK elephant ride!!!

My big boy toy. I'm so lucky.

My little boy toy

She misses Mimi's tramp

Jet wants to be big enough to ride the rides so bad :(

My best

We then took a little break from the pier and headed to the beach. We were so excited about this beach because it was going to be SANDY! Oh how we miss our clean, soft, sandy California beaches. We never realized how lucky we were. Well, turns out a sandy beach in England is just a rocky beach covered in dirt. It was pretty pathetic, but is curbed my appetite for being in the sun near an ocean for the day. We played in the water and tried to play in the sand, but it wasn't long before Jet was putting little rocks in his mouth again and Ellie was whining about anything she could think of. We knew then it was time for a walk around the city with a sippee and a bean (nap time).

We took a walk around the charming city and enjoyed some mediocre English lunch while being smoked out by the couple at the table next to ours. Then obviously, we discussed all the things we hate about this country haha.

The kids woke up and we enjoyed a few more hours of rides accompanied by delicious hot fresh doughnuts. I am addicted to these doughnuts. I don't even really like doughnuts, but there is nothing better than fresh doughnuts at a fair. Ugh, I'm such a sweets-a-holic.

Throughout the day I kept thinking back on that white pony inside the claw game and how much my almost three year old would like to love on that pony the next three weeks. I have never wanted to win a prize so much in my life. I made Leon stop at the machine and pointed out that there were a lot of ponies missing, so it has to be possible to win. So, we tried again...and again...and again. Leon would grab the pony in the perfect position only to watch in fall from those teasing silver prongs. I would throw my head back in defeat and look at him with my crazy gambling eyes and say, "just one more, just one more" He would laugh so hard. I just NEEDED that toy. My baby NEEDED that toy. We spent like 10 pounds (that would be 100 tries) trying to secure that toy. I wanted to cry when we just had to walk away. I am still sad as I write about my precious Rarity toy and our inevitable separation. Why couldn't we win?! It was awful!

 

Then we walked with our heads hung down to the train and realized that we missed it by 3 min. We spent another hour waiting for the next train in McDonalds stuffing our faces to numb the pain of defeat. Then we caught the next train and dragged our tired sunbathed bodies into our little London Flat around 11pm that night.

The weekend ended too soon, but it always does.