We needed a break from the city heat so we booked tickets on the Monday morning train to Brighton! It was a quick one hour ride and in no time we were dipping our feet into the freezing cold English Channel. It felt heavenly! (After your body went numb)

The beach was rocky! No sand at all. We all had to keep our shoes on to walk around and to play in the water.

Both the boys decided sand or no sand, they wanted to be buried on the beach! It’s quit a bit harder to bury people in rocks than in sand, but after a lot of effort we got the job done. Burying the feet was the hardest part. Josh said laying under those rocks felt like an intense hot stone spa treatment. He loved to let the water lap over him. The tide kept rising and rising and finally he had to unbury himself so the water didn’t wash over his face! Rock collecting on this beach was great! There were lots of beautiful rocks and shells. You know that Blake came home with an entire bag full of rocks. The rocks also made great “seagull pellets” and Blake kept a pocketful of small rocks to throw at the seagulls. See his shirt sagging? 😂 After we’d played at the beach for awhile we were ready to hit the Pier! It was really a fun place! Lots of amusement rides, treats, and great views. Rusty and I opted to save a few £ and just watch the kids. They had a blast! After a few hours it was hard to get them to leave. The lines were non existent, and the sea breeze was wonderful.

Halle and I headed back to the beach to read and nap while the boys played in the arcade. We all played at the beach for a little while longer until we were starving for dinner. This is where the day got rough. We wanted to wander around the Lanes, which were cute little side streets in town. But, everything was closing up shop for the day and we couldn’t find anywhere to eat. It was mostly retail shops. and poor Halle had open sores on her feet from her sandals rubbing. Dad helped her out with a piggy back. We ended up getting the kids some take away fish and chips and Rusty and I shared some donner kebab. The fish and chips place charged extra money for ketchup so everyone went without. It was all kind of bland. And we had to eat it at this gross little park. There were seagulls everywhere and Josh kept feeding them fries. Rusty was not a fan of the Seagulls being so near our dinner. He said, “Josh! Don’t feed the seagulls. It’s not good for them. Josh said, Well Dad, fries are not really good for us either!” But karma came around and a seagull pooped on Josh. He was not amused.

We were all pretty tired and ornery by now and ready to be done. We walked to the train station only to find that pretty much every single train had been cancelled for the last 1.5 hours. Our train wears severely delayed and when it did finally pull into the station it was a mad dash of people running to board. It was completely over crowded and Blake and Halle ended up sharing a seat and Rusty and I were sitting on the floor. We were just glad to be on a train! BUT THEN…the conductor came on and said due to signal failure we had to reroute. We had to go in the wrong direction for about 25 min, then get flipped around and head back in the right direction. It was hot, crowded and miserable. No one was sad when we pulled into Clapham Junction.