TLDR – Brighton day three and four and five. Donuts, and coindozer one day. Momma takes the kids in the morning for another. We explore another day then fly home.
Donuts shopping and the pier
We made it until 0530 before everyone was awake. We busted out the phones in the hopes everyone would be quiet for a bit longer. By 0800 we’d eaten stuff and were out the door headed for some donuts. We stopped at the co-op on the way to donuts to buy more black grapes and a raspberry Pepsi max. I thought it was cherry when I bought it. Has a bit of cough syrup after taste, will not intentionally drink again.
Donuts were good. It’s hard to order a bad Krispy Kreme donut. We ate them in the lobby while the gal behind the counter made a few museum suggestions for us to check out. The mall was not open yet to walk around and warm up so we went back to the playground nearby to play. On the way towards the waterfront we stopped at a mountain warehouse where we spent 140£ on jackets, gloves, shirts, pants, and hats; all 80% off. I even bought a tiny 40l travel bag to carry all of the stuff home in.
By now the pier is open. We head down the hill towards the pier with one stop at Saint Paul’s church on the way. Now it’s candy floss and coin dozer time !! 15£ bought us enough 2p coins for a few hours of coin dozer wining tiny prizes. The kids wanted chips for lunch, more Bavarian chips. We picked up 2 large bags and ate them on a bench overlooking the pier and pebble beach.
On the walk home along the beach, I presented Maddex with a fun question. 5£ to tour the upside-down house and no money for coin dozer tomorrow. Or 5£ for coin dozer and no house tour. The queue wrapping around the house made up his mind for him, but he sure did loads of thinking and talking about it while we walked. Next, the kids and I rolled down the pebble beach hill into the sea a few times before nap time at our hotel.
After nap time we went out for some shopping, played in a park and ate more taco bell for dinner; kids request on the Taco Bell. The kids are amazing, they are such low effort travelers. They go with the flow and find fun in just about everything. It’s a joy to take them on adventures. They look forward to it and get involved in the planning and enjoyment of it all. We ended the night with snacks while watching Home alone in the hotel room.
Dad works in the room Momma take the kids out
The kids had a nice mellow morning. Making it until about 0800 before they were loud enough we needed them to vacate the hotel room. I am working today and Michelle is taking the kids out on her own. I started work around 0400 so I will be off early enough to play in the evening. Michelle took the kids to the beachfront play park near us to play for a bit followed by some time in the pebble beach playing. They did not return until about 1000. By then I’m over half done with my day.
After a short break in the hotel room, Michelle took Mila and Roxi out thrift store shopping while Khaleesi and Maddex stayed with me. They played quietly for a bit and watched the end of a movie before they both got in the top bunch snuggled up playing games on their phones. It was super mega cute that they ended up next to each other snuggled. Maddex even helped Kahleesi to play and understand some of the games.
The girls returned and showed off their loot, we had some lunch then went for a walk. We went to the waterfront and walked West. Normally we go east towards the pier, time to explore a new area; Hove. Some of the walk we were on the boardwalk some in the gravel. Most of the path was lined with tiny colourful sheds. We got to peek inside a few of them as people had the doors open doing work on their sheds. By the numbers, we passed by about 490 small sheds before we left the waterfront. Eventually, we made it to a water park leisure center with a large playground.
The playground had a five armed spinning swing thing Michelle rode with the kids. You sit on the swing and the whole arm things rotates. Was a blast to ride. From there we hit two more parks, Wish park, and Stoneham park. Wish was the much better and less crowded of the two. Last stop before home was Tesco Superstore for a few snacks and strawberry ice lollies for the kids. Not much ice cream on this trip, being cold out, but they must have some.
Kids were burned out enough we took in a show and relaxed in the room for a bit. I had a bit of nap on the bottom bunk while Michelle entertained the kids. When I woke up it was Michelle’s turn for a break. I took the kids out to the park across the street where they were hiding glow rings from each other. No lights in the park but there was just enough light nearby to prevent triping on things or run into things. perfect for hiding glow things. We put in a good half hour before a tree jumped in front of Roxi. She tells me “No dad trees are not alive they do not jump in front of people” I tried to tell it must have been the tree’s fault she did not agree.
Played out we walked to Waitrose again for some hummus and crackers. Maddex got some more sushi. Not cheap at a pound apiece but the kids loves it and we are on vacation. We purchased him a 6 pack of the rice with fish chunks on top. 2 tuna, 2 salmon, and 2 mackerel. He ate them up good back at the hotel before we started home alone 2 and ended the night. Tonight we shuffled beds. Maddex is in the Top bunk, Roxi in the hammock, Mila is under her on the bottom bunk and Khaleesi is on the sleeping mat near the door covered with a blanket, huge bath towel, and my jacket to make sure she is warm enough.
Thursday – Coughing morning
Madded is up around 0440 playing games on his phone. He makes no noise at all. The only way I know he is up is I can see his face glowing. Well, he is not silent he’s been making a barking coughing sound most of the night. As the night progressed the rest of the kids started to join in. One of the downsides of sharing a 14×14 room for a week; the infection is spreading. If one of us has it the rest of it will get it. 0545 now, Khaleesi and Roxi also have glowing faces and they are making coughing sounds.
I’m sitting next to a radiator with the window open. I’d like to close the window because it’s blowing freezing air on me while my legs are roasting by the rad, but the window being open is a good idea with all of the coughing. Michelle the kids out to play Coindozer on the pier this morning and I was on a call from 0600 until about 1300 working a network issue at work. Michelle came back with some snacks and lunch then took a nap while the kids hung out and the clock on my workday ran out.
After work, we decided we’d go for a walk and hit some more parks. The first one was a repeat of the well garden park. Walking to the park we were talking about the cat and Mila says “ I don’t ever lie about the cats “. Which made me ask “ well what do you lie about ?” Milas answer was great. ” maybe I lie about nothing. Maybe I like about everything. Maybe I’m lying about that ” – she’s trying to catch me in her web of lies !! Kids played so well in the park.
After the well park we walked back into the city center and checked out a leisure plex arcade off the main street to play some more coindozer and burn up the rest of our coins. We did not win as much as we did on the pier. I think these games are weighed more and do not pay out as much. Don’t think we’ll be back to this arcade. Back at home, Maddex was looking for his Legos form Pound land and it turns out I tossed them in the rubbish. He’d put them back in the box next to our rubbish bin and I tossed it out when housekeeping visited.
Maddex had a bit of a breakdown – so – He and I and Khaleesi went for a walk back to pound land to pick up his Lego sets again. Thinking about it, this is one of the few times I’ve been out with Khaleesi and Maddex together. The two together are not a normal kid with dad combination. We a nice walk and picked up some kababs on the way home. Michelle had packed up most of the room while we were out – tomorrow we fly home.
Headed home
Maddex was barking coughing until about midnight. Then he passed out. He started out on the sleep mat then we moved him to the big bed to sit him up. Michelle moves to the bottom bunk with Khaleesi then Roxi started coughing from the hammock. Khaleesi went to the sleep mat and Roxi moved from the hammock to the bed with Michelle. Musical beds all to the tune of coughing kids.
0540 we were up and packing for our half-hour walk to the train station. We made the 0648 Thameslink train to Gatwick airport. Nice modern smooth quiet train. We made it to the airport with plenty of time. Breezed through security at the family line door. Mila got the random tag and had to be naked scanned, I went with her for moral support. Michelle’s pack had stick deodorant in it so it had to be bomb checked, still, we were through quickly. After security, we went to the Gatwick kids play area and let the kids play on a padded play area while we waited for our plane to be assigned a gate.
Our gate finally showed as gate 2. On the walk to gate 2 our gate vanished from the board. We walked to two anyhow. Turns out our plane was still in Dublin. The 940 departure turned into a 1230 departure. Just under the 3 hour fly for free EU Line. While waiting a few extra hours we had some sushi, rice, and edamame for early lunch and visited the play area a second time. We also bought and conquered where’s Wally book 1. 6£ for the book which bought us 30 minutes of entertainment. plus we get to keep the book; Not a bad deal. – Eventually, we made it on the plane, flew home, took the bus to the LUAS and took the LUAS home.
Bonus pictures
