TLDR – Three oldest and I went to Cramond Island. Michelle and Kara went shopping and feed Roxi hot peppers
Cramond Island – Bus and Mud
Michelle and Kara wanted to go thrift shopping instead of walking across a land bridge at low tide to an island with bunkers on it. They are crazy missing out on an adventure to go shopping, but you gotta love um and support them. They Kept Roxi for their lame shopping adventure and the three older, more adventurous, kids came with me. Around 0945 we split up and went our sperate ways.
About a kilometer walk from our house is the 41 bus we’re taking to Cramond Island. We made it to the bus stop GPS was pointing us at to find it closed due to construction; doh! We started walking to the next stop hoping it was open. About 100 meters from the stop Maddex saw a bus at the stop and said: “it’s the 41, that’s our bus”. Mila said, “we can make it let’s run” No one can argue with Mila, we ran as fast as we could, crossed the street and made it to the bus as the doors closed; sad face.
The bus pulled away from the stop about 2 meters and stopped at a red light. We ran up to the door and made sad looks at the driver. He opened the door and let us in!! I was able to pay for myself with a tap of my debit cards. The kids have to pay cash for some reason, and we did not have coins. Thanks bus driver for letting us go without the kids paying. Guess we’ll need to pick up some change for the way back. The kids ran up the stairs to the front seats on the second story while I worked things out with the driver.
18 stops and 30 minutes later we made it to our destination. The tiny village of Cramond. On the map, we can see a good-sized playground we’ll pass by on the walk into town. Of course, we want to play there. We went down two side streets only to find stone walls blocking our access to the play area; what a tease. After the streets, we walked through a cemetery looking for playground access. We found a back exit from the cemetery leading to a creche in an old castle looking building. In the back parking lot of the creche across a super muddy stretch grass we found an opening in the wall leading to the playground.
We sent Maddex across the mud to check it out before the girls and I crossed. Score – we have found access to the playground finally. Most of the playground was in a grassy field. After all of the rain, the grass is now muddy. We only played for a short while due to the mud. Leaving the park we found a marked trail we decided to take which took us to the beach parking lot. We can see the island and the stone wall leading out to it from the parking lot; we’re starting to get excited now.
Walk way from the playground to the beach
Beach food Maddex statues and a Waterfall
First stop from the parking lot, sand. The sand is filled with patches of vegetation. Maddex is super excited about a clean sandy hole we walked past and jumps right into the sand. Next stop, there is a short stone jetty above the waterline we need to walk out to check what we are getting into. At the end of the Jetty, we can see 3 concrete bollards sticking out of the water marking the start of the path. The path is currently covered in water. According to the sign with tide charts, it will be above water in about two hours. I read the warning sign out loud “100 people a year get trapped on the island don’t be one of them” Well that was the wrong thing to read because Mila and Khaleesi do not want to be traped on the island and are starting to get a bit scared.
We have a few hours to kill so we walk up a trail into town for some food. We stopped at a small cafe where we are had three kids breakfast consisting of fried egg, beans, toast, and sausage. Mila discovered she likes fried eggs as long as they are crispy and she can pull out the yoke; basically she likes fried egg yokes with salt. From the cafe we continued on the path towards a small water fall. Along the walk, Maddex would run ahead and stop standing like a statue with his stick and we would make up stories of why the statue was there ” here is the statue of Maddex he was killed after falling into the river” – ” Here is the statue of Maddex he was crushed by falling rocks climbing a cliff” – “Here we find the statue of Maddex. As a boy, he ran into a burning building and saved 19 children then lived to be 99 years old” The last one was mine trying to come up with a story where Maddex did not die young. The girls sure can do come up with evil stories.
Wet feet Wind and an Island
The waterfall had a fish ladder in it with a switchback. From the rain, the river is running high. The water was running over the switchback not bothering to turn. Rain is starting to come down hard, time to turn around and find somewhere to hide from the rain. Irish style weather, the rain has stopped let’s go see an island. When we made it back we could see the walkway to the island slightly exposed and a few people already walking across it. The closer we got to the now exposed path the more scared Mila was getting.
About a quarter of the way across she kept thinking the water was rising, asking us what if we get trapped, what if a big wave comes. A small wave crashed over the walkway, Mila got scared and started to run. She ran straight through the deeper puddles on the walkway drenching her feet. Khaleesi and I took off after her hoping to calm her down and got our feet wet too. Mila calmed down a bit but now she and K have cold wet feet, and we are halfway across. They both agree we can make it across. At one point Mila says “I’m cold, I’m wet, I’m shivering and just want to go home, but first we need to get to the island” Nothing stops this girl. At a few points, the waves were still crashing over the walkway which freaked the girls out more. Good thing I held their hands to keep them safe. Maddex has run ahead and is already on the island, no stopping now no matter what.
On the island, we climbed up the rocks to one of the first set of bunkers where we hid from the wind for a minute and took in the view of the bay and shoreline in the distance. It’s so windy Khaleesi almost feel off of some stairs in the bunker; more we want to go home. Maddex is in heaven running all over the place climbing everything in sight. Mila just wants to go home. Maddex wants to explore everything. We let Maddex and Khaleesi climb a few stones then back over the walkway we went back to dry land.
The tide is much further out by now Khaleesi and Mila are no longer afraid. Seems like it took about 10th of the time to walk back over. Mila said she was sorry for making us go back a few times. Impressive of her to think along those lines and apologize. We all told it was nothing worry about that we completely understood. Even Maddex told her it was ok. I told her how proud of her for making all the way to the island and impressive she was powering through the fear. Nothing stops our Princess Mila. Back on the dry land, there was no stopping us hurrying to the Bus and home where mom had a warm bath ready for the girls to crawl into and warm up.
Roxi on fire
While we were braving the wind and waves Kara, Roxi and Michelle were off shopping thrift shops not finding much. During their shopping, they stopped for lunch at a Mexican place. Roxi loves red peppers. She picked a red pepper off Michelle’s plate and stuffed it into her mouth. Only it was not a red pepper it was a hot chili pepper. Roxi chewed on it for a bit, spit it out into Michelle’s hand. then burped and vomited into Michelle’s hand.
The waiter was walking by and noticed Roxi in pain. He asked if he could help. Michelle ordered some Milk fast for Roxi. Roxi siped the whole milk down then started sucking lemons from the girl’s water. Eventually, she calmed down from the fire in her mouth. She sure was energetic telling me the story about how much it hurt when I got home. – poor girl
back at home we watched shows, warmed up and naped. Around Dinner time Mila and I walked to the store for some crackers to dip in the Hummus. Her shoes were wet but she still wanted to come with me. I told her to put on some thick socks and try Maddex’s shoes. She took three pairs of shoes but she managed to make the shoes fit. She is such a fun trooper. For dinner, the kids asked me to make them eggs. 10 fried eggs later they were done eating eggs ready for ice cream. Roxi ” I am too full for ice cream” Five minutes later. Roxi “ I took a big poop now I have room for ice cream” The perfect logic of a three-year-old – you can always make room for ice cream.
Bonus pictures
