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To round off a summer of exciting excursions, we drove the three hours down to Brighton where some of our friends from university live, and to show little J the sea for the first time!

We found our Airbnb, a ground floor flat with that special thing- parking, dumped our stuff, and went over to visit our friends and their new puppy. J gets super excited whenever there is a dog nearby and didn’t even mind when she got a little over-enthusiastic and jumped up to lick his face. (I just tried to think of all the good it would do his immune system to have those extra germs!) We had a delicious dinner of paneer curry and tried our best to get a photo with both the baby and dog together. It is so much harder than you would expect when neither one will keep still for a second!

The next morning, J got us up at 6am as per usual and we went for a walk through Brighton, past the Pavilion and down to the seafront. The pier wasn’t open that early but we got to show J the waves and let him throw some rocks around, although I had to stop him eating some seaweed. Down by the seaside, it’s always a little chillier than we are used to, with the wind coming off the sea, and we stuck out as tourists with our big coats while the locals strolled around in tank tops.

We found the nearest park, at the Level, and I got a little too excited at all the hideaway secret places where kids can climb through the bushes. There was even another sandpit there- so J was very happy. My husband had a go on the digger in the photo, of course- boys!

We also visited the quiet beach a little further down the coast in Hove, where our friends live, and J spent a happy hour or so walking by the lapping waves. Glorious!

We spent the afternoon at our friends’ house, where we were presented with a handmade hobbit’s cloak for J! He looks absolutely adorable in it, and fell asleep wearing it when he went for his nap. We had the most amazing mac and cheese ever (J ate his out of his special bowl and even wanted seconds) before we were forced to head back to put J to bed.

The weekend seemed to fly by! Before we knew it, we were driving home in the rain- the classic indicator that the holiday has come to an end.