Tag Archives: Family Travel

Itinerary planning

It’s 2014 – the year the Deans take off!

Christmas was a very practical affair when it came to presents this year, consisting of items such as base layers, binoculars, a survival kit for Alfie, head torches, winter coats and stuff sacks! Without a TV we are relatively free from the bulk of the “but I wanted a super-spiderman-hi-fi-ds-wii-pod-thingy” and our children are easily pleased.

I got Adobe Photoshop Elements for Christmas which I am now beginning to find the time to play around with… as demonstrated above! Expect some fairly random photos for now though as I’m just enjoying taking them. They’ll be more topical once we are State side I promise.

Since Christmas our planning activity has revved up a notch and I now have a rough itinerary for the first few weeks of adventure.

Before we even leave the UK we are planning 12 days for visiting family and friends so on the 1st Feb we leave our lovely Cornish farm and head to Wales. From there we will visit Derby and Nottingham before a few days in London and the South East. We fly from Heathrow on 12th February and that’s where the adventure really begins!

After three days in New York we’ll be picking up our hire car and heading North West into Pennsylvania. Woodstock in the Catskill Mountains sounds like an interesting place so we may stop there for a night – unless anyone has other suggestions?

Pressing on through the Catskill Mountain Range we’ll then head towards Skaneatles by The Finger Lakes, which sound geologically interesting. The Finger Lakes are narrow channels gorged out by glaciers resulting in drumlins, waterfalls and deep gorges to admire.

By the middle of that week we’ll have made it to Buffalo where a life long friend of mine now lives. She also happens to be an archaeologist and currently works in conservation. From Buffalo we can make a day trip to Niagara Falls on the Wednesday and then press South to West Virginia via the Allegheny National Forest for a bit of bird and wildlife watching.

We are due at our first WWOOF placement on the Saturday in West Virgina. New Vrindaban, which I talked about in an earlier post.

A week or so settled at New Vrindaban will be a nice time to rest with the children, enjoy some physical work and catch up with the home schooling before we set off for Washington the following week.

This journey will take us through the Allegheny Mountains and onto the Shenandoah National Park, where we hope to explore the Luray Caves. Recommendations of places to visit on this leg are very welcome please!

We are visiting friends in Washington and I can’t wait to see them. While there we plan to visit the Capital and see the big sights. Our focus here will be on learning about American history and politics.

After that we’ll head to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and stay there a while to explore before heading way south to the Everglades in Florida.

That’s about as far as we’ve got with planning for now and takes us to about the end of March. We are trying to keep pretty flexible on the plan as we just don’t know how it will all go and how the kids will adapt to the long journeys. It may be that after 5 weeks of travel we want to stay put in the mountains for a while or we might be keen to get to the warmer southern climate to rest for a while.

Either way, we are open minded about how it will go and prepared for the inevitable exhaustion we’ll experience at times but we’re a pretty laid back family and our kids are easy going.

Base-Layer me up baby! My kids love the base layers from Muddy Puddles.

Sunrise…

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It’s a matter of weeks now until we go. Excitement is mixed with nerves. Ruthless clearing is mixed with emotion as my hoarding tendencies are tamed.

I’ve reduced my clothes to just a couple of draws and packed away photos, books and toys. The sheep are sold and we are getting on with selling our cars.

A big map of America now spans our largest plain wall and we have blobs of blue tac dotted across it marking our “must see” locations, which is increasing constantly the more we learn about the history and geology of America.

Christmas presents are all travel related with a focus on home education, photography and suitable clothing.

We’re getting essential dental work done, eye tests up to date and sorting out the death watch beetle infestation in the house….

It’s liberating to be getting it all sorted but it’s emotional too, and a little nerve racking… What if we don’t like it, what if something goes wrong or someone gets sick or injured, or we struggle to keep to our tight daily budget or the kids turn feral and we ruin their educational potential, or something at home goes wrong, a sick relative or a house fire, what if our marriage struggles without any space, what if we get really fat from junk food and no exercise or there’s an apocalypse while we are there…. What if, what if, what if?

Well, I guess any of those things we just wake up the next day and deal with…

Excited? Just slightly!

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We collected our passports complete with visa’s for 6 months in America today. We had to pick them up from a DX depot in Plymouth. The woman who returned our passports to us happened to have travelled extensively across America doing exactly the sorts of things we plan to do! She was so enthusiastic in her passion for the States and painted such an incredible picture of all the amazing experiences we will have that we were stood at her little window for quite some time. We listened to stories of up close encounters with killer whales on the West Coast and of bears in Yellow Stone, about how incredible witnessing Old Faithful will be for our children and how New York in winter is simply perfect. “Golden eagles are like starling there… simply everywhere!”. We left beaming and chattering excitedly about all she had said.

Plymouth beaconed for a bit of Christmas shopping which couldn’t be done online (and a trip to Yo Sushi without the kids of course). Our main ports of call were the various outdoor shops because, lets face it, our kids are getting travel related practical items almost exclusively this Christmas. Well the whole experience of buying head torches and base layers got us even more excited so to meet yet another America enthusiast was pushing us over the edge!

A sales chap in Cotswold Outdoor store happened to be from California and had a fairly full on passion for travel and adventure… he was soon describing the routes we should take to transverse the States to see all the things we want and must see. He was giving us tips on the local foods to try in various small towns we mustn’t miss and how much money we need to be allowing for entry to the various national parks. He went on with tips for crossing the Canadian border and making sure we have our itinerary planned well. He got out maps from books on sale in the store and showed us various options for fitting everything in… it was amazing!

On returning home in time for the school run we had it confirmed that we have a private buyer for our sheep – thus avoiding the horrific experience of a brutal livestock market again. And with Rob’s parents coming this weekend we can get some serious packing done.

It’s just 8 weeks until we leave Cornwall and boy are we excited!

Carreg Cennen Castle – Wales

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We went to Wales this weekend to visit friends. Setting off straight from school we made the 3.5hr journey in one go thanks to a well packed picnic and the ingenious TravelJohns
I recently discovered. They prevented no less than three separate toilet stops and the boys thought it was hilarious!

Our friends live just off the M4 yet on the edge of the Brecon Beacons and Carreg Cennen Castle was a short drive across moorland and through valleys which reminded me of our pre-children hikes in the Peak District – intriguingly alternative to the Cornish hedges and green hills down here.

Built upon a huge limestone crag nearly 90 metres above the river Cennen the Castle has utilised the natural defensive qualities of it’s position. It dominates the skyline from miles around and it’s easy to imagine why people dating as far back as the iron age occupied it as a stronghold.

View from the arrow loops.

The Castle as seen now was build in stages during the end of the 13^th Century and start of the 14^th Century and has a bloody history of battles and wars, including the Wars of the Roses (1455-85). However it was deliberately ruined in the Summer of 1462 on behalf of the Yorkist king, Edward IV, who had just won it back from the a Lancastrian supporter, Gruffudd ap Nicholas who was using it as a garrison. They destroyed it so it would not be used by the enemy again. It has laid there in ruin ever since.

Interior at Carreg Cennen Castle

For me the magic was in the ability to see how people lived there. The domestic quarters are surprisingly in tact so you can make out the kitchen, various private chambers and even toilets – always fascinating to our boys (oh okay, us too). You can see various stair cases twisting up the towers and picture the people using them all those centuries ago. In the inner ward the massive oven is still visible and of the style of modern pizza and bread ovens which are still fashionable and functional today.

Children inside the bread oven

Most intriguingly is a long dark tunnel which runs under the castle for some way but leads only to a chamber at the end. It’s not sure what the purpose of it was but, considering the effort it would have taken to create, there must have been a good reason for it. The tunnel and cave is covered in graffiti mostly from over 100+ years ago which is fascinating in itself. Not only picturing the medieval knights and princes but the Victorian tourists making their way along the tunnel with candles and ridiculous shoes, scratching their names and dates – claiming their own little victory over the Castle and mortality. I didn’t get a picture down in the cave because I was concentrating hard on getting both me and my kids down it and back out alive – sorry about that. You need to take a torch as it’s pitch black, although you can hire them from the shop.

After exploring the castle as extensively as possible with a gaggle of children in tow we headed down to the shop and café for lunch. Castell Farm surrounds the Castle and is run as a Welsh upland holding with rare breed sheep and cattle. The meats from the animals can be sampled in the café with Longhorn cottage pie and other hearty dishes. The kids were welcome and prices reasonable.

It was a fantastic day out, ideal for families of all ages as the paths are easy and the castle is interesting for all. You could probably do it with an off road buggy but we used an Ergo Carrier for Orla. You wouldn’t be able to do the cave with a pushchair or with a big backpack.

Prices and opening times available on their website

www.carregcennencastle.com

A great place to play knights and dragons!

A medieval toilet. The waste just headed out of a hole in the outer wall of the castle.

It’s easy to see why they build it here with a defensive view from all angles. Carreg Cennen is an imposing feature on the surrounding landscape.

Milestones – Alfie loses his first baby tooth!

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It seems like yesterday when Alfie got his first tooth. He was quite young at about 17 weeks old and he bit my nipple, ouch! On Saturday that first tooth fell out!

Skip back about 27 years and my sister and I were loosing our teeth at a time when my father used to travel the world a lot for business. He was (and in fact still is) a frequent flyer to exciting locations such as America, Hong Kong and Japan. After the tooth had been “bought” by the tooth fairy unbeknownst to us my father would buy it back from her and take it on a business trip where he would then dispose of the tooth in an interesting location. Our teeth have been thrown off the Golden Gate bridge, buried in a flower pot in the Empire State building, deposited in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and left in the Jardin des Tuilieres in Paris … how cool is that!

So having made my own deal with the tooth fairy I’m now considering how to dispose of them. With our travel plans afoot it will be fairly easy to follow my father’s theme for Alfie’s teeth and I suspect the first will reside in New York, perhaps in Central Park. But what if you don’t have such an opportunity… what other ideas are out there for dealing with the teeth which to many parents can mean so much?

The bin is obviously one option and fair dos if that’s the route you go – they are just teeth and to be honest are a little gross really! But many of us just can’t bring ourselves to bin these little bits of our babies – they’re not like toe nails that keep on growing.

You could bury them in your own garden, perhaps by a specific tree or plant. If you were hippy enough to have buried your placenta then this is likely to be an appealing option. If you don’t have a garden then a local park, woodland or river could be an option?

You could simply store them in a jar and present them to the child in adulthood to do what they want with. If that appeals to you and you want to keep them nice then here is a link on how to “preserve them”. If your of the very organised variety of parent then you can even get these these little trinket boxes for keeping them in: Juliana Silver Plated Tooth and Curl Box. Not my cup of tea but each to their own!

Or what about making some tooth jewellery? Sounds kinda grim but actually when polished up they are meant to look quite pearl like and it’s not that long ago that people made broaches and the like from the hair of dead loved ones! Here is a link to making jewellery from your child’s milk teeth.

But if you’re of a more practical nature, how about sending them off to have your child’s stem cells harvested? It turns out the cells in the pulp that comes out with milk teeth, if preserved rapidly and collected by courier can be grown and multiplied before being frozen and stored in case your child needs them for medical treatment in the future. It sounds like an appealing option but bare in mind it’s expensive (£995 plus £95 per year for storage from BioEden) and the treatments which they hope to develop using stem cells have yet to actually be developed so it’s far from a complete insurance but well worth considering if you’ve got plenty of money or you’re particularly paranoid.

Having written the above I’m thoroughly relieved that we are off round the world and my dad has given us the inspiration for our disposal route. They’ll be no jewellery or anxiously awaiting couriers in this household. There is a tiny little pot that will make it into our bag to head off round the world so a little bit of Alfie can remain in all the interesting places we will visit. If I’m organised enough I’ll try to document the locations for him.

Sam’s of Fowey

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When travelling with kids a great tip is to find out where local families go for food, entertainment and so on. Going to fancy restaurants is great on holiday and for special occasions and I’m all for kids experiencing and learning to behave in such places. But the reality is you want to enjoy your meal too and not feel stressed out about the kids making noise, dropping food or loudly announcing they need a wee (or worse).

As we haven’t actually departed yet I thought over the next couple of months I would tell readers about a few of our favourite family restaurants and activities here in beautiful Cornwall as it is a holiday destination for so many families and well worth a visit.

Yesterday I asked Rob if he would sort dinner out for me to have a night off from cooking – “Yeah sure” he said. Come 4.30pm I asked what he’d got for dinner…. “ummmm…. Shall we go out?” Ergh, ok, but Orla is majorly tired and grumpy, very few places are open before 6pm and we’re all starving (We eat around 5pm in this household). “I know” he announced excitedly… “Sam’s”… GREAT! Shoes on, lets go…

Sam’s is a seafood restaurant in Fowey, a beautiful seaside town on the south coast. In the hight of summer it is heaving but just out of season it’s delightful, alive but mellow, sort of like a town relaxing on the sofa after a big Sunday dinner; enjoying the conversation and playing some games.

You can’t book at Sam’s and if you are coming in the evening, particularly in the summer, you may need to wait for a table in their funky bar upstairs. Definitely not a hardship if you indulge in one of their “like you’re in London” cocktails. But lets get real, not many other people go out for dinner at 5pm so you’re straight in with attentive service.

Established in 1988 and originally a burger bar, Sam’s has a reputation for great food and a lively atmosphere. It is also an ideal place for taking the family. The staff are welcoming, they have high chairs and nappy changing facilities and an extensive children’s menu. No processed sausage and chips nonsense, there’s Moules Frite (my kids favourite!), calamari, fresh locally caught fish, battered and served with mushy peas and there’s a variety of Sam’s famous home-made burgers with salad and fries, to name but a few.

The venue is ideal for entertaining children and a family game of I Spy is a must with so many things to see and spot, electric guitars and retro posters on the walls, chefs in Bermuda shorts and various rock and roll memorabilia. It’s colourful enough for the youngest kids to play, we do “something that is red/green/purple” for the non-spellers of the family. The other great thing is the music volume for families, not too loud you can’t chat and play games but loud enough that you’re not worried about disturbing other diners with random infant shrieks.

The food is simply spectacular and it’s a great place to get kids into more unusual foods. We shared a portion of shell on prawns and a portion of calamari to start. Despite prawns being a firm family favourite the kids had never pealed their own so teaching them how to was great – everyone loves messy food! The boys had mussels for their main which they adore and are very competent at extracting from their shells with another shell. I had a trio of fish and rob had a burger – both of which were cooked to perfection and demolition in the blink of an eye.

The staff made it clear on arrival that we were welcome to bring our own baby food or give her bits of ours on a plate they would happily provide, but Orla had the fish and chips; you wouldn’t believe how much that girl can put away! These little touches can make such a difference to your enjoyment – It’s miserable to be made to feel unwelcome because you’ve brought baby food to avoid allergy issues or you don’t want to have a full child’s meal for a one year old.

You really can’t go wrong with the menu at Sam’s and there is something for everyone. Personally I would steer clear of their salads though. It’s like they try too hard with all sorts of sprouts and veg in there – give me a simple leaf salad with a delicate dressing any day but I’m not that into “just lots of raw stuff”. It’s hardly a criticism though, they’re just not my thing.

After dinner the kids love a stroll onto the jetty by the harbour masters, (a great spot for crabbing too if you happen to have the kit in the car) and it’s a nice opportunity for you to enjoy the view across to Polruan in the evening light. Man I love living in Cornwall… Um, why are we going? Oh yeah, I remember, but we’ll be back here.

So what’s the cost of this great family dining experience? Well, It’s not the cheapest place in South Cornwall – there are table table pubs in the bigger towns with deals that are phenomenally cheap if that’s what you’re after. It really isn’t costly though. For the five of us, two starters, two adult mains, three kids meals, 4 soft drinks and a glass of house wine (I know – I’m a lush!) we paid just over £50. The mains are massive, even the kids ones, and to be honest we could have easily done without the starters as the boys didn’t manage all of their mussels. For the quality of the food and the overall experience it is great value for money. It’s also consistence – you can’t fail to enjoy yourself and the food, which in itself adds value.

Sam’s of Fowey has got to be one of my favourite restaurants for early evening family dinning, welcoming, fun and serving great food. The kids love it too. So if you’re coming to Cornwall with the kids give it a go and let me know what you thought.

Further details:

Sam’s Fowey is on Fore Street and is open 12-9pm every day.

Tel: 01726 832273

Website: http://www.samsfowey.co.uk

Parking: Early evening and out of season parking is easy in the small car park in the middle of town but out of season you’ll need to park in one of the towns other car parks and walk in. You need pay and display before 6pm.

NB. All opinions are my own. I did not receive any discount or payment for this review. Also, apologies for the terrible photos… I forgot to grab the camera!

Reality hitting!

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Well the cows passed their TB test and early tomorrow morning will be loaded in a lorry and taken to Exeter market to be sold. Suddenly it all feels a bit more real! Yesterday I read a blog by a woman, Kate Hand, who has recently relocated her family from Ireland to Spain and although on the whole it’s amazing, but the kids are struggling at times – naturally. Since reading her post, A Heavy Heart I’ve been pondering just how I will cope with all the “I hate travelling, I want to go home” ‘s I’m going to hear. And I’m sure I will hear a lot of them.

Alfie came in a few mornings ago from playing outside, kicking his feet about and looking sad. “What’s up Alf?” I asked with concern. “When we go travelling I won’t see Rosa for a whole year” and with that he burst into tears. Rosa is his best friend who lives with her mum in a caravan on our farm. Alfie adores her and she him.

And so a conversation was had about all the things we will miss when we are away and about the friends old and new that we will be seeing around the world. I’m going to miss Ethel our dog… BIG TIME! She’s old now and the reality is that there is a chance she may not be around when we get back. I’ll miss our house too as I love it here. Alfie wished we could take Ethel and Rosa with us and I explained over his sobs that we couldn’t. Missing things isn’t a good reason not to go. Over coming the fear of missing things is a great skill which can set them up for a lifetime of adventure.

And so with the sale of our cows, some of which we love like pets, the reality, both the good and bad is setting in. Their sale equals freedom to travel but I will miss them.

Adventures of Muma Dean

and her team…

Tag Archives: Family Travel

Itinerary planning

Sunrise…

Excited? Just slightly!

Carreg Cennen Castle – Wales

Milestones – Alfie loses his first baby tooth!

Sam’s of Fowey

Reality hitting!