Mothers Day in Whitby

It wasn't supposed to be particularly nice weather, so I had been promised a long lie-in and breakfast in bed. However, on realising that it was actually a rather nice day, Doug woke me up at 8am with a plateful of croissants and a couple of very noisy children to make sure I was out of bed in good time for us to have a day out.

We decided on Whitby for our destination as I've never been there and the seaside is always popular with the kids. The drive over the North York Moors was spectacular - the moors just by the rather strange concrete pyramid at RAF Fylingdales are an amazing terracotta and gold colour just at the moment.


We headed up to the Abbey first; it was incredibly windy, but the boys had a whale of a time charging round the ruins.


All very gothic, I can see why Bram Stoker used it as the backdrop to part of Dracula. No foundering ships on the rocks with giant wolves jumping ashore, luckily. By far the scariest thing we found all day, however, was the "Dracula blackcurrant and liquorice ice cream" on sale by the beach. I wasn't brave enough and stuck to cinder toffee ice cream, which was delicious.


As we walked round the town, there was a powerful and wonderful smell of fish and chips. I was cursing mightily that we'd had it for tea on Friday night and that a roast beef diner was planned for when we got back. We settled for a light lunch in an excellent milk shake bar that made wonderful shakes that consisted of ice cream, milk and the confectionary of your choice. Sam sunk a bog standard strawberry shake, but Doug and I were a bit more adventurous and tried a maltesers one; it tasted like chocolate malted milk and was delicious. As we left, someone was trying a creme egg shake - 3 creme eggs were being put in the blender - but I think that might have been a bit much.


We made it as far as the beach and walked down to the end of the jetty to the lighthouse; Jacob was rather taken by the dinosaur skeletons carved into the concrete floor of the jetty.


We made it back to the car just in time for the heavens to open as the weather that had been forecast for the day finally arrived. Back home for the aforementioned roast beef dinner, lovingly cooked by Doug (although he did get me to make the batter for the yorkshires) and a nice bottle of red.


A lovely Mothers Day and a yardstick for all such days in the future (Doug, Sam and Jacob take note).