A Day at the Beach

As London gets ready to host the summer Olympics, there is lots of speculation about what the weather will do.  Summer just hasn't happened here this year.  Aside from a beautiful week or so just after we arrived here in May, we have had unseasonably cold and rainy weather-- exactly the opposite of what has been happening at home in the Midwest.  It has been gloomy, grim, and depressing.  Even days when the forecast called for a dry day, we would inevitably get showers for some or all of the day.

And then, last Sunday morning (NOTE: this was actually a while ago now, but I am way behind on my posts) we awoke to a little bit of blue sky.  We had been hoping for a day at the beach, and this seemed like our chance.  We drove south to Brighton.  Though the day was still a bit chilly, even with the sun shining, it was such a relief to sit outside and enjoy the day.

The beach was rocky.  The boys spent quite a while throwing rocks into the ocean.  It never gets old.

I was so happy to see blue sky, I had to take a picture of it.

View from the beach

Soren and I spent some time looking at all the different types of seaweed on the beach.

We bought a kite when we were in York, but we hadn't had an opportunity to fly it until we got to Brighton.  Malcolm had been asking repeatedly to fly the kite.  Once Erik got the kite up in the air, Malcolm held the string for about 2 minutes before he lost interest.  It made for some nice pictures, though.

Kite flying

We walked down the beach to the boardwalk, which is lined with little seaside trinket shops and seafood stands.  For about 30 minutes, we really felt like we were having a true summer day-- warm, sunny, and beachy.  We found more random carnival rides and let the kids ride a couple.

Malcolm meets the Brighton Lobster

Riding "Simon's Railway"

Double-seater carousel horses

All good weather must come to an end in England.  As we walked toward the Brighton Pier, the clouds rolled in, and it got really cold.  The Brighton Pier is similar to the Santa Monica Pier-- cheesy rides and overpriced food on a pier over the water.  

Brighton Pier

Giant slide on the pier. Note the gray sky.

View of Brighton from the pier

Jellied eels for sale on the boardwalk

Since the weather was no longer very appealing, we decided to duck into the Brighton Aquarium.  The building is hundreds of years old and really looks its age.  It was an old-school aquarium with fish in small tanks, little to no interpretive information, and open tanks that would make it easy for people to touch the animals or drop food, etc. into the tanks (even though signs asked you not to touch).  In one tank, I saw a child's paper hat lying on the bottom.  There was a feeble attempt to post some information about conservation, including this sign (below) about invasive species.

 

The aquarium

We enjoyed seeing some of the animals, but it was a bit depressing-- dark, dank, and pretty run-down.  

Since I started this blog post we have had a lot more beautiful, sunny weather, though we are now heading back into another stretch with rain forecasted every day.  We hope all the visitors in town for the Olympics have brought their raincoats.