Topic: Day Trips
I can't wrap my head around the fact that we're over a week into autumn, and it's October already.
Wednesday, Sept. 27, Ryan and I went to Scarborough with our friends Carissa and Tom, their boys Thomas and Nathan, and Tom's parents, Larry and Wendy (visiting from the States). Ryan and I walked to the train station, where we met up with everyone. Then we all took a train to York, where we switched trains for Scarborough.
The train ride was nice and relaxing. All the kiddos were well behaved. Yay! :) It was nice not to have to drive. It took a couple of hours to get from Harrogate to Scarborough.
Once at Scarborough, we walked around for a while. I still laugh when I see signs that say things like, "Humped Zebra Crossing!" (Just the British way of saying, "Crosswalk with Speed Bump.") We wound up going through the suburbs by accident, which was fine since it was a nice day. It was interesting to see the various places people lived. I like that people have little signs on their homes, like the one we saw proclaiming, "Al's Place." There's a castle in Scarborough (which we didn't visit) that we got a nice view of from the top of a hill. Also because of our route, we got to see a B&B with palm trees - yes, that's right - PALM TREES! Something I never thought I'd see in the UK.
We finally made our way to the North Bay. (Scarborough has a North and South Bay. The North is more for enjoying the beach, while the South is more commercial.) All the little concession stands and shops were boarded up. It was only four days after the official end of summer!
The North bay was really neat though. There was a good view of the castle up on the bluff, and the tide was very much out, so there was a lot of real estate for Ryan to run around on. (There was an area down the shore a little that looked like it would be great for tide pooling, if the kids had been a little older.)
The weather was mostly overcast, which made everything kind of grey. It was a little cold from the breeze coming off the sea, but otherwise wasn't too bad. Ryan kept his jacket on all day though. The sun did peek out a little towards the end of our visit to the North Bay, which temporarily warmed things up a bit.
Ryan absolutely LOVED running around. We all hung back a bit while the boys ran around (Thomas is about six months younger than Ryan, while Nathan is still an infant.) I was taking pictures, and suddenly realized that Ryan was at a dead run right for the water. Tom realized this at about the same time. We both took off at a dead run of our own, reaching Ryan right as he reached the water. I honestly don't know if Ryan would have stopped. That child has no fear! Luckily all was well. I really appreciated Tom coming with me, just in case. It's always good to have backup!
Of course at some point Ryan had to do a full length body plant onto the wet sand! Unfortunately he'd already gone through the extra pair of pants I'd brought along. I did have a dry towel, which helped things along.
After a while (and with much protestation from Ryan), we packed up and took a bus to South Bay. I've never really been to a boardwalk in the States. From what I've been told, this part of Scarborough was something similar. I would describe the area as, "delightfully tacky!" There was a little area on the sea side of things that had carnival type rides. A little further up was a row of concession stands. In between were glimpses of the docks. There was one concession stand that caught my eye. The first time I went by it, I just saw that they sold candy. Then Carissa made a comment about its other wares. I went back and wondered how on earth I'd managed to miss the *cough* "adult" candy on sale! What blew my mind a little was that it was mixed right in with all the other candy. There was a "Large Manhood" sucker hanging right next to a Winnie the Pooh! After being overseas for so long, it didn't really surprise me THAT much. But still... On the other side of the street were tacky looking gift shops and restaurants. It was all very colorful. At one shop, I bought Ryan a pinwheel. His face lit up like a Christmas tree! It's the little things. ;)
From there we wandered around some more. It was quite a trek back up to the city center, where we were hoping to find "Scarborough Fair." We eventually stopped at the local TI (Tourist Info. center) and got directions. We got to the "fair" at 4:20pm. It didn't open until 5pm! The "fair" was just one huge midway of tacky rides. I wasn't really surprised. Earlier, Carissa had told me that the "Scarborough Fair" of old hasn't happened in a very long time. (It used to be a harvest festival/market.) Now, they have the "fun fair" (as the signs called it) in a sort of commemoration of the original fair.
We wandered through and made our way back to the train station (after a stop at a bakery for a bite). The way home was pretty decent, except Ryan really reached the end of his rope. He was tired from not really napping, and just wanted off the train. Larry picked us up at the station in Harrogate, which was nice since it was dark and drizzling when we got there.
I'm so glad we went to Scarborough. We had a good time, and now I can say I've been there!
Scarborough Click here for our pictures of our day!