Early evening on Gorey beach with fish and chips

I have read various posts about parents still insisting that they stick to bedtime routines over the summer holidays. Whoops! I hate to admit it but that’s not us. We love the freedom of the summer holiday. Strict bed times go out of the window, to be replaced by long evenings at the beach, paddling in the sea and building sand castles. It is nice because it means that we get some extra family time. One of our favourite things to do is to head to Gorey beach with the buckets and spades; picnic blanket and BBQ. Recently, we decided to treat ourselves to fish and chips. Some people say that the fish and chips at Gorey are the best fish and chips on the island. I couldn’t possibly say, all I know is that they taste really good. However, I haven’t found anywhere on the island that does a proper mushy-pea like Yorkshire mushy-peas 😉 .

When we arrived, the sky was still very bright. Although there were many families dotted around, most people were packing up to go home as the temperatures were starting to dip. Not us though! We grabbed our prime spot, set up our blanket and started munching on our fish and chips. We ignored the seagulls that kept swooping overhead, they obviously fancied a bit of our fish and chip action. Over chips we watched as a HUGE yacht pulled into the harbour at Gorey. That must be the life, taking your boat round the island; mooring up for dinner.

After a glorious supper of crispy fish and salty chips, the girls decided that it was time to make sand castles. They chose the sand nearest the sea, knowing that this would give them better sand castles! They set about digging, carefully transporting their sand into their buckets. In the meantime, us lazy parents sat on the blanket. We had the very important role of observing. The beach was now starting to empty and the sun was making its slow descent into the sea.

Oldest then decided that she wanted to build a tunnel from her sand castles all the way to the sea. Obviously, we were very supportive and shouted encouragement from our picnic blanket as we finished our chips. It felt really nice being able to make the most of the long summer evenings. It means that the girls get to spend some extra time with their Dad and it means (fingers crossed) that they don’t wake as early in the morning. Win!

Further down the beach, a group of children arrived and they all bravely jumped into the sea. From their loud shrieks it was clear that the sea was now very cold. Luckily, our two realised that this evening was not the time for a sea swim. I wouldn’t have fancied joining them as it was now starting to get decidedly chilly on the beach.

We started to pack up our picnic blanket and tried to usher the girls along. The beach was now nearly deserted and the girls were enjoying having it all to themselves. Oldest was insisting that she still finish her moat.

It was lovely to see them both having such fun outdoors, and in the end we realised that we were fighting a losing battle. We sat back down on the blanket and watched as the girls continued with their fun. However, ten minutes later and the sun was now making quite a rapid descent and the winds had picked up. It really was time to head home so we gathered up our stuff. The girls now starting to feel the cold, put up less of a fight.

We promised to return another evening so that Oldest could finish her tunnelling. Quickly, we headed to our car. We emptied what felt like half of the beach into the car and then made the short drive home, following the sun round the island.

Summer, it’s great to have you back on Jersey 🙂