Grand day out

Given the weather this summer, I hardly expected we'd be in shorts and trunks and suncream so soon after returning from Spain but I was wrong. Friday dawned clear so I made a picnic and packed up the car with the buckets and spades and got the boys herded up. We drove out to Dunbar. The tide was well out but, despite this, the bridge over the tidal river was still short of the far bank so we had to wade across to the beach on the other side. A bit fraught when carrying a bag full of stuff and leading Angus and Rowan, but we settled down to some serious digging with cut-price snow-shovels I'd secured from Sainsburys. After a good spell of sandcastle making and filling buckets with water and digging a big hole, we retreated across the bridge and set to eating our picnic.

It was a beautiful day so next stop was Tantallon Castle, also known as "Windy Castle". We clambered up to the top and explored the nooks and crannies and spiral staircases, looking out over the sea to Bass Rock and Fife beyond. From there we moved on to the East Sands at North Berwick. By now the tide was in and the breakers were crashing against the favourite outcrop of rocks. Soon the boys were running in and out the surf and clambering over the rocks, which was not the safest place to be given the rather unpredictable nature of the waves. I had to climb on too and remove Angus before he ventured too close to the spray and foam that the others were finding so exciting. It was a great late afternoon sight as the boys chased up and down the beach, squealing with delight.

Eventually I got them changed (again) and we went in search of food, ending up going in for bruschetta and a pizza (and squid and risotto for me). Not surprisingly they all fell asleep on the drive home but it was a grand day out!