Whitby 2011

2years 16days

What a day! A very very last minute conversation with my parents last Sunday sparked a decision. That not only were we going to the Whitby Goth Weekend today (although that bit was fairly decided) but that we were going Victorian. Thanks to a little help from Fern-Willow's mummy, we sourced the beautiful cape for Katie, I had her dress and boots, ebay found the mopcap. Katie sorted. And she LOVED it. When I got my dress sorted this morning "ohhh Mummy's pretty dress, where's Katie pretty dress?" I put it and her cape on her and she twirled for 20minutes solid. Even Monkey got dressed up - he had a little black and white bow tie on for the day.

We drove over to Whitby, and she slept for the whole 1hour 30 + journey! A brief eye open "mummy, where are you" then back to sleep. A "mummy, find Grandad and Granny", then back to sleep. We arrived a little early, so pottered in the Leisure Centre for 20 minutes. She was watching some children in the swimming pool and charming the lifeguard.

Once Granny and Grandad arrived, we went for a walk down to the Spa for some lunch. She was desperate to go in the (very cold looking) sea. "Not lunch, I need the beach" she told me. "I need the..." is the new phrase of the moment. She called all the different styles of dress that we saw "pirates" and was wanting to look for more-more pirates. We walked from the spa, back up the cliff, then down it to the harbour.

A gentle promenade along the front, a brief stop for ice cream (which she also "needed") before we headed over the bridge. When we crossed the bridge, we found a whole host of fabulous characters and costumes. And got stopped quite a few times for people to photograph Katie, including a pro who has given me his card to get the pictures from him for free. We walked up the stairs to the church yard for a few photos, and saw the sun setting over the bay.

Back down at the harbour, we went for a really nice tea, although she was more interested in playing peepo with this fabulous goth with metallic purple and silver spirals in her hair, who Katie thought was wonderful. The arrival of Katie's jelly and ice cream was the only distraction from her! Heading back to the car, Katie walked up every single one of the steps up to the cliff top, holding Grandad's hand and counting. 18 is her favourite number at the moment. Up to 14 is reliably counted. Then it's 14, 18, 13, 18. Sometimes it's 1, 3, 18 just for a change! When we got to the car, I put her in her jammies and she was asleep before we'd properly got away from the West Cliff. A very wonderful day.