When I think about the last year it really blows my mind to think of the rollercoaster of a journey it has been. It doesn't feel too long ago that I sat here and typed out blog posts talking about how we'd just been trying to make it through the weeks over the cold and long winter with home-schooling and lockdown, and yet here we are - somewhat on the other side of that all. We're not out of the woods yet completely with the coronavirus pandemic, in fact many countries around the world are still in lockdown, but for now, here in the UK we seem to be making huge positive steps back to 'normal' life. This is mostly due to the fact that vaccinations are happening so quickly, in fact they've just reached our age bracket and we booked ours in yesterday!
It's hard to explain how incredible it feels to be able to see some light at the end of the tunnel and how incredible lovely it is to be able to sit inside with extended family again as well as go and do things again like days out, eat in restaurants and stay at hotels. When you've had those things taken away, getting them back again feels like a luxury!
This weekend was the first weekend that we could go and do all of these things and we were very lucky in that Adam's parents offered to have the boys for us so that we could go and have some time away together just Adam and I. We dropped the boys off at school on Friday and Adam's Mum collected them from school later that day. The boys were so excited and Logan kept telling his teacher how happy he was that his Grandma was collecting him.
We headed off to Brighton after dropping the boys at school, we'd booked a room for two nights at The Highdown in Worthing and so Brighton was just 40/50 minutes away in the car. We hadn't seen the sea and the beach for so long and I felt emotional seeing it again for the first time - the sea just seems to go on and on and never end. We spent a few hours at the arcades after lunch, and it was so much fun. We set ourselves a challenge of getting a little Mario Mushroom toy out of the 2p machines for Logan who's Mario obsessed, and it was the best moment when we finally got it to drop!
The wind was insane on Friday - there had actually been a weather warning issued for the day and the wind was crazy, we could barely stand on the beach. But even so, it was an experience! And it turned out to be actually quite fun even if all we could taste on our lips was sea-salt.
Brighton is such a fun place, though the cost of car parking is eye-watering, but we really did have the best time just being by the sea and hanging out at the arcades together. It's been a while since we completely switched off and it felt so needed. I even took the weekend off of social media, so we really did have a complete break from everything.
After Brighton, we drove to The Highdown, where we were staying for two nights. The room was lovely and very cosy. The hotel itself is a bit like a quaint bar/restaurant and then a separate building for rooms. The staff were very friendly and the dinner and dessert in the evening was incredible, as was the huge drinks menu that they offered.
It felt so good to be able to get dressed up and go for dinner, especially just as us two. We shared a bottle of wine and laughed and chatted for a couple of hours, it was so relaxing!
Breakfast the next morning was also fantastic. They offered a full vegetarian english breakfast and it was a great way to start the day.
Overall, The Highdown was a lovely place to stay and a great in between for the two places that we visited over the weekend - Brighton and Arundel.
After breakfast we decided that as we were still so close to the beach we'd take a 20 minute drive to Littlehampton beach for the morning before heading to Arundel. Fortunately the crazy wind from the day before had passed and though it rained, it was nice to be able to actually stand on a calm beach and watch and listen to the waves. I also found a few shells to take home for the boys.
We had booked to go to Arundel Castle for midday and so after spending half an hour at the beach we drove the 15 minutes in the car to the beautiful town of Arundel. Arundel Castle turned out to be one of the most stunningly beautiful places that we've ever visited and so it really deserves it's own blog post! You'll be able to read all about our trip to Arundel Castle in part 2 of this post coming soon. I can't wait to share it with you, it truly is one of the most breath-taking places!
Thank you for reading. Alex xo