Brighton

Rain. Let’s talk about it.
Hawii came up in a conversation with Ben the other day. He said, “You’ve been there, haven’t you.”
To which I replied, “Yes. It rained.”
And it is because of that trip that I do no go anywhere that is supposed to be “hot”. I have no desire to go back to Hawii or Mexico and would much rather spend a rainy week in Tofino, BC because Tofino is supposed to be rainy, it is beautiful in the rain, and if the sun pokes through even for an afternoon it is a huge treat.
The other reason I like rainy places is that they are less busy. I don’t like crowds or bells or whistles – give me a beach (in any weather) and I am happy. Which is why yesterday was the perfect day to go to Brighton, on the south coast of England and one Britain’s biggest summer playgrounds.
The original purpose of the trip was for Ben to visit Glyneborne. For his thesis he is comparing three staged performances of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, one of which was performed at Glyneborne. They were unable, however, to send him the recording so if he wanted to see it, he had to go and watch it in their music library. And since I was feeling like a nice little road trip and Brighton is just 20 minutes away, the kids and I decided to go along.
It was a cold windy day, misty at times and rainy at others. I was completely nervous about the prospect of entertaining the kids for four hours in an unknown city with no house or car to cozy up in if we got to wet, but like most challenges in my life, I just did it (partly to know that I could and partly because I am a stubborn like that). I packed an extra change of clothes for all three of us along with a bucket and a shovel and off we went.

As a side note this is a SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot. Isn’t it amazing?! Beautiful day.

Jakob could have been perfectly content to throw rocks in the water all day so when it started to rain, and I suggested we check out the pier he wasn’t interested…until I mentioned that there might be candy and games….which there was. And lots of them.
With fear of some serious backlash, I going to go ahead and throw censors to the wind and say that Brighton, while beautiful, may possibly be England’s capital for indulgence – slot machines, a tonne of candy stores, arcade games, rides, you name it. And while in the summer I am sure I would have suffered major sensory overload, I have to admit it was quite enjoyable having the place to ourselves. I let the kids play a little skeeball and with the tickets they won, buy a glider plane and some stickers.

We had the “happy-go-round” (this is what Jakob calls it) to ourselves and we even bought a lollipop and some sugar donuts. How can you tell I was on my own and taking the path of least resistance?
When we had had our fill we headed up to the Lanes, which is Brighton’s shopping district. It’s a cute little area and we settled quickly into a Starbucks to warm up. It was there, that Ben met us and we finished off the day with one more trip down to the seaside.

And while Brighton may not be for everyone, the drive down there is worth a trip in and of itself with Sussex’s rolling hills, vast farmland and quaint villages which we saw a lot of…because we got lost….more than once. Completely completely worth it!