Day Trips despite the Rain..

So, me and hubby have a week off work, this of course meant the sun would well and truely hide and we would have an abundance of rain!
We were off for our annual stay at my Mums, and we were going to make the most of our stay there!

We caught the train to Fareham, a nice easy train journey, and Mum met us at the station to take us to her new flat. After a drop of lunch and a viewing round the new place, we thought we'd pop out for a quick game of bowling. I started well and the game was mine for the taking, but I got pipped to the post by hubby, beaten by 1 point!

Wednesday we took a day trip to Arundel, a wonderfully quaint old fashioned town. There was the annual corpus christi flower festival. the whole church aisle was covered in flower petals depicting the chosen themes of the olympics and titanic.

we had lunch at one of the many lovely little cafes. it was a pleasure to stroll around the idylic town, with its little independant shops. such a nice change from a bog standard town, and the weather held out for us too.

On thursday the weather was dire, so we took a trip to Southsea. Our first stop off was at the National history museum, to got to the butterfly house. This too successful as apparantly they like it warmer too, to get the muscles going in their wings. So we only spotted a couple flying around, and saw a newly hatched one, but otherwise they were closed up trying to keep warm!

We braved the wet to get to 'The hole in one' a very popular little cafe, but everybody else had the same idea too as it was packed. We were able to get a table outside (+ undercover), and were offered blankets and hot-water bottles to keep us cosy (a novel but fantastic idea!) well worth it too as their selection of cakes are devine!
We went on to the Blue Reef aquarium, and as it was a trusty place to visit in he wet weather, that was packed too! We managed to arrive just in time to see the otters being fed, and then worked our way round checking out the various aquatic creatures.

By the time we left the had stopped, but it was blowing a gale instead. We managed a stroll by the sea -front, the wind being so powerful it was blowing the waves up and over the pavement, which many kids found amusing, and got a soaking!

Friday we planned a trip to Chichester. Their infamous flower festival, which is on every other year. This was so worth queuing up to get into. It is literally breath-taking when you see the abundance of flower displays which fill every area of the Cathedral! This years theme was 'Classic books' and they covered over 50 different classic titles. The most impressive display to me was 'the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe'. It was a massive display + depicted each imortant aspect of the story.

After seeing half of the displays we popped out to stop for coffee and food. We then checked out the craft tents, which were just about staying upright in the winds! However when we tried to enter the Cathedral again, weren't able to. We had forgotten there was to be a Royal visit, so for security reasons they were't letting anymore people in. We tried each entrance in vain, and in the end Mum + hubby kicked up a fuss to a couple of officials, as we couldn't hang around for an hour to be let in again, we had paid + only seen half of it so were really disappointed. Their persistance worked though, and the guy managed to get us back in. So not only did we get to see the rest of the displays, we didn't have to endure any of the crowds and we caught a glimpse of Prince Edward + Sophie.

Before going back, we made a de-tour to make a quick visit to my great-aunt.

Saturday we stayed local, and had a walk around Fareham town. After popping back for some lunch we went to Dunelm mills to have a look at all the homeware goods. Then it was another bracing sea front walk in Lee-on-Solent.

Sunday it was back on the train home again. Back to reality, and back to work! But it was all good fun while it lasted....