I can see the sea

This weekend was the weekend of the big squeeze. My sister, brother-in-law, two eldest nephews and their Irish Setter came to stay with my Mum for the weekend and I came to join them. That makes 6 people, a big dog and 2 cats in a 2-bedroom house. Yes, it’s every bit as claustrophobic as you can imagine.

Especially when Rowan forgets that she’s a dog and decides to sit on the sofa the second you get up to make yourself a drink and then do sad eyes at you so you don’t have the heart to move her.

In an attempt to stave off cabin fever and take advantage of the lovely weather we were in for, we went out for an adventure on the Saturday to Mappleton.

You know how I’m always banging on about people thinking Hull is on the coast? Well it isn’t, it’s on the banks of an estuary, trust me, you don’t want to be paddling in the Humber. But the coast isn’t too far away and when I was younger we were always heading on trips to Hornsea to eat fish and chips and paddle about.

Mappleton is about 10 minutes away from Hornsea but has one major advantage if you have a dog. You can let them off the lead on this beach. Dogs are persona non grata on big public beaches, but they’re allowed in the odd spot here and there and Mappleton is one of them.

To be honest, I think I’d rather set up camp on the beach here than be rammed in by the crowds at Hornsea. The beach is gorgeously sandy, with a few pebbly bits and it only took 2 seconds for me to kick my shoes up, attempt to roll up my jeans (note to self, skinny jeans were not made for paddling, not when you’ve got calf muscles like mine, you don’t stand a chance of rolling them up) and get my feet wet.

The water is a little suspiciously and oddly foamy when the waves come in. It made me feel like I definitely didn’t want to put my hands in it and then touch my mouth. I’m sure it’s not dirty at all, it just didn’t look appealing. But I was happy to stick my feet in and trot about.

Standard blog photo of feet in the sea.

Rowan loved the experience, capering about on the beach like the mad Irish Setter she is, full of seemingly unending energy. There was no getting her in the water however, she was scared of it and would run up the shore and then bark incessantly at the waves as they came rolling in. No amount of cajoling could get her in there and one incident involved my sister and I becoming so preoccupied with getting Rowan in the water that we didn’t see a freakishly large wave coming in and got much more than our ankles wet in the process.

There are rocks to scramble about on but unfortunately Eddie the Ankle Egg prevented me from doing any scrambling. He’s doing really well but only if I move in a forward motion, any attempt to twist my foot and he lets it be known that he’s not happy about it.

After letting Rowan expel some energy we went back to the car, dusted off the sand and headed in to Hornsea to visit Sullivans to get fish and chips. I’m sure there are plenty of fish and chip shops in Hornsea but this is the one that we always went to and the one I will always go to. The chips are gorgeous big thick chunks of potato, loads of grease, terribly bad for you but absolutely perfect.

We ate them on a bench on the seafront, wondering why on earth it wasn’t busier than it was. It was a lovely day, perfect beach weather, not too hot at all but it wasn’t anywhere near as crowded as I thought it would be. Maybe people had packed up and gone to Bridlington or Scarborough for the day. Who knows? I didn’t care as it meant we got a bench to sit on. Rowan wasn’t thrilled about being on her lead but she was soon appeased with an ice cream.

Then it was back in the car to go home, at which point we all seemed to fall asleep. Obviously the sea air tired us all out. Whilst everyone was asleep I snuck outside to sit in the sun and read the next classic on my list and try and fail to take arty pictures of myself.

Then it was pizza out on the decking (sleeping 6 people in a 2 bedroom house is actually much easier than finding room to feed 6 people in a 2 bedroom house) and then an evening of Mum, me and my sister sitting in the kitchen talking, whilst the menfolk watched Jurassic Park.

All in all, the perfect Saturday.