On our first day, we set off with Ernie for a wander around. We needed to call in at the train station to pick up tickets that we had ordered. Naturally, we had to look at the trains, run around d the lifts and stop for a cup of tea and an ice cream for Ernie. Whenever a train passed through the station, we had to race out to see it, often with Ernie on his scooter. The weather was forecast to be changeable and so our plans were volatile. The next stop was the Turner Contemporary gallery where Ernie headed straight for the crisps, so we sat down for another cup of tea.
Then we moved on to a 'soft play' for lunch and then returned to the flat via the park when the clouds threatened.
Ernie is now proficient on his scooter and takes some keeping up with. I can't remember the last time I ran anywhere, but in the last few days, I have done quite a bit of running.
Our next day included a ride on the Loop - a circular bus route round Thanet. When we came into Ramsgate, we could see something was a foot in the harbour. We discovered that we had fallen across the 75th anniversary of the rescue of soldiers from Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo). Some of the boats that made the trip 75 years ago were about to repeat the trip. It would have been interesting to see what was going on, but with Ernie on his way to the Hornby visitor centre, we couldn't change our plans. Hornby was quiet, so Ernie had the 'Thomas' trains to himself and enjoyed the Scalectrix - he can now operate them quite well with the hand control. He must have enjoyed previous visits because he demanded 'lunch' in a rather regal manner and marched off to the restaurant.
OVerdict, we were woken by a 4.2 magnitude earthquake which was just off Ramsgate. Pat thought that it was a badly balanced washing machine starting to spin!
On Thursday, Ernie was at his childcare but would leave early to meet us at another exciting but distant playground. We walked from our flat around the coast discovering new parts of Margate and a new restaurant.
Helen dropped Ernie off by the playground with his scooter.
On the way back, we stopped on the beach to build cand castles for half an hour - this mostly takes the form of Nana building a castle or sand pie and Ernie jumping on them!
We had promised Ernie a trip on the 'Blue Train', the high speed train from Margate to London which runs on the HS1 line from Ashford to London. He chose to go to the Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which he has been to a number of times. He obviously enjoys it because as soon as we got in, he was away running around over several levels with Pat trying to find him! Fortunately, there is lookout on the main door watching for unaccompanied children leaving the building! John and Pat took it in turns to slip out for a little shopping in Covent Garden!
This trip has been a first in that Ernie has let John put him to bed, so that Mummy and Daddy could go out without having to wait for him to be asleep. It's going to be especially useful when his sibling arrives in September.
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