WE WERE DETERMINED TO WALK ALONG THE BEACH!

During the night, we could hear that it was very stormy, with high winds and rain of biblical proportions, made worse by the fact that scaffolding has been put up just along from our room and the wind was making the poles "ring".  I eventually got out and closed the window, which helped a little.  

When we went down to breakfast, it was no better, in fact, if anything, the rain was hammering down even more and then...the fire alarm went off.  The waiters and waitress were scurrying around, one obviously ran off to reception, and the waitress started to tell us to go outside - in the pouring rain!  However, after a few minutes -and we were all dutifully doing as we were told - the alarm stopped and a waiter came back to say that the builders working along the outside of the building had inadvertently set the alarm off.  Phew, it was a relief that we didn't have to go out into the rain, although Mr. HCB said he had the car keys, so we could have sheltered there, if necessary.

We lingered longer than we might have done over breakfast but decided that whatever the weather did, we would be going down to the beach - and would be taking the members of the Silly Saturday Gang with us, because as you may remember, Laura Lamb and BabyJay hadn't seen the sea before.

We sat in the car and put our walking boots on and off we set - with it still raining slightly, but by the time we got to the beach, which is just over the road from our hotel, the rain had stopped, but it was very windy and the sea was whipping the waves up.

We walked for a while and then stopped to watch a little family on the beach - Mum was holding onto the family dog and Dad was chasing after the little girl, who was making her way into the surf.  Fortunately, he managed to catch her and she giggled as he picked her up.

We spoke to them and said that seeing the backpack on Dad's back reminded us of when Mr. HCB used to carry our older son in a similar pack over fifty years ago, although not such a hi-tech one!  We had a lovely conversation with them, and it transpired that they lived in Woolacombe and enjoyed coming to the beach once the holidaymakers had gone home!  The very long beach had very few people on it this morning, many of them with dogs, as they were allowed to be on the beach but didn't need to be on a lead as from today, 1st November.  

As we chatted, we talking about them taking photographs and "making memories" and the Mum said that she was always taking photographs of their little girl, who was now 17 months old.  I then told them about Blip and said it would be a great way to document their daughter's life and she could always make her entries private, so that only family and friends could see them.  She seemed interested, so I gave her one of my Moo cards with details of Blip and she said she would think about it.  Interestingly, Rebecca Cole, has put a post on the Blip Facebook page about getting cards from Moo for this very purpose, so as I always carry some with me, thought it would be worth giving her one.  Do have a look at Rebecca's post - because the cards are great.  

I then took out some of the Silly Saturday Gang to show to their little girl so after telling Mum and Dad about what I had done for BCAM during October, Dad said that he had raised money by colouring his hair pink!!  What are the chances of speaking to someone who knew about BCAM?  He said that he got his wife to shave his head, just leaving a narrow Mohican strip because it had turned orange!  What a delightful couple - and I do hope that she will join Blip - I told her it was well worth doing.  She then asked if I would like her to take a shot of us both holding part of our Silly Saturday Gang, which she kindly did - as you can see in my collage for today.  

For those who know, Woolacombe has a wonderful long beach and the top shot shows this little family, with us holding a few members of the The Silly Saturday Gang on the right.  On the left is a lovely dog called LuLu, a cross between a Red Setter and an Irish Poodle, and we found that out by chatting to her "Mum".  She was a very well behaved dog, unlike several others who were quite yappy and jumped up.  In the middle are the various members of the The Silly Saturday Gang and of course, they were very excited to be at the seaside!  The bottom shot is Mr. HCB trudging along the beach as we were trying to get back before the rain was dropped by those very dark clouds.

A lovely morning - we are sitting in our room at the moment, debating whether to go down and have a swim in the pool and enjoy some of the other delights, and you can see from the extra shot what a great view we have from our room.

“Our happiest moments as tourists 
     always seem to come 
          when we stumble upon one thing 
               while in pursuit of something else.”
Lawrence Block


P.S.  Thank you for all your kind comments, stars and hearts for yesterday's Blip - and thanks again to Sue and Terri for a lovely morning.  Blipmeets are great, so if you haven't had one yet, do try and meet some other Blippers, you won't regret it.