Wales

Our visit to Wales was short, but very sweet. We travelled across the Irish Sea on ferry and spent our first night in the Premier Inn in Holyhead. In the morning, we hiked out to South Stack and spotted puffins on the cliff face thanks to the Royal Bird Watchers (not their real name, but you get the idea).

On our way to our caravan park in Porthmadog, we stopped in at the longest named town in the world. I won’t even try to write it. The name is truly ridiculous.

Our caravan park was right on the beach and full of activities for the kids. They zorbed and did underwater jets at the swimming pool, took Segway lessons, rented pedal karts, and explored the beach for jellyfish. But I think the thing they enjoyed the most was shoving two cent pieces into the arcade machines hoping to win big. It’s great that we can add gambling to their list of firsts for the trip.

Even though it didn’t work out for us to stay with the Wheelers, we were so happy that they were able to catch up for a BBQ at their lovely place in Snowdonia. Ollie didn’t have as nice of a visit as he was looking forward to, but Paul, Elliot and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with our travelling friends that we met in Belize in what seems like years and years ago.

We got to drive through Snowdonia one last time on our way to England. It is such a stunning place and another spot Paul and I would like to return to for hiking or biking one day without the boys. We also stopped in at Llangollen to take a horse-drawn canal boat trip and to check out the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct built by our friend, Thomas Telford. 

We spent the night in a very rural and cosy farmhouse in Haughton where the boys got to run around and play with the owners’ grandchildren and admire their paddock full of horses. That afternoon, we visited a pretty impressive sculpture park with dragons sitting atop real cars and massive angels constructed out of knives as a statement against domestic violence. For dinner, we went to the local pub where I had the most amazing pasta dinner of the whole trip, maybe my life!