Brownsea Island

Today we ventured to Brownsea Island with our friend Margie. We had a fun time with her and it was nice to have some company (and help). We took the train into Poole and then walked to the Quay. After purchasing our tickets for the ferry, both Margie and I had misplaced our tiny little 2in. tickets that we were apparently supposed to hand the guy when boarding. The attendant handed them to each of us along with some brochures so I think the wind blew them away. Ha, then they said they would not let us on the ferry without our tickets. (We seriously bought them two minutes prior and the boarding area is several yards from the ticket booth and it wasn't at all busy today.)  We found one on the ground but the lady said "what if someone finds the other one on the ground and uses it?" So Margie said, "Fine, I'll buy another." And cranky woman relented with a sigh and said, "Ugh, that's okay. Here you go."  We were on our way, just in time!

After trying to weasel our way onto one of the ATV rides (apparently it is just for the elderly or disabled but it looked like fun), we set out. There is a castle that apparently is owned by a private party now. The deal was that they could lease it if they restored it. I guess they broke the rules and put bathrooms in and it is now like a 5 star hotel that they allow their "partners" (staff) of the Waitrose grocery store and other entities they own to stay there. There is a little church that just uses candles for light and some cottages that the workers now live in. We went on a little Boardwalk through the wetlands and then came across loads of peacocks just wandering around closeby. I was a little leery because some of them seemed disgruntled and I didn't want them to attack us or something. Regardless, they are such beautiful creatures.

Brownsea Island has these guided walking tours and self-guided nature walking trails. Margie went on the guided tour and the kids and I did a little walking loop. The island is famous for the red squirrel although we did not see any today. There were lots of neat little wooded forts and good climbing trees.

Ethan took interest in this little blonde girl in a pink coat with a black and white animal print French hat and it was cute how he kept trying to get her to play with him. She was acting shy though and wanted to hold her moms hand and stay with her mom. Bless his heart, he kept trying though and didn't want to walk on ahead because he wanted to hang out with this little girl. Then he kind of transplanted himself into this preschool class that was on a field trip there and was a bad influence and got all the kids to play in some ash. 

We met back up with Margie and had lunch at this lovely little cafe with pretty good food. They had a buch of baked goods just laying out on this table and Ethan grabbed a scone. Ha, that's one way to get what you want.

Poor Ethan was all excited to go to "the beach" today and use their new sandcastle buckets and tools. However, it was a pebble beach so it wasn't really what we expected. He was so desperate to use his bucket and shovel and rake that he was loading the walking path pebbles into it and playing with those on the ground.

Then after late brief (and Hailey's non-existent second) naps, we loaded into the car with Margie. And proceeded to sit in the car for 30min. trying to figure out how to put the car in drive. It turned out that the problem was that you need to have your foot on the brake while hitting the start button (ok, I'm used to having my foot on the brake when you go to put the car in drive but not to start the car!). Ha, Margie and I were trying everything we could think of, pushing buttons, etc. We can laugh about it now. We survived the 30min. Drive to The Olive Branch and went straight there for Jim's going away shindig. That place is cool, I've been there 3times now. It is pretty close to Chris' work so they go there a lot. Straightaway, Hailey managed to spill my full beer (I hadn't even taken a sip) by pushing a menu into my glass and tipping it over. Unfortunately, Jered and Catherine on the other side of the table got a stream of beer on them which got their coats, etc. Party foul! I felt bad. Went to bed pronto, I was exhausted, it had been a full day.