“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world."

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

It was the beach trip that almost wasn't. We had already had a couple full days of sightseeing after all.  "We can be home by dinner time if we head back now…"  It was decided that we would eat our boxed lunch in the shade and sit for a few minutes and reassess.  

After our break we loaded kids and dogs and headed out, resigned to wrapping up our trip if the Dad driver needed to.  But after a few miles I noticed the car was not pointing north after all.  Instead, the buildings began sporting pastel hues and we spotted the occasional palm tree even.  Yes – in England! 

And then, the water came into view and all talk of heading home was long forgotten. 

This was waterfront in Hastings and the 'sand' was manmade. More like a super thick layer pea gravel actually.  No one was complaining though.  At the end of that trek were icy white topped waves to splash through on a warm day.  After they were all splashed out we explored the boardwalk area and hit up the ice cream stand.  After which some very happy kids piled into the car and dozed all the way home, windows down and wind blowing hair dry.