The Gower Peninsula is about 70 Sq miles in size and sticks out from South Wales into the Bristol channel. It is classified as an 'Area of Outstanding National Beauty' within the UK and in fact was the first area to receive this designation in 1956. The weather took a turn for the better this past week and with a 'Proper British Summer' in swing (at least for a few days) we decided to take trip to the Gower.
As is often the case, I overplanned and had too many 'options' identified for the day - at least too many for a family with 4 young kids in a car on the first nice weekend in a while that also co-incided with the first weekend off school. (everyone was out and there was a lot of traffic) I am also not as adept as Kelly in planning car rides (snacks, in car entertainment) so unfortunately while the weather started off great, the atmosphere inside the car was stormy.
We drove through Swansea, and then toured through a small seaside village called Mumbles. From there we drove further down the peninsula and settled on going to a beach at Port Eynon Bay. It is one of 4 Blue Flag beaches (rating for quality beaches) on the Gower. We spent a good amount of time here having lunch, playing in the sand and water at very low tide. (see pictures below). A very good beach for kids as the car park is only about a minute walk to the beach.
Here is a video. Excuse my miss-pronouciation of 'Port EYnon (as in Eye).
From here, I wanted to go down and check out what many consider to be the crown Jewel beach of the Gower - Rhossili Bay. We found it, but due to the lateness of the day, and drive home we decided to skip actually going down to the beach on this trip. I definitely want to come back to this place again at some point.
Picture below is the view of Rhossili Bay. The second picture is the church that sits just above the bay, and overlooks it.
You know the weather is bad this summer when Welsh people are complaining about how much rain we have been getting:) Therefor when there is a chance of a nice day on a weekend we try and get out and do something as a family. This past weekend Sunday was looking good so we decided to go exploring and check out another somewhat obscure local ruins that is open to the public, but a little more off the beaten path: Old Beaupre Castle
It was a fun 20 min drive from our house along overgrown country lanes. The structure was a medival home first built around 1300 and then retrofitted into a Tudor manor house in the 1600's. Like many castles in Wales it is managed by CADW, however it isn't accessible or visited like many of the more prominenent castles. It is accessed via the Welsh public footpath system that networks across England and Wales. The castle was about a 1/4 mile walk from the access point at the road, through green grassy fields of grazing cattle.
A video:
After the castle, we decided to meander in a not so direct path back to our house. We ended up heading down to Llantwit Major beach. You might recall that we posted about this beach here on a somewhat rainy and dismal day in early May. This is what it looks like when the weather is nice! The boys loved the wind surfers!
Since Noah's birthday was officially on a monday/school day, we decided to do the main part of the celebration this past weekend on Saturday. Our luck with the weather was good and it stayed dry for our day trip up to The National Showcaves Center for Wales about an hours drive from our house. Noah brough along his friend Emrys as well. We spent the day here - exploring the tourist caves and the large dinasour park. After we got home we opened presents and had cake!
Today on his actual birthday, the weather cleared up after lunch so after the kids got off school, Kelly took them down to Southerndown beach for an hour or so to play before we had a birthday dinner of pancakes - Noah's favorite food!
After about 7 months of process and paperwork, today I was naturalized as a US Citizen in Los Angeles California! I celebrated with Kelly's family this evening back in Coto de Caza.
Its been about 3 months since my achilles surgery so I thought I would try a light hike in the mountains around Bend. I chose to head up to the Tam MacAuthor Rim trail which is about 20 minutes out of Sisters Oregon. Its still early season for this altitude. There was snow right down to the parking lot at 6500 ft. The snow was good and solid up to the top of the rim. at 7700 ft. Weather around was very unsettled, but made for pretty skies. The achilles held well with no pain!
I'm back in Bend for a week with work, and this weekend Bite of Bend was on! Lots of great food, local brews and music with friends from work!
