Runswick Bay and Robin Hoods Bay

Day two and it was straight down to the beach early (having failed to get a parking space on a previous occasion I was running this like a military manoeuvre). We were so early the shop wouldn't sell us a bucket for the first hour.

Not that we really needed buckets since Paul took on his first sand engineering challenge of the week and dug a trench to the sea. Which was quite a long way and much admired by children and most Dads on the beach. The others were probably just jealous.

We bumped into a classmate of Tilly's from school and had a chat, watched a man's shoes float away with the tide (it wasn't safe to try and rescue them, honestly) and Phoebe played avoid the dogs, which was a challenge when they all wanted to say hello and pee on your sandcastle. It was a great day though and a cracking beach, in case it's helpful for future North Yorkshire holiday planners.

On the third day we fought through the communication deadspace our house seemed to be in and arranged to meet with my friend and her family in Robin Hoods Bay. It was a fab day involving rock pooling, dog walking (not Phoebe obviously) fossil hunting and fish and chips.

At one point we watched the ice cream van owner kicking over a child's sandcastle. Apparently she had dared to make it where he later planned to park his van. We were agog. And clearly destined to buy ice creams from someone less like a character from That Peter Kay Thing. Evidently the seaside can grind some people down if you sell ice creams long enough.

In the evening we went on a two hour whale watching trip. Or as we shall call it the individual seal watching trip. It was fun though I can't help but feel it was mostly a money making venture. You can't go to Whitby without going out in a boat though, although perhaps the Bark Endeavour would have allowed for more swashbuckling. Maybe next time.

So the week was going well, and I was trying to save money too by taking a flask (yep really) and picnics. Plus I now don't need to pay for foot exfoliation for a bit which is a bonus.