Brighton Beach Memoirs

June 21st: Father's Day AND Michael's 36th birthday. I had a very special day planned considering Michael had been gone for so long. We started the day with a big Father's Day breakfast with eggs and bacon, pastries and fruit. Then the plan was to drive down to Brighton Beach which is about a little over an hour away. We started the drive and got stuck in construction traffic (on a Sunday!) which took awhile to get out of. That should have been our first hint to go home! But, we continued on and got to the highway...more traffic but not so bad. Then we got closer to Brighton and the traffic really hit. Apparently there was a bike race from London to Brighton that caused havoc on the highway. It took us almost 1 1/2 hours to drive 7 miles!!! What should have been a short drive turned into 3 1/2 hours in the car. Needless to say everyone was very cranky and very hungry. Aidan and Adeline finally fell asleep to escape their hunger. We made it and then the problem of finding a parking space started. Not only are the roads in England small, the car parks are even smaller. We had to maneuver our 'people carrier' up to the 15th floor of the parking garage before we finally found a space! Then we walked to the boardwalk to find something to eat. Like I said we were all cranky from the hellish drive there, so we ate.

Aidan felt better after eating so he tried feeding the seagulls his fries - not the brightest idea.

I tried lightening every one's mood by pulling out Michael's birthday presents.

And then everyone got happy when I got out the birthday cupcakes! Nothing like sugar to bring everyone around. Icing in the Euro Goatee - so disgusting. Then it was off to the beach.

For how cold the day was, the water was surprisingly warm!

Playing on the big donut statue.

Inside the donut - it's a girl!

Cloudy, cold day!

Here are some of the bikes that hampered our drive to Brighton!

Since it took us so long to get to Brighton we had to leave not long after we got there. We had our babysitter coming so Michael and I could go out to dinner alone. However the traffic home was not that much better. I had left my phone at home so was not able to call our babysitter. We got home about 45 minutes after we told her to be there and she had left. I felt really bad and worse that our day had not gone well. Who knew there would be a bike race on the weekend we wanted to go to Brighton? Not the best Father's Day/Birthday for Michael but hopefully this weekend we can do something to make up for it.