The Greatweys!: Weekend at Lands End

When I was little my grandparents spent the summer(s?) on an island off Swartz Bay called Goudge Island, and we spent a week? with them with just us three kids without our parents. I was probably 3 or 4.
I have the best memories (minus the wasps nest). We would hang out on the dock, throwing long kelp over the side for the crabs to climb up and pull them up quickly, whereupon they would then run across the dock and we would catch them (Chris lost the tip of a finger). We'd lean over and catch little jellyfish that looked like raw eggs (transparent with a yellow "yolk") and have jellyfish fights. We'd poke fingers and feet in anemones. And I remember rocks covered with the the brightest starfish... every last inch.

So yeah, idyllic.

I've been trying to recreate this since we had kids, every summer mumbling something about a trip to the rock pools, like when I was little. I'd start to look on airbnb or VRBO but would get lost in a maze of listings, and hate paying those booking and cleaning fees for just two nights! And I wanted something dog friendly and to not have to stress about the ferry. It never happened.

Then I was working on the island one Friday, and when I left I said to Si that if I could organize it, I wanted him to be ready to join us that night. He could walk on. Just think about it. I threw some heavy things in the car in case since he would be walking on with the stroller, two kids and a dog. He wasn't keen (si likes staying home as much as I like to go away... possibly replace need with like above). But in the ferry lineup in the morning I gave myself 5 minutes to google a B&B in Sydney (near Gough). I found one, reasonable (2 bdrm, $110/night all in). Emailed, and had a call as I got off the ferry. Perfect. We're in.

Work, negotiate wi Si. After work I stopped by the B&B before picking up Si @ the ferry. It was perfect. Just on the end of lands end, where its so quiet and all the houses have horses or organic farms or flowers in the stands at the ends of their driveways where you put the money in jars. The B&B was perfect. It allows dogs. Totally private above the garage. One mansion between us and the beach, with the trail right outside. Horses and chickens. Heaven. The owner came by with all the groceries we could need for a weekend in place of cooking us breakfast.

And finally, we did it. The perfect island weekend. We hung out on the beach and caught crab and poked dead jellyfish (they were big here!). We walked, fed Hamford the horsie grass.

And Sunday, fathers day, we walked to a winery opposite the Chalet (a crazy $$ restaurant, which happens to have a lovely casual winery as a neighbour with VINES for the kids to run up and down, a patio with inexpensive lovely simple food, fountains to splash and a guy playing guitar to Riley's delight). Perfect meal, perfect walk, perfect day.

I had my car because of work and we went to see Zozoes (our old dog we had to find another home for)... and she was so lovely and so loved, I couldn't be more grateful, and thankful that we finally took that big step two years before to find her a new kid-free home.

And we picked BOXES of strawberries, the first of the season, at their most tasty peak. Vans was surprisingly uninterested in eating (just squeezing them in the hand), but Riles and I were picking daemons!

So there you go. We had our perfect weekend. What I'm extra thrilled with is that it was so easy. Now we know the B&B, its dog friendly and near enough the ferry we can actually bike on with the double chariot and tenge, and have ourselves a lovely simple weekend with nothing and everything to do, without the fuss in trying to get someone to dog sit and the added lineups worry/expense of taking our car on the ferry.

Thrilled.

(now, I want to go again, especially as its harvest time for grapes! Si, you reading this?)