Tenby

We travelled a bit further from Pendine in search of more southern beaches. We tapped 'nearest beach' into the Satnav and Tenby popped up. It wasn't far to Tenby, about 40 minutes.

Upon our arrival we ended up driving through the very narrow streets of the town and back out by the harbour. We could see the beach, but no suitable parking. We ended up parked outside of the town on a road, but not far from the beach.

Tenby looked so pretty, it was a lovely warm day, sunshine, blue sky, blue sea and golden sand. The houses over looking the harbour and the beach were all painted different colours. We felt we could have been somewhere tropical.

There were steep steps down to the beach, but nothing too difficult, Steph just had to make sure Spike didn't pull her too much, she still has to be aware of her knee and taking it easy with the foot.

The beach was practically empty, only a couple of other people with dogs. The dogs enjoyed jumping in and out of the water, too cold for us humans though!

Pendine Sands

We took a short break to South Wales for Steph's birthday and a mini dogs holiday. South Wales is a 3.5 hour journey from our house, so a few stops on the way for Spike and Chewy.

We arrived late afternoon and set out to get directions from the locals to the house as the Satnav only got us so far. The house that we had rented was high up on a hill, a note and a key in the door awaited our arrival. The proprietor was away, but told us to let ourselves in. I guess security is not an issue in the area!

We stayed in a large manor house with it's own exercise pool and hot tub. The house is split into three accommodations, we had the largest part which sleeps 8.

We spent a bit of time unpacking and exploring the house. The pool was housed in what used to be the cellar. We went and had a nosey, the pool was covered with a mat before we knew what had happened, Chewy came running in and straight onto the mat! It all happened in kind of slow motion with Chewy suddenly realising he was sinking! Chewy lept for the edge and Andy ended up dragging him out, a wet but ok dog!

The local beach wasn't far from the house, so we took the dogs for a run. Seems like we had picked a good time of year as there was a sign saying dogs weren't allowed from May to September.

There was another sign that said 'Risk of Explosion!' the beach at Pendine Sands is Ministry of Defence property and part of it is closed to the public. There was enough of the beach open to us and the dogs.

The tide was quite far out, but the dogs managed a swim anyway. There was also a canoe lesson going on just further down.

Steph's 30th

Steph had a brilliant birthday, big thank you to all our family and friends. Andy arranged a birthday meal with family and friends for Steph on the day before. It was really good having everyone together. On the actual day we went to Alton Towers and had an ace time. Steph went on all the big rides except for the Oblivion, Steph really didn't fancy that one! The new ride 'Thirteen' was pretty good, we thought it would be scarier and longer. Thirteen is basically a roller coaster with a few drops so you lose your stomach and then it goes into a tunnel where the track drops twice and then you go backwards. We had to queue a long time for it.

We all got a soaking on the log flume and went home wet and tired after an excellent day out.

We will do a separate report for the trip to Wales.

2010 So Far...

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. We've made a few decisions for 2010 so we're pretty excited and have lots of things to look forward to.

We've nearly finished decorating the lounge, just the stairs and banister to paint. We've got our new suite which is so comfy!

Travel wise, our main holiday this year is Uganda, we are very excited. This is a trip Steph has wanted to do for a few years now so we are finally off to Africa in October. Before Uganda, we are off to Pendine in Carmarthenshire, Wales for Steph's birthday. This will be a good dogs holiday as well. There won't be much walking on this trip though as Steph had to have surgery on her foot and it won't be fully recovered by the time we go at the end of April. We will be going away again for a second dogs holiday when the foot is better. In addition to Steph's birthday trip, we're going to Alton Towers to satisfy our child/fun side as Steph is turning 30.

Andy's team Technical Services FC are doing well in their Sunday league, they hope to get second in the league. Andy's professional team, Newcastle United are already promoted to the premiership, so as you can imagine, Andy is ecstatic. Fingers crossed for Nottingham Forest FC to get automatic promotion as well.

Steph is busy with Uni and everything seems to be going well so far.

Our next report will be Steph's birthday and our trip to Pendine.

Almost forgot to acknowledge it! You'll notice the new look to the blog, hope you like it.