Grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face

The second Monday of our holiday dawned cloudy and misty. We decided to drive over to Falmouth, the other side of the Peninsula. It was cloudy there too and misty over the Carrick Roads. Our first port of call was to be the toilets on the Moor, but they have sadly closed. I have fond memories of our Daughter sitting on a potty there looking around and proclaiming, 'this one's different'. Happy days! We headed for the next lot at the pier, and I examined some memorials with quotes from the second world war on them. These were on the pier not in the loo!
Husband was unsure what to have for lunch, I wanted to go where I went last year, so we parted company, and I enjoyed lunch in the warmth of the Cavendish coffee house. It seemed full of American and German tourists. Then I walked along the main street, in and out of shops, browsing, not buying. I met husband, who still hadn't had lunch. After wandering around a few shops and an arcade together, he decided he would go to the Harbour Lights for fish and chips. It is somewhere where we have gone on and off for years, ever since the first time we went to Falmouth self catering. I decided I would join him perhaps for a drink, but then thought I would just have a child's portion of chips.
They didn't have decaff coffee, so I had a caffeinated one. As we ate we were watching some people in a dinghy which they managed to capsize twice, the whole restaurant customers were on their feet the second time they capsized; but then we realised that the safety boat circling them was actually teaching them how to right a dinghy, basically they were being taught how to sail safely.
There were some interesting little orange 'pod' type boats, going to the big ships in turn. Husband looked them up and discovered that they were RNLI. I struggled to eat all of my chips and thought that the coffee tasted odd.

 The capsized dinghy

one of the big ships

An orange 'pod' in the distance

Boats in Falmouth harbour

Swan and cygnets Swanpool Beach

Later we walked on past Trago Mills, and round the 'new' harbour development. Most of the little shops have gone and it's now restaurant after restaurant. I found a pair of gloves in my pocket, and
actually put them on it was so chilly. We did go in Trago Mills on the way back, but didn't buy anything. We also went into a shop that sold  model boats, but as we don't have a mantelpiece to put one on.... but we did buy a rather nice dolphin, whose tail is a crown cap bottle opener. Just right for J2O.
Having eaten too much for lunch we decided to pop into M&S for a quiche for later. Then we climbed the hill back up to Quarry car park, and headed for the scenic route home. We stopped off at Swanpool for a cuppa, but drank it in the car as it hadn't brightened up at all, the ships anchored just off Falmouth were like ghosts in the mist.
Usually, although I suffer from travel sickness on country lanes, I can cope with the route back, this time though I felt acutely unwell, really bad nausea. I was so glad to get to the straight roads near Culdrose and Goonhilly, but even that didn't help much. I gradually realised, and as another episode has since confirmed, that it was my caffeine sensitivity that caused the terrible nausea. I was glad to get back to the cottage, and it was a few hours before I could face eating.
On the Tuesday it was quite cloudy again, but we went out, and it brightened up. I found a beautiful pair of dungarees for Lydia, and as she had started proper crawling, thought they would be ideal.  they are reversible too. I got lunch at Pels again, and took my chair down to the beach to catch a bit of sun.
Wednesday was a very slow start again. it was a miserable day with patchy rain, we had a cooked breakfast, the later strolled down into the town, we looked for a gift for Nathaniel, the post office in the wharf had toy diggers and fire engines, but we thought they would be too old for him.  Later I bought another salad from Pels and took it back up to the cottage to eat it. We didn't go out again that afternoon, but in the evening got dressed up to go to the Porthminster cafe. Husband started with soup, I had scallops, we both had sea Bass with a jasmine rice and vegetables, husband said he didn't have enough room for a dessert, so had the petit fours which were served on a metal 'tree'. I had a lovely chocolate creme brulee, with a divine mint flavoured cinder toffee, Mmmm!
After coffee we took a slightly different route back to the cottage, more uphill slopes than flights of steps.
Thursday was a better day, and we ended up walking over to Porthmeor. The cafe there, on the far side was advertising a bakery, so we trudged across the sand to investigate. It's something new there, there are lots of chalets, none were occupied, but they were selling food. Of course husband had a pasty, but I chose a goat's cheese and roasted veg baguette, which was not too big, but delicious. We had a piece of their dark choc rocky road, and a coffee each. Husband asked, 'why do we not stay over this side next year?', when I said 'next year? who says we are coming next year?' he corrected it to 'next time'. I said a) the properrties get booked a year in advance and b) those overlooking the beach are very expensive, although they do have parking.

Surf's up

surf school

 

husband

someone having fun

big breakers

gulls

patterns on the beach

We sat watching the waves, it was a tad windy, and watching the surf school. I managed to find a recycling bin for some of the papers, I knew I had seen one, but couldn't find it. So I made use of the one I did find. Later we went down to sit on Porthminster beach for a while, taking the windbreak as it was extremely windy. Husband doesn't much like sitting on the beach, but it is a measure of how the cough had knocked him for six, that he even wanted to come down. He brought his kindle and spent some time people watching.
That evening we walked back across to Porthmeor for a sunset, but it was too cloudy.

Friday dawned cloudy again. Whilst I was in the basement, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor.  I decided that I would take all of the rest of the newspapers up to the big car park at Trenwith, where there are recycling facilities. I set off and at first it was all on the level, but as I got to the Stennack it was uphill. When I reached the footpath up to Trenwith, I wondered if I would make it, I haven't walked up there for at least 30 years. I stopped once to catch my breath, then carried on. I made it, crossed the car park and deposited the papers, plus a couple of plastic bottles.
There were a couple of  hopper type buses by the car park, I wondered whether to hop on one to go back to the town centre, but thought I would have needed one to come up rather than down. I was wondering which way to go back, when I saw someone disappear down a path which I hadn't seen before so I decided to follow, there were a few steps on the way, but at least  was going down. This was part of St Ives I didn't know, but I eventually came out just around the corner from where we were staying, Tregenna Terrace, so I was back where I had started. As I came down Tregenna Hill, I could see that some poor soul had collapsed on the street, but as there were plenty of people around, I didn't go over. When I came out of one of the shops, the person was sitting, back to the wall, knees bent, so obviously someone knew first aid. It seemed to take forever for the first response paramedic to arrive, and I was in Fore Street before I heard the wail of the approaching ambulance. I hope the person was ok, not nice to be ill on holiday.
I bought clotted cream to take home, and was looking for something to take for Nathaniel. There are a few shops selling children's clothes, but at a price. Eventually, I found an outfit in the shop where I had bought Lydia's dungarees. Not cheap, but not mass produced, hand made in Cornwall. There were beautiful dresses for babies, very tempting.
I rang husband who was still in the cottage packing. He said he would get a pasty for lunch, I decided to go back to Beachcomber. It had got very windy, and my skirt kept blowing up. I sat at the wrong table in Beachcomber, every time the door opened my napkin blew away, and I got the full force of the wind round my legs.
Afterwards I met husband and we took our last walk up to the cottage. As I got on with packing and cleaning the cottage, it began to rain. I don't mind leaving so much when it is raining. Gradually we packed the car, then shut the door one final time, and drove down to take the keys. The office was shut, so I dropped the keys in the letter box. we drove along the harbour, up Fish Street, then round to the Stennack and out the back way. That was the first time this year we had used that route.
Later we drove off the A30 to Bodmin, and fortuitously managed to find the chippy where we ate last year.
we didn't meet anyone we knew though. We arrived at Days Inn at a reasonable time, and settled down for a welcome break on our journey home.