Why Wait For the Sun to Come Out? Embrace the Weather (Now!)

It can be tempting to open the curtains on a morning, see the rain, and cancel plans to go out. Why wait for the sun? Embrace the weather now and find something to do whatever is happening outside.

Today is the last day of our holiday here in Scotland – smack bang in the middle of our summer holidays. The weather has been pretty terrible, most of the time. Every single day, rain was forecast. Luckily, some days, it rained just a little or the showers came while we were indoors. However, for me, it wasn’t so much of a problem as I’ve been almost entirely focused on getting my university work completed, proofread and submitted. I finally did so last night, just before midnight. So, we knew that today would be our final chance to get out and about.

“Where are we going?” came the chorus of children in the back of the car.

“A magical mystery tour!” was my response.

To be honest, we really didn’t have a plan in mind. Just drive was as far as we had discussed the day, which had started with breakfast (more like brunch as we ate at 11 am!) of bacon, Lorne sausage, black pudding, mushrooms, scrambled eggs and tomatoes. We grabbed a few packets of crisps and our drinks bottles before setting off.

First stop: the beach.

When I say beach, really it was loads of rocks and then the sea. The kids absolutely loved exploring the rockpools, searching for anything moving. It didn’t matter that it was windy and a little chilly. With windswept hair and wet feet, no one whinged at all.

“This is amazing!”

“This is the best part of the holiday so far!”

“Wow! This is fun… and educational!” (That wasn’t a quote from me; I promise!)

Next stop: West Kilbride.

Forgetting it was a Sunday, we were looking forward to finding some craft shops, but everything was closed. Except for Coop (where I chatted to the shop assistant about my home town in North Yorkshire) and the pubs. We wandered around anyway, searching for anything of interest. In one of the pub car parks, we spotted a wall and decided to peer over it. We spotted a clearing of luscious green grass and a little stream. Venturing down there, we read that it was the site of a mill that had burnt down in the early 20th century. Looking in the little stream, evidence of the old mill was possibly found as there were lots of old black bricks. We even found a reel, which we think may have come from there. The sun actually shone quite nicely while we were here, and we found ourselves removing layers for perhaps the first time this holiday.

Upon hearing our English accents, two teenage girls asked if we were from England and then if we knew Yarmouth. Both were excited to chat, especially when we said we were from Norfolk.

Next stop: Largs

Our last stop was Largs. We saw the ferry leaving just as we arrived, and then happened upon a funfair – well, five different rides on the seafront anyway.

My question “Shall we stop here?” was met with a resounding “YES!!!!” and so I found a space in the nearest car park and we head out to explore. One ride each and then we saw the ice cream stand that also sold doughnuts. One final treat on the last day of our Scottish holidays… as we were waiting for the ice cream to be prepared, we witnessed a group of seagulls attack a family who had doughnuts. It looked so funny. Karma definitely paid me back for laughing… as we sat on the bench with our snack, a seagull landed on my head and clawed my face. It left empty-handed/clawed though… except for a trace of my blood, perhaps. Despite this, it was fun, with the kids loving watching the ferries coming and going as well as some stone skimming.

Ok, so our magical mystery tour didn’t feature the best weather – we are now windswept and a bit cold. However, we did have fun despite the conditions. This led me to think that we really shouldn’t have to wait for improvements before doing the things we want to… storms and torrential rain aside, we will pack for all eventualities and have fun. And we’d encourage you to do the same as today was the best day (according to the kids).