It’s good being married to a Cornishman. It means I get to spend more than my fair share of time in sunny Kernow. But last week we embarked on a week-long holiday with my family: mum, dad, Harry and his wife Ting, Adam, his wife Claire and their daughter Emily. Oh and Owen the French Bulldog! Our base was a lovely, spacious, hot-tubbed villa in Retallack Resort a few miles out of Padstow. The main reason for this first family holiday since Austria in 2008 was to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday but it was also just a nice excuse to spend lots more time together than we can usually organise. Below the birthday boy cuts into one of Ting’s delicious cakes on an inconveniently-low chair.

I’ve not got a whole lot to write about the week so it’s mainly just photos.

Day 1: A pretty little village named St Mawgan with a picturesque church, some impressive hanging baskets and huge hydrangea flowers.

Then we visited Mawgan Porth beach where Owen loved his first experience of the sea!

Harry then put a great deal of effort into building a sandcastle fort for Owen:

Day 2: We enjoyed our first pasties in very busy Padstow. Fortunately for us, most of the crowds seemed to stay in the town and far fewer made it down to the beach.

Day 3: Harry, Ting, mum, dad, Dean and I embarked on a tour further along the peninsula. First stop was St Ives which, again, involved busyness and pasties. Ting, however, opted for a pulled pork baguette which was callously pilfered by a cunning, swooping seagull!

Next we journeyed down to Land’s End which had become rather themepark-esque in the years since we’d last visited as kids. Parking was a steep £6 and there was quite the array of ‘attractions’, fast food outlets and souvenir opportunities. Apart from a few of our party being lured by the aroma of fresh donuts, we settled mainly for the option of a short walk down to the tip of the country. I loved the colours of the waves crashing against the cliffs and gorse- and heather-covered ground.

Our final destination was the village of Marazion from where we anticipated a view of St Michael’s Mount. Unexpectedly, though, the tide was out so we were able to walk the cobblestoned causeway over to the island and its castle. (The top of this website has spliced together 3 videos showing low, mid and high tide.)

Dad decided to try out his crocs taking a short cut but was defeated half-way across.

 

Harry borrowed dad’s coat and discovered it contained winter woolies and a compass which he made good use of.

 

Being late in the day, the castle was closed so we just settled for a quick stroll around.

Day 4: This was notionally meant to be dad’s birthday but it rained more or less all day long so we mainly stayed in, playing card games and watching a bad film. However, we did go out for brunch at the resort’s cafe and had a lovely dinner at The Traveller’s Rest near Mawgan Porth.

The rain finally stopped in the evening so Harry, Ting, Dean and I took an after-dinner wander on Mawgan Porth beach and they were very obliging photographic subjects for me!

Day 5: At Harlyn Bay, Dean decided to rent a surfboard for the morning. He said the waves were very big which I think means he wasn’t ever so successful!

At lunch time we all met up at one of Rick Stein’s restaurants in Padstow: St Petroc’s Bistro.

Day 6: It was a windy one. We attempted the beach/riverside of Rock, an upmarket coastal destination on the opposite side of the estuary to Padstow, but didn’t last very long before retreating to a pub in St Kew. Although there aren’t any photos of her on here, Emily was by now getting much more used the the beach. She particularly enjoyed the phenomenon of her foot ‘disappearing’ when covered in sand and then reappearing when she wriggled!

After this, Dean and I headed to Port Isaac, home of Doc Martin. We’ve never seen Doc Martin. So essentially just another picturesque village. We liked it though. I finally felt warm enough to enjoy an ice cream!

Day 7: The Webster-Patrick party said its goodbyes and Dean and I headed to his home town of Torpoint – the closest bit of Cornwall to Plymouth. We weren’t done with beaches though… we took a walk with June (Dean’s mum) and Fran on their local beach, Tregantle. Windy but lovely blue skies!

Day 8: Before heading back home, we had a day out with June and Fran at Mount Edgcumbe’s Classic Car Rally. With a little local knowledge we were fortunate to skirt the two-hour queues in and out. It was a packed event with all kinds of vintage vehicles plus stalls, bouncy castles, food trucks. Dean’s gran, Bobbie, was (wo)manning a Cancer Research stall:

I’ll leave you with probably-rather-too-many car photos! The odd crops and repetitive angles are down to me trying not to include too many people since many owners were sitting in deckchairs by their prized possessions.