We were on the road at about half past eleven on Sunday morning, after I had been to play at church. Unfortunately there had been an accident on the motorway, and so it took rather a long time to get there, and by time we had arrived and I had dropped off Nicky and Jake to check in to our hotel, all of the car parks along the seafront had rather long queues for them, so I headed back up to my regular spot at the top of the lanes. I wandered down towards the seafront and Nicky and Jake walked up, and with the help of a few phone calls describing landmarks we were able to meet up, and we went to a place called "Bagelman" for lunch.
We enjoyed having a look around in the lanes, and were able to keep reasonably up to date with tennis news thanks to a combination of radios, TVs in shops, and smart-phone updates, although the 3G was being annoyingly slow. By the time it got into the 3rd set it was all getting a bit too tense, and so we headed back for the seafront and our hotel, where we watched the last few nail-biting games.
Once we'd got over the excitement and had a bit of a rest, we headed back out along the promenade towards the pier for our first foray into the arcades. We were successful on the 2p sliders, and came out with a keyring, as always, but sadly no luck on the grabby machines. Still, Jake did a good job of amassing prize tokens, which were totalled up and tucked away to be added to on another visit.
Walking back along the seafront we went into JB's Diner, where Jake took on the full rack of ribs, and gave a pretty good account of himself. Fed and refreshed, we enjoyed a gentle stroll back along the front to our hotel, where we called it a day (annoying Jake by singing along to Mamma Mia on the TV whilst he was trying to get to sleep!).
We'd decided against the hotel breakfast when booking, and so once we were up and ready to go this morning, we went in search of food, and found it at the All Bar One cafe near the Pavilion. Nicky put us to shame with her healthy fruity granola, whilst I had eggs benedict and Jake had sausages. Highlight of the meal was the fact that the morning cappuccinos came with a little glass of smarties!
After breakfast Jake and I wandered through the Pavilion gardens taking a few photos, before heading into what Jake declared must be one of the largest guitar shops in the country. Nicky made a start on some shopping, and we joined her after a while and had a good look around the lanes, stopping off for a rather nice ice cream. But, the seafront, and in particular the pier was calling to Jake, and so we headed back there so that Jake could add to his prize ticket tally before cashing them in, as well as beat me at Hover Hockey.
We found a beachside cafe for a late lunch, and even though the service there was very slow, we were able to sit in the sunshine and watch the world go by, and the food was good when it came - at least my fish finger sandwich was!
Sadly by this time, it was about time for me to go and fetch the car, Nicky and Jake to fetch the case from the hotel, and for us to head northbound on the A23.
I think Jake was the winner in the shopping and souvenir haul, coming home with a couple of pairs of sunglasses, a ukulele (!), a new pair of Fred Perry shoes (some bright spark pointed out that perhaps we'll be buying Andy Murray shoes before too long now!), and a Family Guy pint glass (thanks to pier prize tokens!).
