Sunday Afternoon Outing

One of my favourite movies when I was a kid was "Mary Poppins." The first time I saw it, I was 7 and my dad had taken us out to see it on Mother's Day to give my mother a break from us. On the way back home, we saw a For Sale sign that lead us to the house my parents bought and still own to this very day.

My favourite bit in "Mary Poppins" is when they go on the outing with the chimney sweep guy and all manner of fun ensues, like jumping into chalk drawing worlds or riding off on Merry-Go-Round horses. "Mary Poppins" set my standard for what outings should be about - fun, silliness, imagination, new experiences.

This Sunday, Peter and I took Toby for an outing on Barleycove Beach on the Mizen Penninsula. It's a great beach, especially on a storm-threatening, gale-force-winds Sunday afternoon. The beach is surrounded by sand dunes and to get to the beach, you have to cross over a pontoon bridge because the tides will separate the beach from the land.

We were nearly the only people there and of course, the other people had an off-leash dog who came over to start some trouble with Toby. They stayed to one area of the beach and we stayed to another, so we were eventually able to let Toby run free. He had great fun chasing his Kong bar and barking at me warningly when I went into the edge of the water. Peter took a few photos and everyone got a lot of enjoyment from the outing.

I wore my wellies, because everything is more fun when you wear wellies and it lets me wade into the water a little bit. Standing in the water, fully dressed, is something that amuses me much more than it should. I guess because I'm getting my feet wet but with no discomfort. At least until that first wave that misjudge, which ends up soaking me to my waist.

This always happens and you'd think I'd be wise to it by now, but you'd be wrong. I'm a very slow learner, especially where carefulness is involved. But that's okay, even spending half the outing in wet jeans did nothing to diminish our fun. Don't believe me? Check out the picture: