A Twin Dad Blog

On day two Amy drove us out to Robert Moses beach on the south side of the island. The minivan came in very handy as it seats seven and easily took us and all our beach stuff. We packed deck chairs, a parasol, buckets and spades, sandwiches, drinks and about a hundred towels. We had so much stuff that it would have been hard to carry it all but Any had small golf to push it all down to the beach on. 

The sea was warm and wavey and the sun was shining.  It has been so hot and humid on this holiday that it is hard to remember that we are in New York and not Florida, where Any and Marques lived last time we visited them.

Because the South side of the island gave the Atlantic the waves were huge,  big enough for body boarders.  We didn't have one but had a great time jumping up and down in them.  I went out to where they were breaking and let them knock me off my feet a few times. The girls had a fantastic time, it was so warm they stayed in for hours.

We were all in bed by eight pm local time on our first night in Long Island. With the five hour time difference this was the equivalent of going to bed at one am having been up since five the pervious morning.

Despite this all four of us were up again at three am and the girls were hungry so we made toast which none of us felt like eating once it was ready. Luckily somehow everyone went back to sleep until the more reasonable hour of six am.

On the first day we took the girls ice skating at a local rink. Emily had plenty of old pairs of skates for them to borrow and we adults were able to hire them. Even little Logan had a go. He is our four year old nephew whom we were meeting for the first time.

Klara did great at skating, she was determined to learn and kept leaving the push-along support behind. I gave her some pointers on how to balance etc and for once she listened and really went for it. By the end she was going round in circles unaided with everyone else.

In the afternoon Marques took us over to his sister Heidi's house to use the pool. All of the houses around here are detached and set in their own grounds, i haven't seen any teraces even in the areas Amy calls sketchy. Heidi's house is very grand and set in acres of beautiful gardens with a lovely swimming pool, trampoline, treehouse etc. It gave me proper "The Graduate" vibes.

We had a pleasant afternoon lounging by the pool, its similar to the one I had growing up except much warmer, partly because this one is Jesus and partly because long island is a lot warmer and more humid than Wiltshire. . The girls loved it and were splashing around for hours. They are really quite good swimmers now it was such a nice place to be, it made a great start to the holiday. .

We had a surprisingly smooth journey. We were expecting problems as we knew there was a strike of the refueling staff at Heathrow and also a rolling roadblock on the M4 in protest at petrol prices. Seriously it's like living in the seventies at the moment, the country badly needs competent leadership and if I were in charge...

But I digress.  We got to Heathrow in plenty of time and queued for check-in, then for passport control and then for security. The girls were surprisingly well behaved throughout all this. Freya set of the alarms and had stand in a booth to be scanned, she quite enjoyed it. We had time to sit and eat our sandwiches before heading to the gate where Orsi got randomly selected for a security check.

The plane was full but boarding was well organised and was called in stages. Our 767 was operated by Delta  and had entertainment screens in the backs of the headrests.  I watched Morbius and Ghost Busters Afterlife while Freya beside me watched 101 Dalmations for probably the 101st time.

Between snacks and entertainment the girls were well distracted on the flight and the eight hours passed quite easily,  a glass or two of wine helped it along (for me).

The biggest queue of the day was for US border control at JFK. The line was long but kept moving. It took nearly an hour to get through.  An Australian couple in front of us praised the girls patience, we were all a bit tired by this point and they did really well. 

When it was our turn we had our pictures taken and our fingerprints scanned and answered questions about our trip and all the terrorism and drugs we are not planning on doing. Orsi had printed a whole dossier of vaccine certificates, Estas etc which was very handy.  Then someone said they needed to take our passports and that we should collect our luggage and go to another desk across the room.  We were a bit surprised and panicked by this but when we got there it turned out to be because Orsi had told them she had bananas with her. We handed them over and were free to go. 

Devauden is a small village in Chepstow, Wales where they have an annual music festival which is very family friendly. We went along this year to meet up with Sam and family who live quite close.

We arrived first despite horrendous traffic on the M4 around Bristol. It had rained on and off all day and the camping field was all long wet grass when got there. We spent some time choosing the right pitch which would have space for both families and be fairly flat, not to close to the toilets but not too far away from the toilets..

Luckily the rain stopped and by the time we had the tent up the sun was even out. The girls were very helpful with getting the tent up, it needs at least two but was easier with two more to act as anchors and pull various ropes when told to. Sam, Matt, Eloise and Zoe arrived and got themselves set up too.

The festival itself is a short walk from the camping field and takes place on common ground around the village hall. The hall itself operates a bar in the evenings and that was our first stop after getting our wrist bands. There was a big children's play area next to the bar so the kids could go off and explore that and have a go on the zip line while Sam and I queued up for drinks.

They're is a lot for children to do at the festival, including a bouncy castle and slide, craft activities, circus games and all sorts. not all of it was open on Friday night, or at least we told the girls some of it wasn’t, so after a play the girls and Orsi went back to the tent early, I say early, it was hours past their usual bedtime and they didn’t go to sleep very quickly at all.

I joined Sam, Matt, Eloise and Zoe up at the main stage. the festival has a clever arrangement where the main arena is a  large marquee with stages at either end so that when one band finishes the next one starts right away and all you have to do is turn around. The headliners on Friday night were Rusty Shackle. a band local to the area who had a banjo and played a sort of Welsh Folk Rock. I enjoyed it immensely, it was just great to be in front of live music again after a couple of years of lockdowns etc.

Despite the late night the girls were up at around five the next morning. There was a second bar operating inside the main stage area and I did not wake up quite so early. By 8am we were all awake and they were getting restless so Orsi said we should go for a walk to prevent them from waking up the whole camp. the walk she found to follow looked pretty easy and was 3 kilometres long. 

What the map didn’t show was the gradient, the walk started by heading downhill into a deep valley where we crossed a river, then all we had to do was come up the other side. it was a very pretty walk through woodland and orchards and with great views when we finally reached the top. when we got back to the tents Sam and fam were waking up.  

We brought our stove so we could have coffee but all we had for breakfast was Pain AU Chocolat, a camping staple of ours. We were glad when we found out we could get breakfast in the village hall, now operating as a café. Big bacon sarnies and cups of tea and coffee were most welcome. and we were back at the playground which was just opening up so the kids went off to play again.

I think Klara and Freya had the most wonderful Saturday of their lives at the festival, they had the big playground with zip line, they went on the bouncy castle and the bouncy slide, they tried plate spinning and unicycle riding, they watched a circus performance, and a mad scientists show, did crafts and had a go at grinding an organ. Eloise and Zoe had a go at axe throwing. We also watched Morris dancing as well as a couple of the bands. There were burgers and curry for lunch.

Among other bands we saw Francesca's Word Salad, a very funny singer who’s songs were all full of innuendo who the children didn’t notice at all, there were quite a lot of kids in the audience and I think she had to tailor her set a bit.

Late in the afternoon Klara discovered another craft tent where they were decorating paper plates to make scales for a big chinese dragon which would parade through the festival. they were packing up when she went to ask if she could do a plate so they asked if she’d like to be in the parade instead, She and Freya both held up a bit of dragon and paraded all through the festival with all the circus people, dancers, and lots of hangers on following along behind and the parents trying to keep up.

In the evening Orsi and the girls went back for another not too early night and I watched Cut Capers with Sam, Matt and their girls. The next morning Klara and Freya slept in until nearly 8. We all had a really good time , it was nice to have a camping trip and the festival was so well organised and friendly with so much to do. I am hoping to do a bigger one next year off the back of this success, possibly Beautiful Days. 

Me to 6yo: Eat your dinner.

6: first I have to push this cork up my trouser leg.