Our Weekend in Brighton: Fun in the Sun!

Our Weekend in Brighton

Tyler and I wanted to find a special place to get away before he has to step out the front door for a while so I did a little research and found a place called "Brighton". I asked around the squadron and no one had really heard of it or visited it. From all the webpages I viewed, Brighton looked like the San Francisco of England and Tyler and I both LOVE San Fran. 

I checked the weather religiously this past week and every day it looked like Saturday was calling for sunny skies and a high of 55-56 degrees F (this is shorts weather for us!). Brighton is south of London and about a 2.5 hour drive from where we live at RAF Lakenheath. It could've turned into a day trip but Tyler was able to find a pet-friendly hotel right across from the famous Brighton Pier so Buddy could tag along! 

We both wore shorts on Saturday (can you believe it?!). As soon as we pulled into the Brighton area we knew we'd love the place. There were parks everywhere filled with people doing everything you can imagine: throwing a frisbee, kicking a ball, biking, picnicing, playing music, etc. The town was full of life! 

As we neared the oceanfront, we noticed the seagulls everywhere...made me feel like I was back in Oregon :) We drove next to a place call the "Royal Pavilion/Palaces". It's right near the Pier but we didn't get a chance to tour around inside since we were there for only a day...I guess that gives us an excuse t go back again, right?!

Royal Palace

First things first. We drove straight down to the beach so we could lay out in the sun and throw the frisbee. If there's anything I've learned about the weather here is that if it's nice out, take advantage of it because it'll probably get cloudy and cold VERY soon. So we did just that, we found a parking spot (long story-I hate British parking lots/paying for parking here) and hiked it down to the beach with Buddy and frisbee in tote. 

Looking up the beach...there were a gazillion people on the beach on the other side of the pier. We ended up on the quiet side.

Beautiful outside!

Buddy was scared to go in the water...he normally LOVES jumping in the ocean. He's used to playing in the Oregon coast at my sister Dusty's house with her two dogs Baby & Diesel :)

Buddy was so hot from the sun beating down on his black coat!

Tyler and Buddy just after we finished throwing the frisbee around :)

My Love <3

We layed around on the rocks for a while-they were so warm underneath us. We felt like we were getting a hot stone massage!

We played around on the beach for ~an hour before our parking was going to expire but we took full advantage of the time. There was a family with a wiener dog nearby that kept growling and barking at Buddy. It was so cute and funny...I wish we would've taken some pictures of it.

It was so bright out! I think my eyes aren't used to seeing the sun anymore :(

Tyler took a nap on me and Buddy was lounging on  top of him

Our Family <3

After we finished up on the beach we checked into our hotel room. We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel within walking distance of the Pier. The hotel was dog-friendly and the gentleman gave us the "family" room with it's own private access to a courtyard in the back for Buddy. The room even came with two beds (one for us and Buddy slept on the other). After settling in a bit, we left Buddy in the room while we ventured down to the Pier/Board Walk. It was so much like San Francisco! They had vendors selling donuts, candy & toffee apples, cotton candy (they call is candied floss here),etc etc....HUGE smile on my face :D 

The Pier has at least 3 bars, a 3 restaurants, and a handful of food huts along with a fully loaded carnival...I'm talking about roller coasters, bumper cars, arcades, carni-games, a water ride, etc! It was a blast! We bought 30 ride tickets for 20 GBP and were able to go on all the rides we had wanted. We even played some carni-games and spent some money in the arcades :) 

He talked me into riding these carni-rides...I ALWAYS get sick from them!

AHHHHHHH!!!!

Strapping into the roller coaster. It definitely went faster than it looked! Full loops and everything right over the ocean :)

After the ride was oven I was "high"!

This is the link to a video I took of Tyler riding the "Booster"...I was WAYYYY to scared to ride it :)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151619759447812&l=1762234647849124467

After we finished spending all our tokens we took a break to watch the sunset over the ocean:

The sunset was breathtaking!

All bundled up-as soon as the sun started setting it got COLD!

Happy as a clam!

After we left the Pier we decided to find a place to warm up and get some dinner. We walked around the downtown where there were a lot of people roaming the streets (it almost felt like Rome). I wanted a place that offered seafood so we came upon a place called "Coast". It was a little hole-in-the-wall place that was tiny inside and very quaint. The waitstaff was incredible and had a sense of humor. Tyler ordered a steak and potatoes with a potato and leek soup. I ordered a Santa Fe style chicken salad with the same leek and potato soup. The meals came with a fresh bread packed with nuts, seeds, and cranberries. It was all DELICIOUS. We basically licked our soup bowls clean ;)

Pier by day

Pier by night

It was so beautiful to look at

This ain't bad to look at either ;)

We called it a night after dinner and returned to the hotel to find Buddy all wiggly and ready to play. We fed him Tyler's leftover steak & potatoes and hit the sack. 

Breakfast was included in our stay so we woke up around 9:30am and ordered from fried eggs, bacon, toast, coffee & orange juice. It was all yummy. We had to check out of the hotel by 11:00am so we  packed our things and hit the road. We were unaware that there was a HUGE event called "the Jaguar Run" was going on on Sunday. Apparently hundreds of Jaguars drive to Brighton from London...let me tell you, there were police EVERYWHERE. I had never seen so many police in my entire life. Traffic was crazy to say the least. We found a parking garage (that ended up costing us 25 GBP!!!) and parked for a few hours while we walked around the town with Buddy. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people walked around in the sunshine. The shops were open and the town was bustling! We found some great shops and even bought a few trinkets. Tyler found 3 or 4 guitar stores that he meandered into. *BTW* this town is SO SO SO dog-friendly. There were dogs everywhere, literally. A lot of the shops even had water bowls outside for the pooches. Buddy had a blast!

This was in a store where they sold bongs! I thought it was so crazy!

Tyler spotted a guitar in here that he wanted- it only cost 5000 GBP!!

People enjoying the shops :)

We ate lunch at a hot spot and the food was great. We both got the sweet potato soup with bread and I got a delicious order of button mushrooms in a garlic butter sauce atop focaccia bread while Tyler got a chicken & bacon baguette. 

Tyler's sandwich

Sweet potato soup!

Mushroom focaccia

After lunch we continued our shopping/exploring. Buddy was a real trooper!

Waiting for Tyler outside a guitar store

Waiting while we ate

We were on the "hunt" for a place called Choccywoccydoodah that is featured on Tv here in the UK. It's a bakery/cake shop with gourmet desserts! We found it...along with another cute cake shop :)

We bought 2 truffles here...they were rich and delicious!

Crazy to think that this is a cake!

And finally we ran into Barney...this adorable & GIANT St Bernard! His size put Buddy to shame :)

We used the "loo" at the mall we ran into and was surprised to find that it felt like being in America inside. It was large with multilevel and had some familiar stores :)

We had an amazing time in Brighton and only wished we had a longer weekend to spend there. If it were closer I think we'd spend almost every weekend there...finding a new hip place to hang out at. There is a university there so a lot of young people about. We can't wait to visit again and with it being only 2.5 hour drive, Brighton may just be seeing a lot of the Clarks!

With Love,

Sarah, Tyler & Buddy