Out to lunch
It was my Hero’s birthday last week and many months ago, Amy had asked us to put a date in our calendar. She had snagged a booking for lunch with them at a most sought-after location.
How exciting! Not that I had a clue how we’d get there! Amy explained that there’s a water taxi service from Exmouth, so we’d meet them there and travel over together.
Exmouth isn’t so far from their home and it’s the beach where they take Arthur quite often. They’d left him having fun at his nursery school today and we looked forward to catching up with him later.
There was room for nine people on board the small Puffin water taxi and we listened to the safety drill before we set off across the estuary. I was surprised to discover the ride was twenty five minutes or so, because of large sandbanks which needed to be avoided, especially at low tide.
It was a smooth crossing and was a bit like being on a tender, going ashore on a cruise!
Shortly, we could see our destination ahead of us and another small taxi offloading supplies.
Our first choice had been to sit out on the deck and enjoy the fresh air and glorious views, but soon the sun was too strong and we retreated inside, where a lovely round table was waiting for us. With plenty of fish there on the menu, we were happy and over the next couple of hours there we enjoyed a great lunch.
Only after the Pedrogato* desserts did we see the Puffin there, ready to take us back to shore. Timings here have to be carefully controlled and having come out on the 12 noon sailing, we were scheduled to return on the 2.30pm.
*Pedrogato was a variation on Affogato: vanilla icecream with nuts and dried fruit with a shot of Pedro Ximenez sherry in place of the coffee. One to try at home for sure!
As we left, the Puffin’s sister boat, the Cormorant was delivering another set of guests.
We avoided the sandbanks on the way back to Exmouth too, but as is often the case, the return journey seemed a lot quicker than the outbound one. We were soon back in our cars and heading home, where a small boy would be waiting for us and we couldn’t wait to see him.
His T shirt told the story of his day with evidence of lunch and a couple of snacks, not to mention the water play session with red things (!) but sunny afternoons with Grandma and Grandad are precious and it was a race to his paddling pool to get a bit wet!
The best way to round off a lovely day with our family, of course.
