Sunday, June 23: Prison Lunch & Playdate Fun
Garden Breakfast
Good Morning!
Before heading to bed the night before, Anne asked for solidarity in rising early to do a liiiiiittle bit of work before the day came into focus. I agreed -- and I’m not proud, but if you take a 6 (work) day vacation, and no one else shares your workload, clocking an hour or two here is just considerate of your future self, who would otherwise have to return to work piled sky high... Or maybe we just need to move to Europe to stop excusing away unhealthy work culture habits.
Regardless, I was up by 7am and after checking in with Anne -- who hadn’t slept well and passed on the dawn wake-up call thanks -- I headed downstairs to do a bit of work housekeeping in the still, quiet morning. I tried my luck at the instant coffee (the only kind of coffee available in the house), and oh no. No. This wasn’t good. Fun fact: instant coffee has its origins in the American Civil War, when they tried distributing a version of soluble coffee to the Union Army to save on costs. The Army hated it so much they were forced to go back to regular coffee -- this from troops whose diet otherwise consisted exclusively of salted meat and unleavened bread. I managed to drink half a cup in the 2 hours until we left for breakfast.
Photo By Joey
Mom, Joey, and Anne started trickling in around 8:30am, and we agreed upon a somewhat loose schedule for the day: breakfast, bike rental for Joey, lunch reservations in Cardiff, followed by maybe a tour of Cardiff Castle. Within Bute Park was a little cafe named The Secret Garden, nestled into a corner of the organized gardens. Dripping with instaready charm, the cafe was an easy five minute stroll from the house and was simply structured -- four brick walls under an open air canopy with greenery covering each nook and cranny. We arrived just as it opened at 9am and joined a short line. Two coffees and an earl grey tea… and a menu that looked better suited for dessert (chocolate muffins, raspberry tarts, the works) immediately captivated the child - of course - while the rest of us opted for good old cholesterol-laced protein-heavy breakfasts. Mom and Anne got sourdough toast with fried eggs and I took a chance with the “sausage sammie” -- not really knowing what that meant. Would it be like an American breakfast sandwich? Would it be sausage used as sandwich bread? Let’s find out! As it turned out, it would take a bit of time to solve this sausage mystery. Drinks took 15 minutes to arrive, followed by food a full 30 minutes after ordering. A sausage sammie? That is two bratwursts in between two pieces of white toast. Listen, I’ve been known to down two Sunrise Samplers AND some hashbrown casserole at Cracker Barrel for breakfast; I don’t back down from a breakfast challenge. But bratwurst is heavy, yo. Germans don’t play. And so for the first time since I could remember, I left half my breakfast on my plate. Sausage sammie, your unimposing name masks quite a challenge. Anne reported the eggs and toast as meh, Mom as perfectly fine. Joey ordered a chocolate muffin because #vacay, and then declared it too “chocolatey” (girl…), and proceeded to drink milk straight out of the pitcher they brought for our coffee and tea, which we allowed because the line required to get a fresh glass of milk now stretched nearly to the door. You can’t fault her for being resourceful!
Shiny Red Bikes
Sausaged-egged-and-milked-up we split up -- Mom back to the cottage for some R&R while the three of us walked to the other side of the park to collect Joey’s bike hire that she had been asking after approximately 7012121862121 times throughout the trip. It was a beautiful, leisurely 25 minute walk, and the park was bustling with activity on this Sunday morning. Dogs, in particular, were everywhere (with their owners too, mostly) which immediately put us in good spirits -- particularly Joey and I, unabashed and unapologetic dog lovers we are. As we crossed the River Taff, which bisects the park, I counted at least four labradors retrieving their tennis balls in the water. This seemed pretty close to bliss, and we took our time strolling over to Pedal Power Cardiff. Pedal Power sits on the directly opposite edge of Bute Park, in the midst of campsites and next to another cafe. It operates mostly as a non-profit to promote cycling for all, with a particular focus on providing support to disabled individuals who wish to cycle. A large portion of their funding comes from hiring (i.e. renting) their bikes out for short term to folks like us. Like nearly everyone we encountered in Wales, they were exceedingly friendly and soon had Joey suited up in a shiny red bike just her size. We inquired after a helmet (“Oh you’d like a helmet?” … ok so sounds like Wales is a bit lax on the safety regulations... good to know, good to know), and once they tossed one over to Joey she was ready to roll. After about 10 minutes of adjustment -- Joey had only ever ridden bikes with pedal brakes; this was a full six gear bike with hand brakes -- and a frantic Joey stopping every 30 seconds because her “helmet is too loose and keeps sliding and I’m gonna get hurt!” (looking for a safety regulator, Wales? Let me give you my six year old’s email…). Aunt Anne to the rescue tightened the helmet’s grip and Joey was OFF, dodging dogs and feeling the Welsh breeze in her wake. As we neared the entrance to our cottage, we exchanged brief hellos with a neighbor who asked after Joey’s age and then told her, if she wanted, his two daughters aged 7 and 6 could come over to play that afternoon around 4pm. Was she interested? Joey is an unabashed extravert stuck on a trip with three very introverted adults (NO idea where we get it from). She’d give her shiny red bike at the chance to meet and mingle with new friends. Stars were in her eyes as we headed back to the house to freshen up. We had lunch reservations at 12:45 and somehow the morning had slipped away in no time.
All suited up!
Lunch at The Clink
Our only scheduled activity during our stay in Cardiff was a reservation at one of its most sought after restaurants - The Clink. In fact, Sunday lunchtime was the only availability when I made the reservation a month prior. The Clink is actually a fully non-profit organization, and The Clink Cardiff is one of five restaurants throughout the UK. Their mission is to provide prison inmates with tangible skills and experience to obtain viable employment in the food and hospitality industry after their release from prison, and hopefully by extension reduce rates of re-offending. All food is cooked and served by prisoners who are mentored and trained by industry professionals, and all of the restaurants are (consequently) located within prison grounds. Though some locations require you to go through security to access it, the Cardiff location is virtually a public venue and nothing appears different about its location other than perhaps a quick “oh-is-that-a-prison-next-door?” glance as you enter the front door. The restaurant is small, and the back wall is a full mirror, so all of us actually thought the restaurant was double the size until we realized that an awful lot of people here were twins… Oh, that’s a mirror. (Honestly it’s a wonder we were able to drive as well as we did.) In sum - the setting is lovely and our serving staff were beyond receptive. Upon reflection at the end of our trip, we all agreed that the meal we were served at the Clink was the best we had all trip. It’s no wonder they are continually booked.
Finishing dessert at The Clink
The menu offered a prix fixe - two courses (appetizer/main or main/dessert) for a reasonable 20 pounds, so we adults decided to order a bit of a hybrid apps/dessert and share. Joey, this being her first overseas trip, did reasonably well with the cultural changes, but one thing that she always seemed to dislike was the menu selection (to give her some credit, Brits seemed to serve mashed peas with everything). Though she was riding high about her scheduled playdate, she did not love the children’s menu options and voiced her frustration forcefully. No burgers? No spaghetti? WHAT KIND OF RESTAURANT WAS THIS? Needless to say, some hangriness was beginning to show. Quick thinking Mimi spun one of the options (roast chicken with mashed potatoes) as a quintessential Thanksgiving feast, and though she was skeptical, Joey accepted this as her least offensive option. I believe she told our confused server “Thanksgiving food please-- no peas” when ordering. Meanwhile, Mom ordered the roast beef with yorkshire pudding and rabbit terrine to start, Anne - the ratatouille and a chocolate pot for dessert, and I the cod with pasta in a tomato basil sauce, followed by the cheese plate. Oh! And a side of dauphinoise potatoes, because did you know that those are potatoes baked in heavy cream and bleu cheese and this is vacation? We also, because this staff is mostly in training, accidentally got TWO rounds of our drink orders (no alcohol at the Clink -- so two cokes, two teas, two lattes, and two lemonades). Yes, we liked this place. We enjoyed a leisurely pace to our meal, and were not rushed. It even took a bit of cajoling to get the check.
VIP (Very Important Playdate) & Exploring Cardiff City Centre
As we left, a steady rain had started to fall and we hurried back to the parking lot. Originally we thought about heading to Cardiff Castle, but it was mid-afternoon now, Joey had a VIP (very important playdate), and after the hectic travel of the last few days we didn’t need much convincing to forgo the castle for an afternoon of lounging. By this time, I was basically driving like a native, so I was able to back into our tiny parking spot in only three tries thank-you-very-much. Joey had about an hour until her playdate, so while Anne and Mom rested Joey and I watched The Devil Wears Prada, which came out in 2006 and has not aged well FYI. Joey’s new friends came knocking at 4:15 and they were fast friends after a hurried exchange while Joey laced up her sneakers:
“Do you have a bike? I just got my stabilizers off!”
“What are stabilizers?”
[me to the side: “Training wheels, Joey”]
“I just got MY stabilizers off TOO!”
And thus, best friends were made. Super Aunt Anne accompanied Joey for the next couple hours, and she returned - happy but tired - around 6pm.
After so many days in the car, Anne and I decided to head out on foot to explore central Cardiff while Mom and Joey relaxed. We walked through the park to get a gorgeous view of Cardiff Castle from the outside, and then strolled through the major pedestrian zone downtown. Cardiff reminded me a good bit of Dublin (though, to be fair, I haven’t been to Dublin in 14 years), but with a bit more of an edge (I think mostly because there are less tourists). Wide streets were lined with the Welsh flag, and Cardiff’s hub was full of restaurants and shops that were mostly shuttered for Sunday evening. Though this wasn’t an ideal time to go exploring a new city, I think it did provide a good insight into the undercurrent of the area. There was trash everywhere, and the residents that were out and about were generally younger and many a bit rough around the edges. In general, there was a distinctive feeling both in Cardiff and in other parts of South Wales that this was a region full of pride, but with a lingering notion that this area was still struggling its way from recovery to prosperity after the coal mining industry rapidly declined 30 years ago. It wasn’t Oxford, we’ll say. I don’t know if we could have picked two more different cities to visit back to back in the UK. We were glad to come back the next day to stroll again in the bustle of a weekday, where the whole city looked a bit brighter, but the emptiness of Sunday did make it easy to wander.
We dutifully set about our errands -- collected cash from an ATM for all of us and then found takeout dinner from the Grazing Shed. (burgers for dinner, Joey! Finally!) Anne was impressed with their vegetarian/vegan selection. While she’s not totally vegetarian, she does not eat a lot of animal products, and she noted that so far the version of “vegetarian/vegan” she’s found just seems to use substitutions to try to replace animal products (helloooo vegan fish and chips) instead of re-working other, non-processed-to-a-crazy-amount, food. The Grazing Shed definitely did the latter -- she got the Bunga Veggie Burger, topped with bleu cheese fondue, red onion confit, and cajun mayo. I got the yokozuna 100% beef burger (make mine vegetarian and I will threaten you), which was topped with sesame and ginger infused teriyaki and wasabi mayo, and we got Mom the chicken version of the same (after a good 30 seconds struggling to remember if we had ever seen her order/eat a beef burger… turns out our choice to opt for chicken was correct). Joey, of course, got the the straightforward, all-American Jr. burger with fries. While I waited for the food, Anne made a Tesco run up the street for provisions for breakfast (COFFEE) and, after collecting our food, we headed back to the cottage through the park.
Twilight Bike Rides and Pop-Pop Calls
Dinner was very satisfying (though fries are always better in-house I think), and we discussed the next day’s plans as we scarfed down our burgers. Cardiff Castle — fortify yourself — we were coming for you! We still had about 40 minutes until the man on the bike came to lock the park gate for closing, so Joey somehow convinced me to take her for a twilight bike ride and off we went. Er - off she went, I walked slowly behind as she jetted around, watching as she’d pass people far ahead who would then casually look around to see if that 6-year-old was accompanied by anyone. We returned by 8:45 -- just missing Mom’s announcement of jammie time. Between the bike ride and both the morning and evening walks through the park, my Fitbit told me I had just passed 21,000 steps for the day. Not too shabby for a supposed day of rest.
Not yet tired, boredom gave way to missing family stateside. Should we call Jay (Joey’s three year old brother) or Mia (Anne’s two year old)? No - no no no, not unless we wanted to risk our partners leaving us. We’ve learned the hard way that on trips away from your young children, nothing is more frustrating to them than reminding them you exist, just not right next to them, right now. Facetime calls often mean heartache for all, and emotional breakdowns to clean up (not by you, you’re on vacation. Good luck Rick!). As a result, we decided instead to check in with Dad, who we hoped by the age of 72 has mastered the concept of object constancy by now and wouldn’t be too wrecked by seeing us all on a Facetime call. Joey, Anne and I gathered around the screen and told him of our adventures so far, while he told us of his (one of my freezer meals, Korean bbq beef and onion stir fry with rice, came out like a beef and rice popsicle and he had to hack it death to heat it up #whoops #adventure). By 9:30 we were all in bed despite the sun still up in the sky, and drifted quickly off to sleep.
