Having visited Beamish last year for Grandad’s birthday, we still had our annual tickets. Before they ran out, we decided we should try and use them. To this extent, the end of September saw us head up to County Durham for a visit. It was also a last hurrah before I started my new job.

We picked James up on the Friday night after school and headed straight up the road. We had a good run and got to the hotel shortly after nana and grandad. The last time we had gone, we had stayed in a suite which was bliss as James had his own room. Not to be this time as he was in a camp bed next to our bed. Not that it mattered too much as we were all shattered by the time we got any where near bed time.

The Friday night we headed to the local pub for dinner. On a Friday they had a steak meal deal thing on, so we all tucked into three courses with glee, unfortunately they were only taking cash as their card machine had broken, luckily for us, mum had some on her. Three courses later we staggered back to the hotel and got our heads down!

Up early the next morning and off we headed to Beamish. We were staying about ten minutes away so there was no rush at all which was nice. It looked like the weather would be pretty miserable, but we were determined not to let that stop us having fun.

This was the third time we had been there but it was only the first time we had seen the steam train running. James absolutely loved this, especially as the conductor let him wave the flag to set the train off. He was a little apprehensive to start with but quite quickly got in his stride.

After the train, it was time to explore the town. James loves going into all the different shops and seeing what was there. Having been there before, it was nice that we knew the bits we wanted to see. James was mesmerised by the dentist and the lady there was very good explaining all the bits to him. In fact, everyone there is very knowledgable.

By lunch time, there was glorious sunshine. This had certainly not been forecast. We explored the pit village. Whilst James took mummy down the mine, I nipped back to the car to get the lunch. Grandad and I had done the food trail the day before and I had picked up some very tasty pork pies which we all devoured for lunch.

With the sun being out, Lyns was able to wear her new ‘trendy’ sunglasses. All I could do was wind her up by saying she was trying to be like our friend Gav. Several choruses of ‘I Wanna be Like You’ had Lyns in stitches.

As the sun began to sink lower, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. There was a party on in the pub so we ate in the hotel itself, which was very quiet, apart from the wedding party going on next door. We had planned to go for a walk round a National Trust place the next day but it did not look like the weather was going to play ball.

We woke up the next morning and peered out of the window. Yep, the rain was hammering down. We had a chat over breakfast and decided to head back to Beamish as there was inside things to do.

After visiting the farm we decided to catch the tram to the town for a coffee. At this point Nana realised that she had lost her walking stick. I had a good idea where it could be so grabbing the umbrella, I set off to find it. The race was on, could I get the stick back and make it to the village, before the tram arrived going the long way round…

As it turned out, I had about a five minute wait at the tram stop in the town before they arrived. There was me thinking it would be a close run thing, but no. We headed to get a coffee in the cafe and ate our lunch, the previous day’s left overs, whilst we were drinking it.

After that, it was time to think about heading home. Before that though, James wanted one last trip on the tram. So off we went to do a full lap before heading back to the car.

We finished the weekend with one very tired family. Lyns drove back and I managed to catch forty winks on the way home, missing all the hideous weather. It was a lovely weekend despite the elements doing almost everything they could to thwart us. Cannot wait until the next one.