Ferry Good Day

Taking your curious and inquisitive 5-year-old to a Titanic museum hours before boarding an overnight ferry boat is a massive parenting fail.

I’m barely able to write this post because of the sheer exhaustion I feel from answering every possible question and providing every possible assurance that our boat would not sink.

I am writing from the safety of French shores, so we made it, much to M’s surprise.

We started yesterday at my most anticipated event of the trip - the SeaCity Museum in Southampton, England. This museum featured a huge Titantic exhibit! And, if you know me well, you know the Titanic is my “Roman Empire” of sorts.

The exhibit was incredible and really presented itself in a completely unique way (even for someone who has had this little special interest since childhood!).

Southampton was the city where the Titanic set sail from on April 10, 1912. A fact I had never considered - which was the central theme of this exhibit - is that the majority (like 2/3) of the crew on board the titanic were locals from Southampton.

The sinking of the ship was particularly devastating for this community. Out of the 715 crew members hailing from Southampton, only 175 survived. Essentially everyone in town lost a family member, friend or neighbor in the tragedy.

During this time in 1912, there was a coal miner strike in the area. Over 17,000 people were unemployed in Southampton at the time. A lot of seafarers and dock workers were out of work and many of folks applying for work in the Titanic were in desperate need.

The museum was really fascinating and had a whole room devoted to the legal proceedings and inquiry following the sinking with real transcript recordings of the hearings.

And now I’ve got lots of new rabbit holes to reenergize this decades old interest! We spent way more time here than M (and probably Josh, if we’re being honest) wanted.

But, it rained all morning so this was a good way to kill time before the real event of the day.

Paultons Park (featuring the original Peppa Pig World)!

As you know, we take M on an annual birthday trip to Peppa Pig World. The Peppa Pig World here in the UK isn’t there original and best one yet! We loved the Queen’s Coach ride (we got a pink carriage!), the Windy Tower ride and getting to meet Baby Evie. The muddy puddle splash pad was M’s favorite.

It was a glorious end to what I think was the final installment of this sweet family tradition.

M enjoyed herself but it was clear she is aging out of this interest and more thrilling rides in other areas of the park had stronger appeal. Our Peppa Pig days are quickly fading. I’m not crying. You are!

So, we soaked up every minute and stayed until the park closed. After that, we grabbed a traditional English snack of Jacket Potato with cheese and beans (M loved this!) and headed to the port.

Our Ferry ship was the Saint-Malo through Brittany Ferries and it took us from Portsmouth, England to Saint-Malo, France.

Once on board, we had a small dinner and then played cards (memory/matching game) in the ship’s lounge while enjoying live music before bed.

Our tiny cabin had bunk beds and we slept soundly camp-style to the rocking of the ship. We made Josh take the top bunk!