California Cross - 15th June

California Cross
My brother in law contacted me whilst we were on holiday to ask if we wanted to join them at California Cross to celebrate my sisters 50th Birthday. My sisters birthday is in July by my brother in law works away and wasn’t going to be here for her birthday.

We had been to California Cross for Billy’s 50th birthday, it is not far from where we live but an ideal site for the California Cross Inn where they serve excellent food and the Bread and Butter pudding is to die for.

My brother in law was arranging a surprise for my sister and wanted us to be part of it.

15th June
We turned up at California Cross Caravan and Camping Club site where my sister had arrived just before us. By this time she knew we were going to be joining them there.

The surprise for her was that her son had picked up his children (they live with their mother) and were joining us. He lives in Hampshire and drove down on Friday night and was staying at my sisters house without her knowing whilst she was away.

16th June

On Saturday morning he drove over and parked up outside the motorhome where my sister was watching.  I could see she was thinking “who the hell is that parking so close to our van”. Then it dawned on her it was her son and was totally surprised to see her grandchildren.

Half an hour later, my niece turned up with her family, but this was not such a surprise as she lives in the area and her family are always around. However altogether it was a lovely surprise package for my sister, especially as it wasn’t her birthday until July.

They stayed for lunch even though my sister was not prepared as she was not expecting everyone and my brother in law hadn’t thought about lunch. The weather was awful so it was a bit of a squeeze for all of us in one van, so Billy and I stayed in our van for lunch.

After lunch they returned back where they had come from so that the kids could have a sleep and they could change ready for the evening, which was a meal in the California Inn restaurant. My niece had arranged with the pub to go in and decorate the table prior to us going over.

So, yet another surprise when we went into the restaurant, balloons and decorations everywhere and there was no getting out of the fact that it was her 50th birthday she was celebrating.

We had a great evening, food was superbe and Jonathon, maitre de, looked after us impeccably.

But then came the disappointment, no bread and butter pudding left :(. We had already thought that we may go over to the pub for Sunday lunch as an end to the weekend, so we asked Jonathon if we could book a table as long as bread and butter pudding was on the menu.Instead my sister tucked into a crumble:

She didnt know what we knew, there was cake to come. Another surprise, Cake in the shape of a Radley handbag, my sister is a Radley fanatic.

After a lovely evening we said goodbye to my nephew, niece and families and strolled back to the camp site to retire to bed.

Sunday 17th June

We were having a lazy morning when my nephew turned up for Breakfast with his children on the way back to Hampshire, they had arranged to do this the night before. They were soon on their way again. Billy and I did not have breakfast as we knew we were eating again at lunchtime.

We explained to the site wardens that we had booked lunch and asked if we could stay on our pitches, but they needed the pitches so instead we moved off the pitch and parked up elsewhere on the site.

We then headed back to the pub where Jonathon was waiting for us with the news that the chef had made a special bread and butter pudding for us.

We had a wonderful Sunday roast topped off with an exquisite bread and butter pudding.

We then went our separate ways, my sister back to Plymstock and Billy and I back to Cornwall.