Tin Box Traveller Diaries: March 2017

After a relatively quiet February, March saw us back out on the road having a lot of family adventures. This is one of the reasons why I’m a few days *cough*, OK more than a week late with my monthly round up. But when travel is to blame I think I can grin and bear it!

April has continued in a similar fashion with the Easter holidays kicking off straight away. Keep an eye on my Facebook page and Instagram for snippets of our Spring travels in Cornwall and Hampshire this month.

But back to business! Here’s what we got up to at home, away and on the blog in March:

Home

I’ll start with a very exciting announcement – we’re buying a house in Devon.

Mr Tin Box and I are originally from Hampshire and moved to Devon with his job just over a year ago. And we’ve loved it so much we’ve decided to put down roots. With places like Dartmouth (pictured above) on our door step I’m sure you can understand why.

Mr TB will continue to have to move around with his job from time to time but the girls and I are staying put. The plan is that we will move in late April so don’t be surprised if there’s bit of Tin Box Traveller down time while we get things straight.

Travels

At the beginning of March we were invited to one of my cousins’ weddings in Bath. I couldn’t resist using it as the perfect excuse to explore this UNESCO city in Somerset.

Visit Bath arranged for us to stay at Bath Mill Lodge Retreat, which I can highly recommend if you’re visiting the area. We also did a bit of exploring. More on that below.

Later in the month we took our first camping trip of the year. We were invited to stay in a glamping pod at Oakdown Holiday Park near Sidmouth in East Devon.

I have to admit I felt a bit like I was cheating at camping as there was hardly any ‘roughing it’! It’s definitely a version of camping to try if you enjoy a few creature comforts.

Adventures

While in Bath for our weekend break The Roman Baths was top of my sightseeing list. It’s maybe not an obvious choice for somewhere to see with pre-schoolers but we still had a fabulous time.
Also in Bath we visited an attraction more inline with our girls’ expectations of a fun day out. Avon Valley Country Park has farm animals, adventure playgrounds and a train ride to entertain little ones.
During our glamping trip near Sidmouth we took a 20 minute drive to Wildwood Escot at Ottery St Mary. It’s a wildlife park focussed on native British creatures past and present. We particularly loved meeting its otters and red squirrels.
The same weekend we visited The World of Country Life – which I think was my favourite day out of March. We spent the whole day meeting farm animals, going on a deer safari, watching a falconry display and playing, lots!
To round up our stay in East Devon we spent Mothers Day morning in Sidmouth. Our main aim was to have brunch before driving home but we also played on the beach, saw the RNLI Lifeboat crew out on exercise and discovered Connaught Gardens. Keep an eye out for this post when I write it as I got some fab pictures of the Jurassic coastline and have a great recommendation on somewhere to eat.

Blogging

A post shared by Jo Penhaligon (@organisedjo) on Apr 2, 2017 at 12:07am PDT

You would think blogging was quite a solitary career but I’ve found some great online communities that also meet up off line. One of them is the local Devon bloggers. In March we met up at Tubers – a new type of education facility for young people interested in producing and broadcasting videos for the internet. We we’re given a tour and took part in a bit of filming ourselves. Watch this space for the end result. Even the Tin Box girls got a part!
During March I blogged about: our discovery of the world’s largest all year sculpture park; a visit to Kingston Lacy National Trust; exploring Berry Head’s Napoleonic forts in Devon; a festival survival guide for families.
I also worked with: Amber Leisure; mifold – the Grab-and-Go Booster seat; Exeter Baby Activities; Bath Mill Lodge Retreat; Visit Bath; Oakdown Holiday Park; and Hawkshead.
My most popular post was: a competition to in a three night stay in Suffolk (now closed)
As well as writing here I’ve been featured in: the Britmum’s holiday inspiration round up; Wandermust Family’s UK city breaks with babies; and Mini Traveller’s 100 amazing National Trust days out with children.

Here’s where to catch up with what we got up to in February and you can also skip ahead to April 2017.

As ever, thank you so much for reading! I love hearing what people think about my blog so feel free to leave a comment below or browse around. You can also find me on Bloglovin’, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube and LinkedIn.