W's endurance diet

Wow - Wilson certainly knows how to holiday! We've packed a fortnight's activities into just a few days and I'm exhausted; W, on the other hand, fortified by frequent naps and a diet consisting almost exclusively of ants and ice cream, is as fresh as a daisy.

Tonight we'll be watching the Eurovision Song Contest (W has drawn up his complex score-card and brought it with him) then it will be time to return home…

He's got the moves like Gulliver...

We've just got back to the hotel after visiting Kent's Cavern, then on to the Model Village in nearby Babbacombe. 

Wilson was a bit apprehensive in the dark caves, keeping very close to me throughout the tour, but he really loved the model village. He went round pretending to be a giant, and I had quite a hard time keeping him off the grass.

Trains and boats...

Yesterday we journeyed from Paignton to Kingswear by steam train. In the photo you can see that W bagged pole position in the Observation Car, hoping to pretend to drive the train. The train pulled out backwards, so he just pretended to reverse it all the way to Kingswear!

Then on to Dartmouth via passenger ferry. Wilson is a nervous sailor (his New Year Resolution about learning to swim still being unfulfilled) and insisted on donning a life jacket before he'd even set foot on the gangplank. 

Mixed fortunes...

Inevitably, we ended up in an amusement arcade. 

As well as the modern video games and penny-pushers, there were some vintage machines, and I had a reading by a mechanical fortune-teller. A little card popped out telling me that I was well balanced, happy-go-lucky and popular wherever I go. 

I was very pleased with this but Wilson, being a bit of an expert on the psychic readings game, was sceptical of the result, telling me that there were basic errors in the Cold Reading algorithms of the machine, and that one only had to look at me to see that I was a born worrier and I'd never be popular wherever I went. 'I'm sorry, New Dad, but sometimes I have to be cruel to be kind!'

W had a go himself, and his card said that he was cute, cuddly and loveable, enthusiastic and shrewd, a born leader and businessman. He told me that this was a fair and unbiased assessment of his character, and maybe the machine had started working properly by the time he put his 20p in. 

On the way out, W complained to the lady in the Change Kiosk that the instructions on the Automatic Palmistry machine should be changed to read "Hold hand or paw firmly down…" She narrowed her eyes and told W, 'Dogs aren't allowed in the arcade.'

That one, please!

As soon as he had woken and recovered from his nap, Wilson and I headed into Torquay for some Fine Dining. After the long journey I thought a light meal would be best, but W insisted that ice cream was the preeminent antidote for travel fatigue. 

At the first ice cream parlour we came to, W showed me which one he'd like.

Arrival

Here you see us arriving at our hotel. We have a lovely room, and there is a large garden where guests can sit in the evening with a drink. Wilson assures me that this has great ant potential. 

After W has had a brief nap we're heading off to paint Torquay red!

Devon, Glorious Devon

The next morning we set off early for phase two of Wilson's Birthday Treat - a holiday in Devon! 

The weather wasn't great, and it was a long drive. W slept for much of the journey, but I did hear quite a lot of the phrase every parent dreads: 'Are We There Yet?'