When asked the this-or-that question of whether I’d choose to live by mountains or water, even though it’s reeeeally hard to answer, I’d have to go with water. I grew up around it, from the Atlantic to the Gulf, to Lake Erie to Lake Michigan and now in the land that seems like 10,001 lakes, it’s just my happy place.

It’s Mom’s, too, so when she said she wanted to head to Wimbledon this year, I knew I needed to get her out of the city and into the country. Wales is one of her favorite places, so after sorting out train times, I settled on the tiny seaside town of Tenby on the southern coast.

After the first of two train delays, we stopped in Cardiff to break up the trip. Because of said delay we didn’t have much of a chance to explore the city, and had just enough time to rest and fuel up before catching our next train to Tenby.

Which was also hit a little bit of a snafu, but once we finally arrived, the views made the journey well worth it.

We spent the first day exploring the town, heading straight for the water.

It happened to be low tide, and we marveled at how extreme the swings seemed to be as the water went out.

Where’s the water?!

We didn’t mind at all, and followed the footprints along the beach.

Made my one of the many four-legged locals.

Unfortunately we weren’t in town for very long, so the next morning we woke up early, took the advice of a few locals, and grabbed the ferry to nearby Caldey Island.

About a 15 minute ride from the mainland, Caldey Island is home to an active monastery and boasts a few walking trains to get the blood pumping. We did all of them, obviously.