I wanted to go to the beach. I mean, after spending several months in England, an island, the beach should be seen. Sand should be played in and toes should be dipped. Sure, its rainy and cold, but the beach is still nice, right? Just wear a jumper (sweater or sweatshirt to us Americans) and it will be fine. That thought was my first mistake.
The second was my choice of beach. Really, this town should be renamed to Wells-kind-of-close-but-not actually-on-the-Sea. On a lovely day, you may enjoy wandering around a cute beach town and enjoy a leisurely stroll down to the beach...a few miles down to the beach...behind the trees, across sand dues, around a corner, sand, more sand, somewhere there is an ocean!
Well, sometimes I think that we should just go and have fun, regardless of the weather. My mom was visiting, we knew Daddy was leaving soon for a long trip, and the girls had a day off of school. So I packed my girls, mother, and hubby into the car with a ridiculous amount of other things and we drove to the beach. But really, it wasn't there. And it was cold and really windy. The kind of wind that makes you feel like you might as well not have any clothes on at all. Add a little sand to that wind and it isn't very pleasant.
We were hungry as soon as we arrived and a picnic was out of the question so we went into a little fish-n-chips shop for a very mediocre lunch. Then let the girls play at a playground with a cool pirate ship until we were all almost numb from the miserable wind. Then my mom decided to wait in the car while we took a little train down to the beach, then up a bunch of stairs, across some sand dunes, oh wait, I already explained this. The sad part is that we didn't actually make it to the water though. We got close enough to SEE the sea, but I finally decided enough was enough. We were all miserable and dipping toes was just out of the question and the ocean was really FAR away. So we went back to the little train and I let the girls play on another playground while we waited for it to return, then left.
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| A pink car on the way to the beach |
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| Wait, two cute pink cars next to each other! |
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| Enjoying the swings, even though it was almost windy enough to not be pushed! |
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| Pirate Tessa, braves the wind. |
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| Fearless Sophia climbed the boat structure that probably has a name but I don't know it. |
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| "Ahoy matees!" |
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| Tutu's scarf came in handy on the train ride. |
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| Waving to their people |
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| Um, where's the actual ocean? That little dirty stream isn't it, right? RIGHT?! |
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| If you click on the picture and look closely at the horizon, that is the ocean! |
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| Super cute little beach houses...still pretty far from the actual ocean though. |
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| Back at another playground. |
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| Back of the train and Sophia's turn for the scarf. |
Luckily, I did have another stop planned for the day. We went to
Holkham Hall next, although just for another brief visit. I enjoy seeing all of the old, fancy houses that you can visit in England, but I am often shocked at how much money you are expected to pay to look at someone's fancy, old house. With grumpy children, and cold, wind beaten adults, we skipped the estate tour. Instead, we went to the Stables Cafe for some hot drinks and cakes. But alas, their machine that does fancy coffees and hot chocolate was broken. (Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I ever leave the house?!) But a cup of tea was perfect for me and everyone felt a bit better after a nice selection of cakes! (A bit dry, but it was cake!). After that, we checked out the gift shop and looked around outside for as long as we could stand the cold and wind. There is a deer park there and a lake cruise, so maybe we will try it again someday.
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| I don't know WHAT this picture was about...fighting over cake, maybe? |
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| More silliness in the cafe |
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| Roof of Holkham Hall |
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| Girls trying out farm equipment |
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| So lovely, they could stay in the garden as decorations! |
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| Lion statue in front of the Hall |
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| Part of the Estate |
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| The Lake...we may go back for the lake cruise on a MUCH warmer day |
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| A house I liked on the way out |
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| Past the Wells-Next-The-Sea sign (I really think it should be changed!) |
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| Another house I really like! I should move to this pink house, I'm sure of it! |
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| I really enjoyed seeing these huge yellow fields everywhere. |
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| A little silliness in the car |
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| OK, a LOT of silliness in the car |
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| More fields, I found out later they are rape flowers. |
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| It just looks like someone poured a bucket of yellow down onto the field! |
