You know you had a great weekend...

...when you can come home to a measly stocked refrigerator and see that the only thing in there, a 2 liter bottle of maple syrup, has completely drained itself of it's contents into every square inch of your tiny English fridge...and you don't even bat an eye. You simply grab a wash cloth and get to work.

About an hour later and an immaculately cleaned fridge, I figured that I had better keep chugging on the blog train and get something out there. So about the weekend we had. Simply fantastic.

Wells-Next-The-Sea at low tide

Here it is at high-tide.

Last week, Matt had briefly mentioned that he might take Monday off and perhaps make Friday a short day. Usually we'd think there'd be a few days off for disgusting long hours of television watching, PS3 playing, Wii sports challenges and of course, Avery's gymnastics practices. This time however, Avery had a day off from the gym as well so we were completely commitment-free. A first since we arrived in London, well almost.

We decided to pack up, take the girls out of school early on Friday and skip out of school on Monday and get ourselves the heck out of this city. We headed north to a place called Wells-Next-The-Sea which is in Norfolk. It didn't take too long to get there but I have to say most of the roads were meant to fit two bicycles side by side than automobiles. I think the upstate NY Amish would have a hard time with their horse and buggies navigating the twists and turns of some of those...let's just say...paths.

It was pretty cold and we were most definitely one of the few brave families out sight-seeing during this frigid weather. We simply didn't care and just really needed to get ourselves out of the city. We had no plan...just go. And we did.

We had a fantastic room at the top of an old Inn and the girls made themselves at home quite quickly. We decided to go exploring...thank you TomTom (sat nav)! We found a little cafe and had some tasty hot chocolate and learned from the Aussie baristo (is that what a dude behind the counter is or are they barista's too?) that the town has been deserted because it's not quite the season for "people like us" yet. It reminded us a bit of Alexandria Bay in January. Empty. We wanted to check out what the North Sea was like so we found a place that would take us out to go seal watching. The other places had canceled their trips due to high winds but luckily there was one place that wasn't deterred by the gusts and howls whipping through us as if we didn't exist. So off we went to find some seals and hopefully not freeze to death. Check out the shots below and you'll see that we did, in fact, survive and we had a blast despite the frigid temps and wind.

We even had the chance to do a little bird watching before boarding our tiny boat!

All aboard!!

Talk about getting up close and personal...we could have touched them!


Completely unaffected Sloane...freezing wind? Where???!!!

Of course, post seal experience we hit a pub and warmed ourselves by their fire and planned our next excursion. We thought it completely appropriate to hit a castle while we were out in the country and so we did some quick research and found Castle Rising Castle. How can one not be intrigued by a name like that? Come to find out, after we returned home, Castle Rising Castle is one of the most famous and supposedly most haunted castles in all of England. It's a 12th-century domestic keep, set amid huge defensive earthworks and is stunningly beautiful albeit completely creepy at times. In its time, Rising served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and for a brief time in the 18th century even housed a mental patient. The most famous period in its history was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. When you marry someone also known as the She-Wolf of France you're bound to be risking your life. I guess Edward II didn't see it that way. I won't even tell you the details of how he was supposedly killed... eck! (it had to do with a wood burning stove poker and a place on the body not usually seen by most).

Photo compliments of Castle Rising's on-line gallery

This is where the chapel was at one time.


Avery...not the mental patient. Although sometimes we do wonder...

Or are these the mental patients?



Part of the huge earthworks built to surround the castle making it almost impossible for intruders to pass.

What was next...ah yes. The North Sea. It only took the entire long weekend before we figured out why there was always a crowd of people and cars across the street from our lodge down a long dirt road. It was the easiest entrance to the beaches along the North Sea. Our trip would not be complete without a trip down the beach so we bundled up and off we went. It was a long, long, looooong cold walk but it was worth it. There is nothing like seeing our girls run with reckless abandon into the beginnings of the ocean and chase seagulls as they swoop through the mist. It was truly a day...a weekend...that we'll never forget.

THE DUNKERS ROCKED THE NORTH SEA!