Castle Rising Castle, Hunstanton and Heacham

Castle Rising Castle

On October 15th we headed to Castle Rising Castle. It is up north of us on the way to the coast. The castle was fun to explore and the weather was great. I had us all dressed warm because I thought it was going to be freezing, but it was beautiful!

Alissa loves to be in all the windows and alcoves for pictures.

The stairs up from the "banquet" room

Alissa in a fireplace, maybe?

Blake feeling tall:)

The perfect seat

Rapuzel and her prince, or Remi and Broden

This room had tons of windows. It was beautiful the architecture and everything.

More of these crazy stairs.

Remi helping Alissa down the steep stairs.

Exploring outside the castle

After the castle we headed to the beach. On the way we stopped at a little country store and bought a little baked cake. I think they called it apple bread. I was expecting something like banana bread, but it was more like a cake. Delish!!! Blake and the kiddos love the candy stores, but my weak spot is definitely the baked goods.

We went to the down of Hunstanton and drove through trying to decide where to park and what to do. We parked and Blake took the older kids to the beach, and I walked through the shops in town. Then I headed back down to the beach to enjoy the nice afternoon withe everyone. It was so pretty there. The tide was out so we go to find shells and explore.

Broden showing our shells to the people passing by.

Blake and his girls

Remi and Broden

Look at the colors of those cliffs. They were so pretty. You couldn't see them unless you walked down stairs or a ladder to get to the beach below the cliffs. We drove through the town on top of the cliff and had no idea it was so pretty just below us.

Blake and Parker

Alissa, posing. She loves to pose and I love to take her pictures

Blake and I holding hands, being silly:)

Eventually we left the beach at Hunstanton and headed to Heacham. In our "Back Roads of Great Britain" book it says you can watch the sunset from there, even though it is technically the "East Coast". It is in an inlet, so the sun actually sets over the water. It took us forever to actually find the beach and both Parker and Alissa were asleep so Blake stayed in the car, while Remi Broden and I ran to the beach to see the sunset. We got to the top of the hill just after the sun set. It was still beautiful though. We'll have to go back again for the real sunset. Another amazing day.

Temple trip and Dover

September 23rd we took off and drove down to the London Temple. The temple here has a 9:00pm session on Friday nights, which was great for us, so we could each do a session. We checked in to our hotel and I went to the temple. It was so nice to go again. I miss living a few blocks from the temple like we did when we first got married. Saturday morning We took Blake to the temple, then went back to the hotel. We got all dressed and checked out then went back to the temple visitor's center. There was an older missionary there who was awesome! He used to be a principal of an elementary school in the states. He had a guitar and sang primary songs and nursery rhymes with the kids for like half an hour. When Blake got out of his session we walked around the grounds, then headed to dover.

 We went to a place where you could walk along the Cliffs of Dover. It was so pretty. There was no fence or anything next to the trail, just a straight drop into the ocean. It made me a little nervous, but the kids were great.

Cliffs of Dover

They were beautiful

 After the cliffs we headed to the Dover Castle. It was huge with lots of different buildings and lots to see.

 The way they built these castles always amazes me. The stairs are crazy. They have the huge winding stair cases that just branch into other stairs, or hallways or windows. I could easily get lost in a castle. I wonder how the architects did it back then.

 There were people there dressed in costumes and acted as though they were from way back when. We got to have lunch with the King and Queen, the princess and this was Sir Duncan. It was fun to sit at the tables and see how the King and Queen acted and how they ate.

 Everyone had to stand when the Kind stood and there were all kinds of formalities. The reason we don't put our elbows on tables is because the tables back then were just wood put onto saw horse like contraptions. If you put your elbows on the table it would make the table tip and all the food would be in your lap. They picked people from the audience to serve the food. It was great! Remi and I also got to talk to the queen.

View from a tower in the castle.

Another view from the top. Of the sea

Somewhere over there you can see France

By the end of the day the kids were exhausted!!! We had peanut butter and Jelly for lunch then were going to find something to eat before we headed home, but as soon as we got in the car the kids were out. Another fun day in Great Britain!