Great Yarmouth

     This past weekend Sam and I escaped from reality for a bit with his sister, Rachel and brother-in-law Josh. Rachel had found a beach town for us to visit called Great Yarmouth, for those of you who are not very familiar with the little island we live on and all the villages and towns; I have attached a map for you. Anyway, the town is near Norwich and about an hour and a half drive for Sam and I. Sam was busy working until about 7:30pm on Friday, so we didn't end up making it to Great Yarmouth until 9:30pm on Friday night. Rachel and Josh were already settled in the flat we rented for the weekend and it was so nice, with a great view of the beach! We spent the remainder of our night laughing, catching up and visiting. 

Great Yarmouth is near Norwich, where the red dot is on this map. 

We live at point A....point B is London....so no we DO NOT live in  London, Sam and I were surprised by how many people think we live in London when we visited the states. As you can see we have a nice little drive to get to London, about 2 hours from our house to the London Heathrow airport. 

Fun fact: The entire UK is the size of Louisiana. 

      On Saturday we all decided to take it easy with no real agenda. We slept in, Rachel made a delicious Pinterest recipe for breakfast and we headed out to explore the town at around 10:30am. We walked everywhere and decided that Great Yarmouth is the white trash city of England. It made for some good people watching though! It was also full of arcades and mini golf. It was a kid version of Las Vegas as the town had some of the same "casinos" like Caesar's Palace, but instead of casinos they were arcades. We walked along the beach, toured an Elizabethan House, took a free tour of a boat, ate ice cream, played mini golf and visited the arcades. It is the best town to live in as a young teenager looking for cheap dates. Even though Rachel and Josh beat Sam and me in mini golf, we had a blast. 

The view from our flat 

Saturday morning breakfast 

The beach had sand!

The beach

"Vegas Strip" 

Arcades

They had some awesome shopping in Yarmouth 

An Olive Garden!

Rachel ready to have tea with Queen Elizabeth 

Sam exploring the Elizabethan house

There were some strange things in this house...those are squirrels  

Rach and Josh being creepers

If I was born during the Golden Age of history this is what I would look like

And this is what my husband would have to wear  for war....guess his flight suite feels even more comfortable now

Or maybe I would be a servant that cooked

Trying on the armor 

Rachel looking Elizabethan 

Free boat...lets go!

I'm on a boat and.....

Hi Sam!

Where is our voyage taking us today Rach?

mini golf time

Pirates cove

Rachel's favorite place

More miniature golfing...much harder than putt putt 

Sam being shocked 

The sand again

And the view from the flat again 

     After Church on Sunday we spent the day on the beach, soaking up the sun! We ate lunch on the beach, enjoyed listening to the waves and had some great people watching. Apparently the norm here in the UK is when your toddler has to pee, male or female, just drop his or her pants and let them pee in the English Channel. It is also common for little girls to not wear anything on her top half, but hey I guess the comfortableness of nudity and peeing in public has to start at a young age here in Europe. It was so great to soak up some sun, but sadly I was sitting on the beach wearing jeans...something is seriously wrong with that picture for sure! However, we still saw people getting into the Channel, which is bananas because the water was 60 degrees and the air temperature was only 75. After a few hours in the sun we took a short eight minute horse and buggy ride to end a wonderful weekend away. 

Rachel ready for breakfast on Sunday morning 

"Hey Sam I actually did my hair today...lets take a picture"

Happy Sunday

Fully clothed beach bums 

Our view for the day

Why am I wearing jeans and a tshirt on the beach!

Glad Rach and I got pedicures 

Ice cream time

Rach and Josh on our buggy ride

Sam and I on the horse drawn carriage 

How Romantic 

     I have never been to Jersey Shore, but from what I have seen of it on MTV it is pretty similar to Great Yarmouth. According to our dog sitter, there are lots of drugs that go on in Yarmouth and it is where a large number of poor people in England live, which would explain some of the scene we saw, but it was still a great experience for us overall. We really enjoyed spending time with Rachel and Josh and exploring a new area of England! Another great perk to living here!

Because I haven't posted a picture of my sweet baby lately...here is Hercules!

     Here are some spring/summer pictures of our cottage! We have new flowers that literally bloom or pop of overnight and the best part is they are wild flowers, we absolutely love it:

     Sam and I have (mostly me because Sam has to work, poor guy, but thanks for supporting our family love) have many fun visitors coming this month! I am excited to explore some of Wales, Paris, Nice, Scotland and Ireland this month. It will be a whirlwind month, but I will be spending it with friends and family that I love dearly and I am excited for our first round of visitors this summer! 

 

A fun month lies ahead!

    Thanks for reading and look for future blogs of our European adventures this summer, I will be sure to write and blog as soon as I have some free time, but since I only have four free days in July it might not be until August! 

Until next time,

Amanda