On the Monday morning after our wedding, once the last of my family had left Bruisyard Hall for Heathrow to return to the States, Jon and I piled into his parents' car for a drive up through East Anglia to the North Norfolk coast. We stopped at the least pretentious and most lovely little pub for lunch on the way, and I was struck by how close his mum and dad and I had become over the past five years - it's one thing to be welcomed at a special event like a wedding, when everyone's high on love and joy, but entirely another to be part of the family at mundane moments. It was the most wonderful feeling.
The four of us shared a pot of tea at our pretty hotel before my in-laws turned around to head back to Suffolk and Jon and I struck out for our first sight of the beach.
I'm used to being by the North Sea now because Jon's family lives close to Aldeburgh, a resort town in Suffolk right on the coast, but the beach is pebbled along that stretch and the water is cold even in the summer. In North Norfolk, fine sand reaches from the dunes all the way to the water's edge - at low tide, there's about a mile of beach between the two. The water is warm as you wade in, gentle wavelets lapping at your ankles, and little crabs scuttle in the low pools nestled in the sand. Though I'm loyal to Suffolk, this beach is much more hospitable!
We walked from Old Hunstanton, where we were staying, up to Hunstanton, a larger beach town with a pier. Along the way, we passed amazing layered cliffs with exposed stone from two different geological eras. Jon and I wandered through the boardwalk amusements and enjoyed a private ride on the Ferris Wheel as the sky turned pink above us. Our timing was perfect; because of the curve of the coast, this is one of the only beaches on the east side of the country from which you can watch the sun set over the sea.
It was getting dark as we wandered back to the hotel (and stopped for a very romantic dinner of chili nachos), but we spent most of our free time over the next few days on the beach. We even took a bottle of our wedding champagne down to the dunes one evening! We had mostly perfect weather - it was glorious.
linking up with Found Love, Now What? and A Compass Rose
