Stopping by Alnmouth on a Windy Morning

Today we're off to The Holy Island of Lindisfarne. It takes a little over two hours to get there, if you take the scenic coast road--which of course we did! We stopped about halfway in the most adorable little village ever. Seriously. This place is magical. We've stopped here before, and knew we wanted to share it with Jer and Kara.

It looks like Ollie chose this coffee shop, but really it was the adorable
signage that got us.

Love the tea served on individual trays. Hip. The cute cups come with these
great little rubber or silicone gripper bands. (I just made that up.) Super cute.

Cause you know you have to have a scone with butter and jam
when you're in England.

Kara and I look refreshed and gorgeous. :)

The guys? Not so much.

Little Miss Cindy Lou Hoo in her piggy-tails. Adorable.
How are we ever going to be able to say goodbye to this
sweet thing?

We walk to the top of the hill to an overlook. What a spectacular view!

Am I right? So charming.

I always like to take pics of menus, you guys
already know that. This is truly English food though.
Especially the all-day breakfast. They love some
breakfast here in England! Bacon, sausage, ham....

Speaking of ham.

Jer, where's your jacket? It's chilly!

Merrit, Ollie, and I walked down on the sand. At high tide, this whole inlet will
be filled with water. The tides here are quite dramatic!

These boats will be floating in six to eight feet of water. Unbelievable.

I had to keep Ollie from climbing into this boat.

Aw, Olfers is such a cutie-pie.
But when did he get so big? 

Walk to Tynemouth and Back with Jer and Kara

A BIG NORTHEAST ENGLAND WELCOME TO OUR GUESTS FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS: JER, KARA, AND EMMIE!

One of our favorite places to go is Tynemouth. It's almost three miles south of Whitley Bay, and the walk there is so beautiful. It's one of the first things we want to share with Jer and Kara. 

We're also hoping to get out of town a little bit to some nearby destinations. We're still figuring out what's on the itinerary. All we know is: It'll be a blast to share northeast England with friends!

Another day, another adventure. We're staying close to home again today.
Leaving Whitley Bay, Merrit strides with meaning toward Tynemouth.

We'd only walked about 10 or 15 minutes before we realized it was practically
lunch time and we needed to keep the kids on a somewhat predictable
schedule. So, we popped into a seafront cafe called The Barnacle. The view
was lovely but the food took forever to get to the table. Kids were starving.
Little Emmie ate about a pound and a half of puffed veggie snacks while
we waited for lunch. What a good sport!

We have to walk through Cullercoats to get to Tynemouth. Here it is, coming
up ahead. Just a simple seaside village with an ancient church, lots of
houses, some restaurants, a metro stop, a Tesco's, and the sea.

Cullercoats also has a RNLI (Royal National Lifeguard Institution) training
station. That's it down on the sand, in the old brick building.

Cuttin' up in Cullercoats.

We've walked about a mile now. The kids have to go potty. The Queen's Head
pub looks like as good a spot as any. In we go for a pint and a potty break.

Group shot overlooking Long Sands Beach, a famous
surfing destination just north of Tynemouth. We are
getting closer! And, look! The cloud cover is blowing over.
Sun, glorious sun!

"I give you...England!"

Another shot of the priory as we get closer.

As we get closer to Tynemouth, we can see the
Tynemouth Priory across King Edward's Bay.

Now we're right in front of the priory. Here are our lovely guests, all the way
from North Carolina. Kara, cutie-pie and world traveler Emmie, and Jer.
Such a sweet family!

Merrit has called our friend Jer, "Uncle Jer" from day one. Jer lived next
door to us when Merrit was born. Awwww.

These two go way back.  About 15 years now. Wow....I feel old.

A passerby offered to take our photo. This one's a keeper.

Most pubs here are family friendly food establishments. We ducked in to this
one called Gibraltar Rock, which is right next door to the priory, to sit
down for a bit after our 2+ mile walk.

Front Street, Tynemouth. On our way to the metro station. The sun is
setting and the sea is at our backs as we walk west.

My boys, leading the way...

At the Tynemouth metro stop, we hopped a train back to Whitley Bay.

Don't be nervous...Ollie has become a very good listener.

Emmie loves public transportation! :)

What fun for our three kids to get to ride the train!

We had to take Jer and Kara to our favorite Italian spot, San Carlo's in Whitley Bay...

Oh wow, I just did the math. Four restaurants in eight hours. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves!

All Work and No Play

I'm working really hard right now; I have been pretty much since we got back from NC last month. Most of you know that I do freelance writing on the side. I write web and search engine optimized copy and I have another side business writing resumes and cover letters.

By way of making excuses for my slack blogging habits lately, I'm just saying that, with a lot of help from my sweet faerie designer Carrie Koehmstedt, I have a new website. Yay! I also just wrote an eBook on how to use the Internet and social media to find a job. And I rolled out a new service: LinkedIn Makeovers. Whew!

Here's what it look like behind the curtain...Papers everywhere. Bills on the mantle. Towel drying on the radiator. Ollie mere moments away from spilling coffee on my laptop. Me in that ubiquitous grey hoodie (I really SHOULD get rid of that thing).

Working mama.

I am trying to wrap EVERYTHING up by the time our friends, Jer and Kara, get here next week. That's my own personal deadline. Then it will be ALL PLAY AND NO WORK! Woo hoo.

Sudsy Fun

An English summer is a lot like a North Carolina spring. We finally started wearing shorts over the last few weeks. Today it was so sunny and beautiful and warm that I set Ollie up outside with a bucket of soapy water and some of his toys. Here he is, giving his Thomas trains and assorted helicopters and airplanes a sudsy bath.

I'm 38 Today

Whatever, it's just a number. How can you get fixated on a number, after all?

Mike took the day off and we had a great day. It started off with Merrit making breakfast for me. Omelettes, of course.

Then Mike stayed with the boys while I went for a run along the seafront, down to Cullercoats and back (not as far as the Priory in Tynemouth and back--my usual run--because I haven't run in a couple of weeks and I was feeling it!). Still, a great run and really nice to be out on a warm, sunny day with just the music in my ears to keep me company.

Got home. Showered. Got ready. It was lunchtime so we all drove to Tynemouth for lunch at a pub. Sat outside because it was just gorgeous. Then we drove to the Fish Quay. I wanted to find one of the fish markets there to buy some seafood for my birthday dinner: Paella. I bought New Zealand mussels (they'd sold out of the Scottish mussels) and local king prawns (what we'd call jumbo shrimp).

After that we headed home, took a nap, had a chiropractor appointment (while the boys and I went there, Mike went on another bike ride, about 12 miles today). Then I took the kids to the grocery store. Came home and started dinner.

Paella with mussels, shrimp, and sausage. I basically used Jamie Oliver's recipe, only I didn't use chicken. And instead of chorizo and pancetta, I used spicy Spanish sausages. And I skipped the squid. It was really very good! Served it with a small salad. And flowers on the table that Merrit picked in the front garden. And for dessert, one square of chocolate.

Happy birthday to me....

Souter Lighthouse

After church today we checked out the website for The National Trust. We're members, so we can get in free at any of their properties for the rest of the year. On the website, you can easily see which of their properties are located near your postcode.

Hey, there are like seven. Cool.

We chose to go to Souter Lighthouse, located just across the River Tyne from Tynemouth, which is a stone's throw from house. As the crow flies, it couldn't be more than six miles. BUT, there's not a car-ferry across the Tyne, only a passenger/bike ferry from North Shields. So, we drove toward Newcastle, under the river via the Tyne Tunnel, and east again toward the coast. Not that it was a long trip...maybe it took 20 minutes or so.

Now that we know how to get there on foot, and that we have bona fide bike riders in the family, we are thinking we need to build the boys' endurance up over the next year and attempt a bike ride to the Souter Lighthouse. We could all ride the three miles to Tynemouth, take the ferry across, and then ride the last mile or so to the lighthouse along a gravel cliff-side path. (Don't worry, grandmas, there's a guard rail!)

Today though we were going by car. We grabbed sandwiches, bags of crisps (chips), and drinks from a sandwhich shop, and headed out for our adventure.

It's been a while since we used our nice Canon Rebel. Wow, I forgot what nice pics it takes! :) Imagine our disappointment when we realized that after about six photos, the battery was dead. Poop.

Anyway, we got a couple of good, cloudy-sky pics. But after a short rain shower, the sun came out and it was flat-out gorgeous! Gorgeous. Gorgeous. How can I explain it without photos? Bright blue North Sea for a full 180+ degrees, sailboats dotting the blue expanse. White clouds in a bright blue sky. Meadowlands with wildflowers and grasses dancing in the breeze. The bright orange and white lighthouse against the bright sky. The 70-foot cliffs dropping down to the rocky coastline. Birds everywhere. And ladybugs all over the place. Whether you zoomed out to appreciate the vast expanse of grassy fields and cloud-swirled sky or zoomed in to see the red and black ladybug crawling on your little boy's pudgy, dirty hand....it was just an amazingly beautiful day, place, experience.

We also climbed to the very top of the lighthouse--76 steps followed by a last set of nearly-ladderlike steps up to the light. Those dizzying last steps were not for the faint of heart. But all four of us made it to the top. (The boys even got stickers that say "I've seen the view from the top of Souter!") A guide at the top gave out the stickers and talked a bit about the light and the history of the lighthouse.

What a great day. We've learned that when you have a nice day, you have to get out and make the most of it!

Mike's New Ministry

We just got back from church and, in chatting with some of the folks we've met over the last few weeks, we were able to clear up a teeny-tiny misunderstanding.

Apparently, two weeks ago, Mike said something to a woman in the church about "working in the game industry" and she thought he said "working in gay ministry." So, naturally, everyone was intrigued and wanted to know more about how Mike came to be involved in gay ministry. 

Well...we cleared that up today...and had a good laugh.