Flashback Friday: Sunny Hunny in the Summer

Jun 24, 2011 by cafebebemama

Every Summer since my arrival in England in June 2005, Hubby and I and various combinations of his family have spent time in Hunstanton, Norfolk. We are about a 45 minute drive from Hunstanton and I have really grown to love spending sunny and not-so-sunny days on the beach there.

The photo on the left is of our dearly departed Sinjin, my hubby Mark and our niece Charlotte (prone) enjoying the rays on one of the sunny days. I’m flashing back to Hunstanton because next weekend we’ll be spending another long weekend with the family on the shores of Norfolk beaches (unfortunately not near Hunstanton this time). Mark’s sister and her family have been overseas for the last 15 years (USA, Geneva, Singapore, Australia) but each summer we’ve had the pleasure of their company for a few weeks at least.

This year we’ll all be gathering minus our niece Charlotte who will be on a grand school adventure in Australia and won’t be able to make it back this time. We’ll be missing Sinjin for the first time but I can’t tell you how excited, to bursting, Ella is to go find some “crabbies” at the seaside next weekend.

Mark and I enjoyed the beaches of Hunstanton as a couple for 3 years before introducing Ella to the sun and sand. In fact, our 2nd Christmas together, as my inlaws were in Singapore celebrating Christmas with my sister-in-law and her family, Mark and I decided to pack Sinjin in the car on Christmas Day and head for Hunstanton. It was a blustery day without sun but we didn’t care. We ran to the water’s edge and shouted “Happy Christmas” at the top of our lungs. And I learned how strong English mustard really is as I ended up making an inedible ham sandwich for Mark loaded with Coleman’s English mustard. **note to self: go easy on the Coleman’s**

Eventually, in 2008 we were able to introduce Ella to the joy of Hunstanton when she was only about 3 weeks old. I had, stupidly, dressed her in a pink sun dress and cardigan but was horrified to discover that the temperature at the seaside was about 10 degrees colder than in the Peterborough area. The wind was swirling and the sand was blowing which made for an excessively irritated and nervous new mummy. Ella was snuggled up in my Baby Bjorn carrier and covered up in a blanket but I was still worried about the sand and wind. We ended up spending several hours sitting in the car and bothering the cafe for hot water in a jug to warm up her bottle. It wasn’t the most fun we had ever had!

What a happy face I have! But still, despite the sometimes frigid temps and crazy winds, Hunstanton remains a wonderful (and thankfully close) location for us to enjoy a bit of the “sea”. I know that Ella will enjoy it for years to come.

We’re really looking forward to our long weekend with the family this year as Ella, at 3, will be even more capable and will thoroughly enjoy (we hope) the rock pooling and creatures. Last year, as we walked along the sand, we found a “sleeping” crab that Ella wanted to hold. She clutched that crabby the entire afternoon but we were finally able to convince her to let the crabby go to see it’s Mummy before we left the beach. Let me tell you, it was mighty difficult to remove the stench of dead crab from her hand but we sorted it in the end!

So thank you, Hunstanton (and the rest of the Norfolk East Coast) for providing the Joyce family with some wonderful adventures and a bit of “sea” air to keep us sane. Feel free to link up your Flashback Friday in the Linky below. I love it when you feel the pull to share your memories too.