THE QUEEN MARY

Another tourist attraction on our to do list for LA was staying at the Queen Mary. For this of you who don't know is a retired British ocean liner. It used to sail from Southampton to New York as an express service. So we decided to stay on it during our mini weekend break and it was impressive. We were able to wander around it and see all the different parts of the ship which has been preserved to give us an idea of what life was like on the ship.

It was fun to stay on the ship. The rooms had a lot of the original features left in it and the more modern things in the room were put in as much as possible in keeping with the time period. I have to say I loved having portholes to open in the morning! 

There was a lot of love for Britain on board the ship. The gift shop was filled with British items and lots of Americans getting very excited over them! There was also an exhibit on board dedicated to Princess Diana. It housed some of her clothes and also now some clothes belonging to the Duchess of Cambridge. It was funny to see their take on the British Royal family. A lot of the information we already knew but it was refreshing to see someone loving our monarchy like we do (especially Prince Harry!)

Overall it was a worthwhile experience and another item to tick off our ever shrinking American to do list!

H

KAYAKI KICK

So now the weather is picking up and the wind is slowly reducing, I needed to head outside and try to get my fitness back on track and get a little sun on my skin. With all the water around here, kayaking seemed the obvious choice, especially when we could hire them so cheap nearby. So last Monday and Friday we took to the water.

Monday was perfect with a very slight breeze, we covered a fair distance in 2 hours and dusted of my kayak skills. I hired an open top sea kayak, so the picky ones amongst you would call it a canoe but I wont get into that fight. Friday was sunny but the wind was quite high leading to it being a lil rough. Stupidly we went with the wind on the outward trip leading to a very slow choppy paddle back. It was hard work but I needed the exercise and it was good fun so didn't really notice the aching in the shoulders. Not until the next day anyway...

Hopefully we are planning to take to the water again on Wednesday if the weather's good.

A

FAST BOAT

The previous week some of the guys had an opportunity to do the state boat safety course so we could hire boats out. This saturday a group of us hired a boat to got for a little spin around Chocowatchee Bay, especially as the weather was perfect for it. 

The Bay has some quite shallow sandbanks around the side so was perfect for anchoring up and going for a dip. The water was very cold but crystal clear so managed to avoid the jelly fish! We had a small fly past from some vintage warplanes who were heading east along the coast.

I had a short go at the wheel, and thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see from my silly smile!

Thankfully you don't see the rather funky shorts I am wearing. lol. I love the feeling at the end of the day of a glowing face from the wind and sun after being on an adventurous day. We finished the day with a home-cooked pasta meal laughing at the photos and videos we had taken.

Here are a few snaps.

A

MESSING ABOUT ON THE RIVER

Having a super weekend with the Woodruff Clan celebrating Dad's 70th. We are staying in a wonderful house in Horning together, with an upstairs veranda looking over the River Bure.

A quintessentially Norfolk village with a marina and some small independent shops selling some delicious looking wares all surrounded by thatch and herringbone brick work.

Today, we hired a day boat and explored the broads further. Travelling to St Benets Abbey: now only an archway and the ruins of a windmill remain that were built around some of the abbey structure making an amazing mix of architecture.

It was such a peaceful and autumnal day. As for the joke about every herron being a plastic one, that never did seem to get old!

A