a costal sampler

This past weekend, Pat and I visited several cities along the eastern coast. It only took us a little over an hour to get there and, even though the forecast was rain and clouds, we luckily missed out on the rain until the very end.

The drive out there was over the Moors which are beautiful, even when it's dreary out. Pat and I are looking forward to going back when it's sunny. I think we caught the end of the lavendar blooming season and the hills were almost solidly purple. I hope that we can catch the beginning of the bloom before we leave. There are sheep, pigs, and cows everywhere. You don't necessarily need to keep an eye out for deer, but for sheep. On the way back, I noticed two sheep laying down cozy-like just next to the road (I think the speed limit was 70 or so). I mentioned it to Pat so he'd keep an eye out and he said "were they dead?" I said no. Just a minute later one just kind of pranced out to the road--almost sounds like some kind of bad joke... what happened when the sheep crossed the road?... greener pastures on the other side? There are fences, but apparently they're not quite sheep-proof.

Anyway, I'll get to the good stuff. Here's a sampling of the photos we took this weekend to give you an idea...

Our first stop--Scarborough.
Scarborough has a castle, old Victorian hotels from it's resort days, and donkey rides. Very touristy. Wouldn't recommend it. Pat made a comment that the pictures make it look nicer than it is and that really it's the Pigeon Forge of the coast. Tacky. Sorry, didn't think to take a picture of the donkey rides, but apparently it's the thing to do on the beach (since you can't really get in the water). I really wanted a picture of Pat riding an ass, but he wouldn't do it. Guess I'll have to wait until we go to the Grand Canyon.





Next stop--Robin Hood's Bay.
I guess back in the day it was popular for smuggling, hence the name. Now, it's a quaint B&B village nestled in a little gap in the cliffs heading down steeply towards the shore. We would highly recommend seeing this. It was a beautiful peaceful place, and although it still had donkey rides, not tacky at all. It was low tide while we were on the coast so you could walk out over all of the tide pools. It looks like the water comes right up to the town when the tide is in.







And finally--Whitby.
I think this was an old fishing village which still seems somewhat active. Whitby has a beautiful Abbey up on the cliff which is in ruins thanks to Henry the VII and his religious agenda. Whitby has the "highest cliffs" on the eastern coast and is very beautiful up by the abbey. Whitby has some kind of tie to Dracula... Bram Stoker lived there while he wrote it?... so there's Pigeon Forge-like dracula attractions. The town is nice too, but we were really too tired to appreciate it. It has more of a carnival atmosphere down by the harbor and I'm sure there were donkeys somewhere :) I had my first fish & chips there. It was actually very good and I'm pretty sure there was real cod and real potato in there :)





This coastal sampler is brought to you by TomTom, our new best friend. Our little personal navigation device allowed us to create an itinerary and guided us turn by turn on roads that aren't well marked and are often known by more names than are labeled. It's a little marriage-saver too, preventing that "you didn't tell me" fun and frustration.