Norfolk Outing

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After a slow start to our day, we headed out to Castle Acre Priory, which is about 20 miles away from mom's house. When we arrived at Castle Acre, we parked (a lot farther away than we needed to) and walked to waht we thought was the Priory. It wasn't. It was a church. So, after walking through the cemetary and seeing the actual Priory off in the distance, we made our way there. Joey and I bought an overseas visitors pass for 2 people for 43 pounds. The Priory is a bunch of ruins now, but you can still tell how beautiful it once was. It really is quite something to see with the gray rock of the ruins contrasting with the bright green grass growing all around. The rocks that were used to build it are really cool. Where they're cut, you can see how smooth the inside of the rock is. At one end of the building was a really short passageway, which, of course, Joey had to go inside to check out. We later found out that it was their sewer!

Next, we went to Sheringham Park, which was about 20 miles further north. The park was really lovely. It has lots of rhododendrons, which bloom in May and June, so that's really the time to go. The route we chose was about 2 miles long. At the entrance of the park there was a sign that said cattle were grazing there. I had no idea that we would be that close to the roaming cattle. They were walking in the same area that we were. It was a little intimidating being that close to huge animals, even if they are docile. After we walked through the cattle area, we hiked up a hill to get to a gazebo. The gazebo was actually a lookout tower. It was really high. When Joey and I got to the top, there was another man already up there. He said that his wife climbed up there and immediately went back down. They are from the southwestern part of England. Mom slowly made her way up, and when she got really close, she decided it was too high and was going to go back down. But, I convinced her to come the rest of the way up. After she reached the top, I asked her if it was worth it, and she said it was. We were so high up that we were above the trees. This gave us a great view though. And, we could see the ocean! We were also able to see a lighthouse and a steam engine. After we came down, we had to walk through the cows again, then up a steep hill before getting back to our car. It was definitely a workout!

Since the Davis' are out of town, we stopped at their house to pick up their dog, Loco, to stay at mom's house. He warmed up to us pretty quickly.

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Photos

Sheringham Park
These rhododendrons will be so pretty when they're in bloom!

Loco
Look how cute he is!

Castle Acre church
This is the church we went to first, when we thought it was the Priory.

Rock
You can see how smooth the rocks are when they're cut.

View from Gazebo
You can see the ocean and the trees that we're above.

Trail
This is the trail we came down on.