Weekend in Wales

This past weekend we took a little road trip with Brent and Jenalyn to the north coast of Wales. We had such a good time, driving along and talking, enjoying the scenary together, etc. It's a trip we definitely want to do again, when we can stay a bit longer and relax. There was so much to see there, and the countryside was gorgeous!

The first night we got a late start (I'll spare you the details of Brian's unavoidable work adventures on his scheduled vacation day). We stayed in Burmingham and woke up just six miles from Cadbury World -- you guessed it, the home of Cadbury Chocolate!! We were so excited to go on a tour, but then we found out the wait to get in would be at least an hour, and the expected tour length was 3+ hours. Since we were on a trip to Northern Wales and not Cadbury World, we opted out. But just imagine the chocolatey dreams we had as we drove along after leaving there. mmmmm.... good!



We stopped in Ludlow, described as "the loveliest little village in England" in our Thousand Places to See Before You Die book. It was really charming, with quaint old buildings, cobbled streets, and even an old castle in ruins. We took pictures of it all, as you can imagine, but I'm only sharing highlights here.
Okay, so getting to the coast took a lot longer than we anticipated, but we finally made it -- about 5:30 Saturday night. We saw an exit that said "Beach" and headed over. It wasn't the most beautiful coast (it got much better as we drove along), but it was so fun to smell the sea, feel the sand, and collect a few shells.
As we were walking along the beach, two Welch guys came up to warn us the sand wasn't very stable in that area. There were huge mud pockets that were hard to detect and could be dangerous -- if you get stuck in the mud as the tide comes in, it can be a problem because in some parts, the tide comes "faster than ten horses can run," he explained in a cautious voice with wide eyes. (We later wondered amongst ourselves whether ten horses can run faster than one?)

I asked if I could take both their pictures, after they had informed us they were two of the best live bait diggers in North Wales! They were practically famous, don'tcha think?! (Aside -- the worms they were collecting were disgusting! They were about as thick as my baby finger and as long as my forearm... and black and slimy and gross! they were sucking them up with an air pump thing they would poke in the sand, suck, then spit out on top of the sand. It looked like a lot of work for the creepy crawlies.)