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| Grandson Owen Call |
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| High Tide at Whitley Bay |
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| High Tide with the Shortened Beach at Whitley Bay |
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| Cullercoats Beach |
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| Tynemouth Snack Stop |
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| Tynemouth Coffee Stop |
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| Cullercoats Beach |
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| Local Snail |
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| Low Tide looking at Cullercoats Beach |
Saturday. 6
We have sunny 5 am sunrise that floods our living room with light on the sunny days! Lol. There are high ceilings and plenty of space for our yoga mats and our DDP exercises. Darrell makes pancakes several times a week, and today we had pancakes. We have fresh fruit, nuts, butter and maple syrup to top them, and dark coffee. Today we walked the coastline 3 ½ miles to Tynemouth to go to their Saturday market at that metro station. We stopped for a cappuccino along the way. The walk is beautiful and the tide changes from low to high a couple times a day. The tide times change daily and are tracked online for those watching. At the market we bought a loaf of sourdough but we didn’t see any lunch we were wanting. As we walked back through Tynemouth, we stopped for a snack. Darrell got a smoothie and I got an oatmeal cookie. We had lunch at our apartment and then walked around Whitley Bay stores to get some groceries. Later in the afternoon we called Darrell’s mom and visited with her.
Sunday. 7
I taught the kids Bible class today. There were 4 children ages 7-12 there and then at the last 5 minutes, 3 visitors showed up ages 3-9. That was great! We take the metro to and from Newcastle to get to the community center where the church meets. It can take 40 minutes up to an hour one way. After worship, our American friend and local chiropractor, went on the Metro with us to have lunch. On the way, he was able to show us where his office is located as we have appointments with him on Tuesday. We made soup for dinner.
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| Grandson Quinn Call |
Monday. 8
On this morning, Darrell and I had a scheduled pet sit interview for our New Zealand trip. We did a whatsapp chat with Chris and Annette about staying with their cat near Christchurch in November. We all agreed and we’ve added that 9 day housesit to our calendar. There was a plumber who came to fix a small but difficult leak, and he was successful. It is a rainy day and we stayed in and cooked in today. I called my US friend Laura by an agreed schedule for a generous 2 hour time in my afternoon and her morning!
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| Walking the Beach at Whitley Bay |
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| Low Tide Rocks at St. Mary's Lighthouse with Seals |
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| Causeway to St. Mary's Lighthouse |
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| View of St. Mary's Lighthouse from Whitley Bay |
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| Perfectly Poached Eggs with Trimmings |
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| Nice Restaurant in Gosforth Employing Special Needs |
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| Dr. Jacob's Great View While Adjusting Darrell |
Tuesday. 9
We went on the Metro 30 minutes to our 11:15 chiropractic appointments with Jacob, and then found an interesting cafe for lunch. This cafe employs and trains special needs people. It was quite nice to contribute as customers here. Once we were back to Whitley Bay we walked to St. Mary’s lighthouse at the north side of the beach. It’s a 45 minute walk along the beach from our apartment.
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| Our Delicious Meal. We Cooked Nachos and Soup |
Wednesday. 10
We walked over a mile one way to Morrison’s grocery, the largest and closest grocery to us, to do morning shopping. We stayed in and cooked together for lunch and dinner.
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| Walking to the Train Station in Whitley Bay |
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| In Newcastle |
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| At the Newcastle Bus Station |
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| On the Bus to Alnwick |
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| Amazing Fields of Yellow on Our Bus Ride |
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| View of a Town From the Bus |
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| Alnwick Scene |
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| Alnwick Castle Entrance |
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| Darrell at Alnwick Castle |
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| Beautiful Alnwick Castle View |
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| Alnwick Castle |
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| Alnwick Castle Broom Flying Field for Harry Potter |
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| Lunch at Castle Cafe. Brie Bacon and Cranberry Toasted |
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| Castle Cafe |
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| View of the Outside of the Family Home |
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| Fly Your Broom Class |
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| Our Tour Guide Allen |
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| More Beautiful Views at Alnwick Castle |
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| Darrell |
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| View from the Other Side of the River |
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| We Walked the Cow Field for this View |
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| Darrell Climbing the Gate Because of Mud |
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| My Turn |
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| River Falls Added by a Past Duchess |
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| Walking Back to Town |
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| Beautiful Views on Our Bus Ride Home |
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| Thai Dinner with Loads of Added Ginger!! |
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| Thai Dinner is Another Take on Pad Thai |
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| Entry to Thai Restaurant Isn't Handicapped Friendly |
Thursday. 11
Today we had new information and itinerary changes sent to us about our September repositioning cruise from Vancouver, BC to New Zealand. We decided to look at other cruise options that we might change to. We decided on changing to the repositioning cruise leaving Vancouver, BC on October 3rd on the Princess Majestic. (if you’d like to sail with us:) This will change our calendar by 2 weeks. My first thought was that we can stay in Vancouver, BC for two weeks and enjoy that area. We are looking at several options and in our thinking and discussions about those two weeks.
Today is extremely sunny with clear blue skies, and Darrell worked out a day trip for us to visit Alnwick Castle. We took the metro to Newcastle and got on a bus that was 1-2 hours to get there. We enjoyed the ride being able to look out at the countryside and see the fields blooming bright yellow with rapeseed. The town and castle was amazing! We enjoyed a tour that was included. We had a much needed snack at the castle cafe. We took our guides advice to walk down the hill and across the river to the cow field and see the castle from there, then walk the long way through the field and back around to town. Lovely! Alnwick Castle is amazing and has a thousand year history being owned by the same family! That’s a feat. The current 12th duke has compiled a history book as one of his projects. His castle has been featured in many movies and films including Harry Potter. No pictures are allowed inside as the family still lives there.
We got back to Whitley Bay at 6:30pm and ate at a nice Thai restaurant.
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| Cappucino, Tea and Ice Cream |
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| Owen Call with Eric's Funny Face |
Friday. 12
Worked out. Had pancakes. Computer work. Discussions on what we will ‘do’ as tourists while here. Darrell looked at going to Holy Island, Lindisfarne and we nixed it. We are leaning toward going back to do another section of Hadrian’s Wall. I also have York on my list which has been given a big thumbs up by Katy at church. I also have several nice and free museums still on the possibility, but these are rainy day activities for me.
I have been shopping online for my air ticket trip in June for 3 days with my sisters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I was able to make my purchase today with a ticket that I’m happy with.
Nomad Notes. My “nomad living” thoughts as I am writing this on May 15th are about being okay being a nomad. This is not my vacation I’m on, but that is the closest idea that other people have to relate to what our nomad living is like for them. Being retired also adds to an experience that working people have not had yet.
Putting retirement and nomad living together is a concept that seems like a fantasy when you are embedded in work, school and growing your family. The concepts separately are very far out in the unknown future. The concepts together are unique because most people will never consider nomad living as a way of life that they want.
To get to this place where we are now, living for a month in Whitley Bay, Northumbria, England, many ideas and agreements between Darrell and I had to come together. The longest I have lived in one place in my entire life was in Madison, Alabama where we owned our last house and lived there for 14 years. Before that we lived in Burlington, North Carolina for 7 years. There was a time in my past that I went through a grieving when I realized that I couldn’t have a lifelong neighborhood experience because I grew up moving from place to place. I was always the person moving in and moving out. When my children were having a hard time leaving friends and classmates and houses I also grieved for them. Once I recognized my losses, then I could more easily accept my life and all the amazing parts of my experiences in moving around.
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