Cornwall England, and a party by the sea

    

    We made it to England! We are here for Kari and Jess's wedding party! Jess's parents moved to Perranporth from Stevenage, near London, 3 years ago. We arrived a few hours before Kari and Jess did, and we headed down to the ocean to explore! The town of Perranporth is a cute touristy town with an amazingly beautiful beach! The tides come in and out quite a long way, which we love to see! There's a rocky coastline with little islands, beautiful cliffs, sea caves and arches!

Cool beach caves!

     The girls got in around dinner time, so we headed over to Chris and Heather's (Jess's parents) house for a wonderful dinner.  It was great to see them again! Our airbnb is about 1 1/4 miles from their house, so we decided to walk. Mark found a "shortcut" to keep us off some of the busy single lane roads, but we ended up going through neighborhoods, woods, up a step hill, and through a field! We still made it in time for dinner. Jess said she would pick us up if we wanted along the way, but I don't think she could have found us. After dinner, we went down to the beach for an evening walk.

Chris and Heather's lovely backyard!

A beautiful evening on the beach

 The next morning we did some shopping before going on a wonderful hike along the coastline between Perranporth and St. Agnes with the girls, Heather, Chris and some extended family, Helen and Gary. The coastline was so scenic and beautiful!

Amazing cliffs, we even spotted
 a seal out in the water

The cliffs are so colorful in places, 
 and have many old tin mine tunnels

This walk was so beautiful!!

Trevaunance cove,
Near St. Agnes

  

Time to go to the spa! The girls treated their moms to a splendid morning at the spa. We enjoyed the indoor pool, sauna and jacuzzi before getting a mani or pedi! What a wonderful morning of pampering and relaxing!  

Ben and Anthony made it in after a bit of trouble
with tires on the narrow roads

Heather was finishing up
 the wedding cake!!

 For dinner and live music, we visited a local open air restaurant where we met up with some of Chris and Heather's friends, and a good camp friend of the girls with her wife and their dog!

Ben, Anthony, Kari, Jess, Zaszu (Amelia), and Tara

Low tide in Perranporth,
the beach was enormous, 
 so much beautiful sand!!!

We ran into Ben and Anthony on the beach, checking out the cool sea caves and formations,
great minds think alike!

  

We found more caves!

     Finally, it was the day we had been waiting for, for 3 years, and the whole reason that we started planning this trip to Europe! It was Jess and Kari's wedding party day, and it couldn't have turned out better! The weather was amazing and we met so many nice people, enjoyed wonderful food, and celebrated the girls' marriage! 

Mark got to walk Kari across the grass

They surprised everyone with a touching renewal of their vows!

They just wanted to walk in the ocean in their dresses!!

It was great to all be together to celebrate!!!!
From left: Jess's brothers Rowan and Lewis, parents Heather and Chris, Jess and
Kari, Mark and Kathy, Ben and Anthony

The evening continued with games
and s'mores on the beach.
 It was a perfect day!

                    

Time for a restful day! We ran into the boys on the beach again in the morning, then met up with the girls for a delicious lunch. On Sundays some of the restaurants have a carvery, which is usually 3 meats and all the sides you want. So Jess and Mark filled their plates. Kari and I just shared!

A carvery for Sunday lunch,
this plate was piled high!

Relaxing

    Afternoon coastal walk to St. Ives from the St. Erth train station. 

Views from the trail 

Low tide

The water colors were beautiful

Beautiful views

I felt like we were in the Carribean,
not in England!

 

Heather prepared a lovely cream tea, with finger sandwiches, scones, fruit and sweets

I helped make the scones!

We had a fun night at the Rocky Horror Picture Show

The next morning we headed to Marazion beach, and St. Michael's Mount for a bit of kayaking and paddleboarding

Marazion, a beautiful coastal village

The walk to St. Michael's Mount,
only accessible at low tide

Jess is on the paddleboard,
 Kari and Jess's brother Rowan are kayaking

St. Michael's Mount is in the background

Evening solstice swim with the "Blue Tits", a group that Heather is in. They swim in the ocean all year long, with no wet suits. They are hardy souls, swimming in water that is never warm and often very cold! This day it was around 60F (maybe a bit warmer closer to shore). It is a lovely group of women, even if they are a bit bonkers (Jess's description).

Sunset

We wanted to walk the whole beach at low tide in Perranporth.  We picked up pasties (savory hand held pies) and headed out on another beautiful morning!

We finished our time in Perranporth at the lovely outdoor restaurant with dinner and live music. Jess drove us to London for the last leg of our tour of the UK. On the way, we stopped in Winchester, a great city where Jess graduated University. We strolled around the town and learned a bit about its old cathedral from a volunteer.

London

      I met Hui Lee while I was an exchange student in Malaysia, a "few" years back. She went to London for university, got married and stayed. I last saw her eleven years ago when we had a layover in London. On that visit, she gave us a wonderful tour of the tourist sights in the city. This time she suggested a little different tour of London. We met up with Ben and Anthony at Burrough Market, had a great lunch in the area, then headed out to explore a bit outside the busy city. It was a woodland and garden tour, perfect on a warm summer day!

We are standing in front of the
Fenton House in Hampstead

It was great to see my friend again!

We went for a walk up to Parliment Hill
Viewpoint in Hampstead Heath
 for a great view of the city of London! 

On our last morning in the UK, we headed out on our own. We started at the British Museum to view a few of the antiquities that have been collected through the centuries. Then we walked through the West End on our way to Chinatown for a nice dim sum lunch. 

We said goodbye to the UK, and our friends and family there.