Seals and Felbrigg Hall

This has become the Chronicles of K and B's Weekend Adventures it seems.
The week after the Cambridge trip was pretty nondescript, except for that Friday.  On Friday I got together with Elizabeth, my mom's, cousin's, husband's, mother. : D Got that? We'll just call it a "distant relation".
I met Elizabeth by the Sportspark, and she drove us back to her house.  We drank tea and talked the afternoon away.  She is a lovely lady, very well spoken and incredibly nice.  She seemed to take a liking to me too, and we agreed to meet again before she departed for South Africa in early April.

On that Saturday I headed to the Norfolk seaside with a group of other international students. DOS had organized another exciting trip for us; a boat ride to a colony of seals, and an outing to Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust estate.  I'm glad I decided to wear my down jacket (however marshmallow-like I may look in it) there was a crisp breeze as we skimmed along the surface of the water. I was amazed all 50 of us fit in this small boat, it was full, but not too uncomfortable.  I came prepared with both my camera and binoculars.  While I snapped pics of the seals I let the girl next to me steal a glance through my binocs, share the wealth, right?
The seals didn't move much, but you could hear them (and thankfully not smell them).

Yeah, I let Bambi hop up to the seat so she could see the seals too. : ) She showed interest, but wasn't excited enough to take a dive overboard.

Next we went to Felbrigg Hall.

There was some construction in progress, but the house still looked pretty grand.
Here are some pictures from various rooms inside.  I particularly liked the library (always wanted a room with books lining the walls like Spinner's End...or the lib in Beauty and the Beast...) and the bedrooms (not sure why, but I love bedrooms, could do with the love of my own bed and the posh curtains around the beds in these old houses).

Not sure how that's a "man trap" but it's funny anyway.
We had a lot of time to kill, so we walked around the grounds. One of the first things we came across was this enormous tree. It was one of the widest trees I've ever seen, like the Redwoods in Cali. I loved how the trunk twisted, will be sure to include trees like this in future drawings.

I wonder how old that tree is? I'm guessing 200+ years (I'm no expert by any means...)
There were some garden areas, a greenhouse, and a path through a wooded are which was like a big loop. While walking along it, I could imagine coming down the same path on horseback, which was probably done many a time in years past.

There was also a gift shop.  While I was absentmindedly glancing at things (necklaces, postcard, stuff I had no intention of buying) a friend of mine exclaimed there were sand critters in the corner.  I went over to investigate and found a little red sand filled dragon. Sold. There was also a shiny seahorse. Why not? Little dragon needs a friend. There was also a little stuffed owl I picked up, he would be a nice companion for my larger stuffed white owl I got at Infinitus. Hedwig and Pig. : ) My friend also pointed out a purple apron which had "Her Ladyship" written on it. Since I've been doing a lot of cooking I thought an apron would be nice to have...and where else would I find such a nice one? I left pleased with my purchases, nevertheless feeling a bit guilty about the money I spent. Ah well, think of it this way, I reminded myself, most people my age spend that amount of money going out drinking over a weekend. In the long run I'm saving a lot of dough not doing that sort of thing...more money for the things that really matter in life...like sand critters.