Saltburn-by-the-Sea

English town names can be really charming. "Newcastle-upon-Tyne" tells you that if you find Newcastle, you've also found the Tyne river (and vice versa). Of course, one must be careful about promising to pick up something one has purchased on eBay from a seller in "Newcastle" because you may find yourself trying to figure out how to get to "Newcastle-under-Lyme" when you have never head of the Lyme river before. (Hint: that's because it's far far far away....).

Anyway, we celebrated Crystal's new British driving license today by taking a family outing to Salbturn-by-the-Sea. Even the name tells you that this is a nice place to visit, unlike the probably-nonexistent "Saltburn-Well-Inland-in-the-Middle-of-Nowhere".



Saltburn is known for having one of the highest cliffs in England and it was indeed a beautiful walk along the seashore and then up to the top. There was a lovely farm up on the wide, flat expanse of the plateau.

It was fun to introduce Ellie to ocean waves and playing in a "giant sandpit". She really enjoyed the chilly water breaking over her toes. Daddy had to restrain her a little bit from charging off into the depths. She's as daring as her mother!

There's also an interesting "cliff lift" for getting up to the Victorian buildings that line the edge of the town, overlooking the sea. Apparently this was quite a holiday town for "Southerners" (i.e. the rich folk down around London) to come enjoy the nice seaside of the North East. After an ice cream break for cooling down after the cliff hike we took a little ride up to the top and did a little windowshopping before Crystal took us on the happy drive home.