Part Three: Devon

After our whirlwind trip to see Rich's siblings and families, we headed back to Cheltenham on the Monday evening, and on Tuesday morning we headed down to Devon, two hours in the other direction to stay with Rebecca. I grew up in Devon and so all my childhood friends are there as well as my sisters Rebecca and Fiona. I was hoping to see quite a few people but it just wasn't possible with the time constraints. But we did get to see my oldest best friend, Sam, who is expecting a little girl (any day now!). It was so great to see her.. she hasn't changed a bit.. although the bump was new :)



After our visit with Sam we headed to the seafront in Teignmouth with a bag of chips. Perfect! I have been dying for some proper chips for a long time. These were divine!



Next we went to Combe Cellars, a pub on the waterfront in the little village I grew up in. We lived up the road from here, and when we moved to Combeinteignhead (the village) it was basically a shack on the beach. It went through many owners, and me, and many of my sisters, all worked there at one point or another. Indeed Rich did too! Now it's a fine dining restaurant... things really do change!


This is a photo of our old childhood home... you can barely see it, but it's across the water: see the house to the far left? There's a little white house to the right. That's ours. There's another house to the right, much closer to where we're taking the picture.. that's not ours :). It's been totally renovated since we lived there, but the views are just the same: pretty magnificent. I felt so homesick driving past there...



Some photos taken from Combe Cellars.



To walk to Combe Cellars from my childhood home, we would often walk through Hearn Field... a local field which seemed to serve numerous purposes - from dog walking to cricket matches. I remember walking the dogs there with my sister Melissa and I remember lying down in the tall grass before it was cut.. lots of memories. Here we are with Raf..




After our visit to Combe Cellars we made our way to my sister Rebecca's house in Newton Abbot. There she lives with her husband Habby and their little boy Archie Bear who'll be 2 in August. This was the first time we'd met Archie. Raf was much less reserved here and he had a fine time playing with Archie and all his wonderful toys.


Cheeky Archie.


Rafi and Archie had a super time playing with one another... especially since Archie has more toys than any little boy I know!




We also met up with Fiona (my other sister) and her daughter Grace, but unfortunately I forgot the chip-thing for my camera. Gah. Still we saw them again on the Saturday - of which there are many pics!