Beaming Broadstairs

The sun finally returned again today so it goes without saying that it just had to be another trip back to the coast and in this instance we opted for a return visit to Broadstairs. We love it at this time of year when it's much quieter without the throngs of visitors it gets in the summer.
We thought we would try a different route to get there on this occasion - we usually take the road through Canterbury as it's shorter but this can entail much heavier traffic and incurring the 29 million roundabouts (I'm only slightly exaggerating!) of the suburbs of Wincheap and Sturry - so this time we headed for Whitstable and then stayed on the A299 before coming off at St Nicholas At Wade and rejoining our usual route. It did feel a bit longer but we thankfully encountered much less traffic.
Once we arrived, parked the car, walked down into the town and breathed in the first of the sea air we could almost instantly feel ourselves beaming from ear to ear at being back in one of our favourite seaside destinations.
Instead of heading straight for the beach we sought out a watering hole but the first establishment we passed only had two customers in it (which is not usually the best of signs) and the second, The Charles Dickens, overlooking the sands below was rammed so we thought we should seek out an alternative option. Therefore, we headed up one of the side streets and came across a delightful bar called Sonder which has glorious high ceilings, part stained glass windows and the largest selection of ales and beers available on tap that I think I've ever seen. We chose a Spanish beer (Estrella) and sat next to one of the huge windows as the sunlight streamed in. Lovely!
Once we'd consumed our beverages we headed back into the centre of town and then along the coastal footpath with glorious views of the town's adjacent bays - Viking and Louisa - before descending down on to the beach where the 'bracing' wind most definitely made its presence felt. We didn't care in the slightest as it felt so utterly wonderful to be back back by the sea with the sun shining.
Today's main image was taken next to one of the harbourside restaurants looking back towards the beach with its multicoloured beach huts and the town beyond. I just liked how the glass partition was reflecting back the sea which makes the two well wrapped up diners  heads appear like they are floating just above the water.
My first extra is of a lost knitted little bear hat which I spotted hanging rather forlornly on some railings outside a be-shuttered beachside bar, with my second extra being a view of the harbour which I liked for the almost equidistantly placed figures (I was particular happy with guy dressed in bright orange workwear and the red helmet of another workman popping above the wall on the far left hand side), both sitting and standing, and the upturned boats placed within the frame.
We still had time for a stroll through the town's Victoria Gardens before returning back to the beach with a large portion of chips which we ate whilst trying to fend off the local gull population - which I suppose we hadn't helped by feeding them the odd starch based scrap. 
We then headed home via the coastal road to Margate for one last look at the sea as it sparked in the late afternoon light.