On the last Friday of 2011, we headed down to the seaside town of West Mersea in Essex County with brother Sean for some delicious oysters and fish-and-chips. (The oysters, it turns out, led to a bout of food poisoning for at least one of us, but let’s not focus on that; they were delicious at the time!)

Here we are inside the West Mersea Oyster Bar:

Afterwards we strolled the overcast, blustery waterfront, taking pictures of the boats, the oyster beds, the shoreline at low tide, and the lovely little English cottages overlooking the sea.