Today was our first family trip out (other than to Mothercare!!) and thanks to the Sure Start Centre we got free admission to Leeds Castle which is valid for the next year!
I've been watching the forecast all week and it has been terrible! As we drove along the M20 the first spots of rain started but we'd wrapped Mikey up so kept going! After all, this is the UK so if we stopped every time it rains we'd never get anything done! Mikey was ready for the cold weather and pulled his arm right up his sleeve bless him!
When we arrived and found the car park I discovered the park etc was not nice and flat...instead we headed down a leaf covered slope - very slippery and not great with a heavy pushchair and sore ankle! At the botom we found Kim with our tickets and it turns out she used to work with Andy's brother years and years ago... our surname again!
As we wandered through the park it started drizzling...our first port of call was the Maze which we found eventually after going slightly off route! The sign posts were useless! Once we did find it (after a real downpour) it had a notice saying it wasn't compatible with pushchairs! We headed back via the Aviary where we met a couple of birds who were quite taken with Mikey - and for once they weren't blonde! But both said hello to him and even when all the parrots started screaming he wasn't bothered! Possibly his hood muffled the noise a bit for him! Once we'd left the birds we stopped off for a hot chocolate (well the wind was cold) and Mikey had a bottle whilst I chatted with Jenny from my Friday afternoon group,we got investifgated by a peacock but Mikey was really not bothered by it! Then it was a quick comforst stop for Mikey before we had a look at the castle (again not push chair friendly) But we have a year to go back again! As we left we saw a peahen with 2 chicks - I really hope they haven't been born too late...
For a first family outing it went well. Mikey was awake for most of it (I think the wind made sure of that!) and he chattered away most of the way round! Daddy had to push him back up to the car park, but he still refused to have a nap when we got home!!!
I went when I was here this time last year. We saw a peahen with babies that time. I explained to Lauren that the daddy was a peacock, the mummy a peahen and the babies were peas.
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