Weekend in Chester

We’ve just come back from a lovely weekend in Chester.  We stayed in a caravan at Fir Trees caravan park, and it was lovely.  Really nice caravan, just what you need for a weekend away.  If I had once criticism, it would be that there wasn’t really any open space in the park, for children to play, or just to wander round or anything.

We got there on the Friday, via Cheshire Oaks outlet place where we had lunch at Pizza Express – which was very cute because as part of the children’s menu, they do a ‘Bambinocino’, which is steamed milk with the chocolate sprinkles so Evie could have her own little ‘latte’ just like mummy!  I was actually reasonably impressed with their children’s menu.  Evie had some doughballs (which we all shared) a little salad (cucumber, cherry tomatoes and pepper, but all cut up into child friendly size bits), a mini pizza, ice cream and her ‘coffee’.  Then I went for a wander and managed to buy Henry some new clothes, and he totally charmed all the staff in the shops!

On Saturday, we decided to go to Beeston Castle, which seemed like a really good idea until we arrived with two over tired children who’d fallen asleep in the car, and then realised that the car park is at the bottom of a very steep, not very buggy friendly hill, and the castle is right at the top.  So we changed our minds and headed for somewhere else.  Then we drove past an ice cream farm that had a play area, animals, and lots of ice cream.  Unloaded sleepy, grumpy children, got halfway across the car park, and Evie had a meltdown and declared the whole thing to be “too windy”.  I decided it was actually pretty windy, and no point forcing her to go if it’s all outside and she’s not going to enjoy it.  So loaded everyone back into the car.  Then went to Chester city centre, which is absolutely lovely, but is probably the worst place ever to take a pram.  Still, we looked in a few shops and had a coffee.

Sunday was the big day, and we went to Chester Zoo.

We saw loads of animals (obviously!) but the tiger was Evie’s favourite.

Then there was the elephants

And this is me having a very in depth discussion about giraffe poo!

Here’s Henry being carried in his Moby wrap while Evie has a little break and rides in the buggy

And because Evie was SO good all day – she got a HUGE helium ballon.  Meet Laurence the Lion.  More about Laurence later!

On the Monday we had to go home.  I was tidying up inside, and Newt was packing the car.  Being a man, he decided that he could carry everything at once, ie, two big bags, and Laurence (I didn’t realise this, or I would have pointed out that this was a stupid idea).  It was a very windy day (anyone guess where I’m going with this one?).  Yup, I’m inside and I suddenly hear a piercing scream.  I turn and look and Laurence is legging it across the caravan park, and Newt is splatted across the floor.  I run out, and make sure Newt can walk (yes he can, but there’s lots of blood), and then give Evie a big hug.  Fortunately Laurence had a fairly hefty weight attached to him, so a kind lady further down managed to catch him.  Laurence was returned to Evie, Newt had no broken bones, and miraculously no broken teeth, just some fairly spectacular grazes.  Once everyone was patched up and calm, we finished loading the car, and tied Laurence to the headguard!

Then we went off to the Blue Planet aquarium.  Looked at lots of fish – there were sharks, but Evie liked the ‘Nemo’ fish best.

All in all we had a great time, and decided that we really should do more weekend breaks – just to get away from it all.

And in case that’s not enough photos, there are more in the Gallery.

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