West Midlands Safari Park

It’s Macy’s 2^nd birthday on Monday and as she will be at Nursery and us at work we thought we would take her out for her birthday treat today while the weather was nice.  It turned out to be the hottest July day on record, when we got back into the car at 4pm it was still reading a whopping 32 degrees C!  Anyway she loves animals, so what better way to spend a day than to go to West Midlands Safari Park.  Under 3s are free but adults are £19.99 each however it does include a free return so really it’s £10 a visit – we are only 40mins away so it’s local enough to return again.

I was grateful to be in an air conditioned car round the safari otherwise it would have been too hot!  We bought a box of food for the animals for £3 and started off on our safari feeding some sort of deer.  It would be nice to have the different animals listed in order by the map as not all of them are.  Macy thought it was funny having a deer put its head through the window!

Then onto some cheetahs who we caught a glimpse of as they were hiding in the shade.  Some buffalos were cooling down in the water and some rhinos were in the same enclosure.  We couldn’t find the lions, they must have been hiding somewhere but we saw the white lions and the white tigers.  We didn’t see the wild dogs either, again they must have been hiding in the shade somewhere. 

We drove through the Zebras which you could feed and they were lovely, put their heads right through the car window and Macy thought that was funny!

On to the Elephants and we were in for a treat as there was a baby elephant playing ball in a pool, it’s mum came up to it to make sure it was okay, so sweet.

Finally onto the giraffes and we had saved some food for them.  They didn’t seem overly comfortable eating from the window with their big long necks so I decided to open the sunroof for them!  Macy thought this was hilarious and it was brilliant!  Such a fantastic experience, we loved that and Macy will talk about it for ages.

We even had two giraffes through at one point, you can only just see the nose of the other one behind the one.  The one giraffe loved it and kept following us to poke his head in lol.

We finished the safari just in time for the sea lion show which was great but we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get splashed as the screens are too high, would have been nice on a hot day but I guess we don’t have many hot days.  There also wasn’t anyway shaded to sit so Macy did get a bit hot and grumpy so I can't say she enjoyed it that much - quite a few people with children left as they must have had the same problem.

Finally we had a wander round the rides and there was a little area with rides for the younger ones, there were probably about 10 rides for 0.8m and above.  When they get to a metre there is a lot more choice as to be honest quite a lot of the toddler rides are the same sort of thing - just different variations of things to sit in going round in circles.  I don't know whether she will make a metre before we go back but it would be good if she does as it means she can go on a lot more such as the log flume and rapids.  I hate rides that go round in circles as it just makes me feel dizzy!  You also had to pay extra for the rides so it could work out an expensive day, we bought 4 rides for £6 and you can buy wristbands which probably works out cheaper when she is older.

I was a little disappointed in the food choices, there was a restaurant that did sit down meals but it wasn't air conditioned and although there were fans in there it was very hot so we ended up eating burgers outside.  It would be nice if they had somewhere doing paninis or something like that - something a bit healthier than greasy food.

Here's a little video of the giraffe!

Shrewsbury Food Festival

The weather forecast was fabulous and Macy and I had a free day so we decided to visit Shrewsbury’s Annual Food Festival.  We both get bored being cooped up inside so it sounded like a great way to enjoy the outdoors too!

Their website advised to follow the park and ride signs which would take you ‘near’ the Quarry where the festival was being held.  As soon as we were off the M54 the park and ride signs were easy to follow and we ended up by Meole Brace Retail Park (by Toys R Us, Pets at Home, Sainsburys etc.)  As I got on the bus I checked we were going past the festival and the driver confirmed he was, we were dropped off at a stop which was only a short walk to the Quarry.

Entrance was £6 for adults and £1 for children, as we entered we were given a wristband for Macy for us to put an emergency contact number on which I thought was an excellent idea.  Programmes were free (something of a rarity at these sort of events!) and all the activities for the children once you were in were free.

 There was loads for the children which was great and unexpected.  There was a marquee with some animals in – cows, pigs and chickens.  Then there was a huge marquee full of children’s activities for all age ranges ranging from lego, drawing tables, floor puzzles to craft activities.  A pen outside had some ride on tractors etc and there was face painting as well as children’s cookery school.

The event was huge, probably the biggest I have been to and there were lots of tastings.  Also lots of different outlets for lunch which ensured the queues weren’t too horrendous.  So many of these food fayres don’t have a lot of places for lunch and you end up queueing for ages, but this wasn’t the case here.  The only thing they were lacking was ice cream, there were only two vans and as a result the queues were horrendous.  However I am glad they were as we ended up having some lovely strawberries with some caramel cream instead so it was a bit healthier than having ice cream!

We arrived at the festival shortly after they opened at about 10:15am and we didn’t leave until about 2:15 there was that much to see and do, it was fabulous and definitely a date in the diary for the next one!

We came home with some goodies!

Willo Game

Mark texted me to say he fancied a barbeque when I got back from the festival so it was my job to find some nice sausages.  I had come across some wild board sausages and some venison sausages on one stand but had felt the texture was a little lumpy so I had a look round for more.

I stumbled across Willo Game who has some venison merguez sausages for tasting – so venison is my favourite meat and when I have been to France I have always loved their merguez sausages so for me this was a match made in heaven.  The sausage was lovely and smooth so I decided to buy some.  It was three packs for £10 and there are about 8 sausages in a pack so this was a bargain, the other stand was the same price but there were less sausages in each pack.  I settled for venison merguez, Toulouse wild boar and wild boar, chilli and garlic. 

We barbequed the three types of sausages and none of them disappointed, they were all a lovely texture without any hard lumpy bits.  The merguez were the tastiest sausages ever, the chilli had a bit of a kick and the Toulouse were also really tasty.  Will be ordering meat from them in the future

http://www.willogame.co.uk

Millie’s Meerkat Barn

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon so we decided to take Macy to an indoor play to stop her going stir crazy!  We had not been to Millie’s Meerkat Barn in Bridgnorth before so we thought we would try it.

It cost us £6.50 for two adults and a 16 month old - £1.50 each adult.  I was a little disappointed as when you look at their website they make it sound a lot bigger than it actually is.  The under 3s area was a small padded area with some large soft shapes in it, no ball pond, no small slide – that was really disappointing.  Everywhere else I have been no matter how small have at least had a ball pond and most have a small slide as well.  The area for the older children was okay and they all seemed to be enjoying it and not getting bored, there are two large slides, a bouncy castle section and some rollers etc but again it isn’t overly big.  The bouncy area is quite large yet most children seemed to enjoy running round and down the slides.  There is also a bit of a court area to play football/basketball in.  So to be honest I thought it was a bit expensive for what is there - £1.50 for an adult is too much, most are 50p and they are usually a lot bigger.

The café was good and they did some nice coffees and a good range of hot snacks.  It’s not somewhere I will go again as there are better soft play centres that are cheaper!

The Dartmouth Arms

I decided we should go out for NYE as it will be our last year being just the two of us, so we booked a table at The Dartmouth Arms, Burnhill Green – my favourite Italian.  I wanted to eat at 6pm then get home and chill out together to see the new year in.  They had a set menu.  I started off with cheesey garlic butter bruschetta which was lovely and had plenty of cheese and garlic.  Mark had meatballs and oh the tomato sauce was to die for, so rich and tasty!

Main course I had chicken in a tomato and pepper sauce with garlic roast potatoes and veg – proper chicken breast, not bashed and flattened like most places!  The potatoes were a little dry but otherwise the sauce was very tasty.  Mark had a mushroom and fillet steak linguini and that was beautiful too, very tasty, not too creamy but really tasty sauce.

For dessert I had a toffee temptation which was a vanilla ice cream with a praline filling and a toffee sauce topping – it was really tasty and something a bit different.  Mark had a huge slab of tiramisu which he said was very tasty. 

It was £29.95 for the set menu which I thought was good value for New Years Eve and lovely food, decent portion sizes too!!