Wrapping up the holiday

I think I may be blitzing you with holiday blog posts.  So here is the rest of the holiday, wrapped up into one loooong post.  What else did we do?

We went to Anglesey, choosing to go somewhere very wet and exposed just as the worst weather of the holiday came past.  We trotted down to a little tower to look out for puffins and such through the RSPB telescopes and binoculars.

We didn't trot down to South Stack lighthouse, but we observed it from the warm little tower.

We drove back past this place, just to get a photo of grumpy people watching the rain from a twee knitwear shop.

Thomas developed more of an appetite for eating, particularly anything that could generate crumbs.

We had a walk at the foot of the Glyder range, around Llyn Idwal.  Marisca hated the wind, but fell asleep once we'd ensconced her in her bomb shelter, so we enjoyed the rest of the wild windy weather.

We had Large mugs of tea at Pete's Eats, although didn't really deserve them.

We went to a slate mine where we all had to wear helmets.  Marisca will talk about the little train that was very bumpy, to me it felt like an old and rather unsafe fairground ride!

We went to Blaenau Ffestiniog, which is really slatetown.  Massive spoil heaps of slate surround the place, but there are some really nice slate artpieces in the town centre.  Marisca enjoyed walking along the walls and following this slate 'river', time and again.

We went on another train - this time a bigger one, powered by steam.

We did lots of exploring around our house, with Marisca's new explorer kit, which is enormously popular (thank you Maia).  

We had another walk, around two different lakes...

...which really tired Risky out.

We visited water gardens which gave us pancakes, otters, a playground, and more opportunity for exploring.

And then on the way home we wandered across the amazing aqueduct at Pontcysyllte.

We popped into a childrens' sciencey museum which was full of fun little interactive exhibits for Risky (and Daddy).  

And we stayed with Mary and Stewart, and visited Chester Zoo where we saw more funny monkeys, elephants with babies, giraffes with babies, rhinos with babies, tigers, lions, zebras, penguins, and lots more.

And Marisca finally got her ice cream cone.

Phew.  No wonder we were so tired when we got home!