We spent a lovely day at Walton Hall Gardens on Day 16 of Our Summer Days. The weather wasn't great but it was dry so we made the most of no rain and headed out. Walton Hall Gardens is in Warrington so about 30 minutes from home. We haven't been for quite a few years now and I am pleased to say that it was so much better than I had expected thanks to a few enhancements.
When we arrived we realised that we had no money for the parking, luckily it had the option to pay by phone. I've seen more and more of these cropping up lately, maybe no-one carries coins around with them anymore. Anyway it was £4 to park all day on a weekend, £3 midweek.
We were greeted by an ice cream van just at the entrance to the park luckily little J was eager to get inside he completely missed it. Usually we can't walk past an ice cream van without hearing the old favourite 'I need an ice cream'. He never wants one he always 'needs' one.
Just at the entrance to the park is the children's play area which seems to have had a big refurb as its now huge. Little J whizzed past it and wanted to play tennis first.
Since we visited Park Lives little J absolutely loves tennis now and has taken a shine to my Wilson rackets signed by Roger Federer. They are not actually signed its a pre print but I don't care I love them anyway.
First he played with John then he wanted to play with me. We made up lots of games including Who could hit up in the air the highest? Who could catch it? and Who could do the most 'keep ups'?
It's quite odd how much fun you can have with a ball.
After all the playing we headed to the nearest bench to eat our lunch. I'd been up since 4am (due to very noisy neighbours - but that's another story) so by 11:30 I was hungry for lunch.
I took a packed lunch but I'm sure there are places to eat at the park if you want to. We didn't see a cafe but if I remember from last time there is one. I always find it best to make a packed lunch when heading to a local park or play area as it can be a really cheap (sometimes free) day out.
Next stop was a trip to the large pond to look for fish. There were so many and we saw a few tortoises too bobbing their heads up and down in the water.
Walton Hall Gardens has a children's zoo which is free of charge. If I am being honest it isn't the most exciting children's zoo I have been too. There were plenty of goats and chickens but not much else. Most of the cages were empty even though they should have been home to degu's, ferrets and red squirrels. It took us about 10 minutes to get round the whole zoo so I think that speaks for itself.
A trip to the park wouldn't be the same without some exploring in the woods. Little J loves exploring and he gets that from his brother. They both headed off in the woods, finding sticks and climbing trees. John joined in too.
We headed to the play area next. It's huge and has lovely spongy floor which makes a big difference when choosing a play area. I prefer soft floor and don't panic as much when little J decides to climb up really high on the climbing frames.
Last but not least little J went on a big inflatable slide. It was huge and although he was allowed 5 minutes for £2 he only managed 3 slides as it took him so long to climb up.
To finish off the day big J took little J on a Thomas train. It took them all around the gardens and mansion and looked lots of fun.
We all really enjoyed Walton Hall Gardens, it was lots of fun. Sometimes it's nice to go to a different park and explore new woods and play on new playgrounds. The children's zoo was a bit of a let down but it didn't cost anything so we can't really complain.
Michelle
