England: Poole Park and Pantomime

I love England, especially when the rain decides to go elsewhere and allows the sun to shine. Today was a minimal driving day for us, which was a welcome relief. I think our body clocks finally got a bit more sorted as I slept happily until 10. My morning child then informed me that she was hungry, meaning get up now or I will make a mess.

After breakfast, we trundled to my cousins house for a quick cuppa. She suggested that we head for Poole Park to visit with Santa. Rounding out the girls was a bit challenging as they very quickly holed up in the bedroom with the movies and the toys. However, they were persuaded and off we went.

Poole park is lovely, nestled into waterfront and lakes and ponds. There were swans floating in amongst ducks and seagulls. The sun was out and there was a great park. The children played and the adults made sure that no one got wet. Tickets were purchased for the train, which is a miniature park chuffer. It does a slow and methodical loop to Santa's house. There, you get off and snag a carrot to feed to the reindeer. They actually have two. In the end,they were fed to the pigs that were a lot more interested in them. Then, the children posed in front of crazy mirrors. If you we're good, you we crazy shaped and if you we're bad,you looked normal.  From there, you waited to see Santa who was quite nice and gave out more presents.

We then headed off to Poole Quay. It was cold so the boats did not get as much attention as usual. We looked across at Brownsea island to pay our respects to lord Baden-Powell.  then, it was inside to Poole pottery to paint on ceramics. That occupied us for an hour or so.

In the evening, we bought last minute tickets to the Bournemouth Pavillion's  production of Sleeping Beauty. The pavilion is a lovely theatre with the old style seating, opera glasses for rent and ornate detailing. The production itself was full of cheesy humourous audience interaction, a bit of dancing and sing a long music. My girls loved it! We got our tickets with exactly one minute  to show time, found our seats and had some fun. The girls were spoiled by the gentleman in the front who gave them a lollipop each. I would recommend the experience to anyone traveling here over Christmas. The only issue now seems to be feeding the natives and getting them to sleep. It will be an early start in the morning.