Preston and Liverpool

The kids had a two week spring break.  We spent most of the first week on a stake Temple trip to Preston England.  Rebekah and I were very busy running around, working with the youth and baby sitting. The kids were good sports and spent most of the time reading, and playing with some of the other children in the apartment building where we were staying.  I think they only went outside a couple of times! The fact that it was cold and snowing did not help.

 On the way home we decided to do something fun as a family. I remember as a kid going to a Safari park outside of London.  I thought it was great.  I was able to find another one close to the airport in Liverpool.  It is called Knowles Safari Park.  What makes these interesting is that you drive through in your own car, while the animals are walking around the road.  Luckily we had a rental with insurance.  There were many signs to keep doors locked and windows up, and no pets were allowed in the car.

 One of the first stops were the lions.  We enjoyed watching them eat big chunks or raw meat, while the little lion cubs rolled around the hill.

We were held up by some lazy camels. 

And the roaming African Cape Buffalo gave us pause.

 But without question the kids favorite section of the park was the baboons.  They were everywhere.  There were a ton of cute little babies.  Despite signs and warnings, many people still chose to feed them.  The culprits were easy to spot as their cars were soon covered in monkeys. 

 We had our own group of hitchhikers.  They would sit on the warm car hood as we drove around.  They scampered over the car, licked the windows, and rode on the back windshield wiper (in fact there were a number of broken ones scattered  on the ground). 

 The kids could not get enough of them. We had to drive through a number of times.

 As the park was closing, we were one of the last to leave.  We had the Baboons and lions all to ourselves. However our Ryan air flight was calling.  We left the park and drove to Liverpool and our flight home. As far as I know the rental car company never said a word about the monkey foot prints all over our car.