Hamerton Zoo

My two monkeys at the play area.

Beautiful Red Flamingos

Meerkat

Everyone looking at a turtle.

Our family met up with a college friend of mine (who's hubby's stationed in England too) and her family for a little outing in April.  We'd been trying to get together since I arrived-- they've been here for a year.  Every time we planned something a kid would get sick, or a freak snow storm came through the country.  M and B kept asking me when we'd see my friend with ALL the kids- she only has one more that me!  Her kids had a 2 week break and we decided to head to a zoo.  There's one I'd heard about, and it's about 15 minutes from our house.  I got a call from her the night before, and her daughter had a DR appointment the day we'd planned it, so I thought we were going to have to cancel AGAIN.  Luckily the appointment was in the morning, so we went ahead with the zoo for the afternoon. 

We headed out, and swapped some kids-- she got some of mine, and I got some of hers.  When we pulled up to the zoo entrance, her oldest piped up and said "This doesn't look like a very good zoo. I don't think I'll like it."  I felt the same way.  The car park was a field, and you couldn't see any animals except some donkeys.  I had checked the price online, and for what they were charging I was disappointed with the first impressions.

We had a picnic lunch, then headed inside.  After passing through the hedges--which were all around the perimeter--  I was amazed by all the animals.  We saw Sloths with babies, Meerkats, Lemurs, Cheetahs, beautiful red birds (I can't remember the name), and Tigers.  There were more animals than that of course, but from what we could see at the road and the car park we were surprised by what we saw.  While we were there, the tigers- a male and female- started to growl, and swat at each other.  The sound surprised us all.  The kids went running to try and find out what was going on.  They were fascinated with the tigers and were disappointed when it stopped.  

We had a great time, and were glad to see the Marrotts.  Thanks for coming and hanging out with us