Ribby Hall Village
(between Preston and Blackpool)
April 2015
For our first holiday of 2015, we went early in the year and we kept it simple. Ribby Hall Village is just an hour's drive from our house and Daisy could scarcely believe we had arrived after she (and Gregory) slept for most of the journey. Ribby Hall Village is a holiday resort with lodges and a spa hotel. It's a bit like a Center Parcs-lite. Anyway, here is our lodge, on a glorious day towards the end of April (Monday 20th to Friday 24th, inclusive).
Our lodge was number 51. Just thought you might want to know.
The rear of the lodge (with this shot clearly taken on a much cloudier day; this was in fact the morning we left) showed that we had a patio door leading on to a picnic table and a stretch of communal grass.
We arrived on the Monday (20th) and immediately took advantage of the sunny weather by going outside at the back, and we were immediately surrounded by ducks. Gregory, just over a year old and not yet walking, looked at them suspiciously whilst trying to extricate himself from his sunhat.
At one point, I legged it all the way up the grass and then back again, and the ducks dutifully followed me.
As we headed out to explore, the red-cheeked (possibly teething) young Gregory looked at me intently.
Daisy, naturally, was at home adventuring in the playground.
No holiday is complete without a photo of Daisy hurtling down a slide. It's iconic.
Mind you, Lynne was also happy to have a go on the zip-line, clearly enjoying herself.
Gregory's participation on the swing was somewhat more nonchalant...
...although he was a little more enthralled by the fire engine.
Later, Daisy and I went aboard the mini fire engine, with this taking place in the playground for younger children.
Daisy looks thoroughly fed up to be in command of the vehicle. I don't think things were going as she intended.
We headed for tea at the fancy tapas restaurant, but Gregory's choosing from the menu was being hampered by the fact he was easily distracted by other diners. They were sat in the sun at least. One of the features of a sunny day in April is that it actually starts to get quite cool quite quickly in the evening. My T-shirt and shorts combo wasn't quite as appropriate as it was just half an hour before.
We had a pretty close-up view of the bowling green, but alas there was no match to watch tonight.
There were several attempts to get everyone smiling together, and this was the closest we got. Daisy had ordered one of her favourite restaurant meals: pizza. We had a selection of tapas, which was all very nice, and some bread with spicy meat on top. In fact, some of the meat was so infused with chilli that nearly destroyed my taste buds, hence (probably) the presence of two beers for me (although doubtless one was nearly or completely empty). Note also the fact that nothing is remotely close to Gregory. It didn't take long for him to revert to "lob it off the table" mode.
According to the Ribby Hall Village website, this is the "decadent" White House, which features three double bedrooms, two twin rooms, a bunk room (sleeping 14 in all), as well as a sauna, outdoor hot tub, games room and more. Sounds impressive but at a price of "from £969", perhaps outside our budget. This was the Tuesday morning and it was another glorious day.
The complex wasn't huge, certainly nowhere on the scale of Center Parcs, and the presence of cars meant that you didn't quite feel the escapism, but there were some idyllic spots, such as this river here.
It was all too much for master Gregory.
I think I had taken him for a walk whilst evidently the girls had popped to the local shop for treats and provisions.
The river shown earlier surrounded an island which had as its main feature mini golf.
It wasn't crazy golf, it was genuinely a miniature form of actual golf. As you can see from here, it aimed to replicate real-life holes, this one the 18th at the Belfry.
The holes were actually quite long and it took Daisy a while to get the ball all the way to (and in) the hole.
Here she is marching her way up the fairway to give the ball another whack.
But golf in the sunshine can be exhausting.
Which usually means it's a good idea to head indoors for some cool. Daisy soon got her mojo back by whizzing down this slide into the ball pool at the bottom.
And then we were back outside for yet more slide action. Part of the problem was that the variety of children's playgrounds were very central and you ended up going past them more or less wherever you were going. Inevitably that led to a request (or perhaps a plea) from Daisy to try them out.
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