Camping

This year we decided to stay a bit closer to home and headed off to Chichibu for a few days. The campsite was near the river, Ebi-kun learnt how to skim stones, is there anything better than chucking stones in a river?

 The second day we got ready to go and as we were about to leave the campsite we discovered this...

 Yes, a bloody flat tire! So, Daddy-ebi set about putting on the spare then we had to go to the Yellow Hat shop to get a new type put on, I tell you what, the service might be great but they are not quicker than a Kwik Fit fitter! We were there for over 2 hours!

We got to the Muse park later than planned so we rented some bikes, Ebi-kun had a trike, coming down the banks nearly gave me heart failure, he was doing back skids all over the place, nearly wiped out a family and then did a spectacular fall, all of which he thought was highly amusing, I managed to age a decade in 2 hours!

The following day we went to a natural history museum which was great. The best thing was a gadget the kids are given, they swipe the magnetic strip on the displays then the gadget tells then the information. This display was hands down the best, there were several stuffed birds and when you ran the gadget over the strip it played a recording of their song.

For lunch we went to 'pick your own strawberries' you actually pay for 30 minutes and the go and stuff your face with as many strawberries as possible. They let Ebi-kun in for free - their mistake, he ate more than me and daddy-ebi! The strawberries were really sweet - hence the funny face.

 Across the road was an onsen and local foods shop, where we considered, not so long, getting some candied grasshoppers for pudding.

 Every time we got in the car Ebi-kun got out his notebook, he is writing a chapter book, he managed to write the first chapter, 5 pages. I have no idea what it is about because we are not allowed to read it until he has finished.

 He also spent a lot of time at the campsite drawing... 

 The last day we packed up and stopped off at the River Museum on the way home, I didn't think it would be up to much but in fact it was great. There was a lot going on, the staff were really helpful, this picture is a reconstructed dam like the loggers use in the mountains, three kids were picked to open the dam, Ebi-kun is the one in yellow.

 After lunch we went to the WakuWaku area where there were lots of water based activities, it wasn't busy so Ebi-kun got to go on his favourite things more than once.

 Of course, he had to fall in, it was to be expected.

 He loved this one, the water jets shoot out the wall and you have to try and dodge them

 So, after a full day there we eventually headed home, this just about rounds up how we all felt...