Tayto Park (or, what do you get when you cross a potato crisp company, adventure center, playground, and zoo?)

We went to Tayto Park in County Meath, about 30 minutes from our home in Ireland. It is a very enjoyable way to embrace corporate propoganda (Mr. Tayto, of the Tayto crisps company is above and they give away free crisps on exit!). The park opened in 2010 and it has a fresh, if incomplete, feel to it. There are several features that look like excellent long-term plans, such as a willow maze and the not quite finished roller coaster as you drive in. It took longer than what seems expected for us to reconcile why there was a big gap in the middle of the massive wooden coaster. Alas, it was not a jump! The kids loved the park for its play area and modest zoo. The feature of the zoo was the critically endangered Amur Leopard. This native of Russia and China is losing the battle with habitat destruction and an estimated 30 to 40 are left in the wild. There were two brothers at this zoo who were part of a breeding program to try to introduce more into the wild. Although I am not a biologist and it seems that we are entering the post-gender era, I was skeptical of their selection of only two brothers for this task.

Here is one of the brothers demonstrating the feeding strategy used to mimic some of the hunting and physical skills necessary to survive in the wild. 

Here is another magisto movie to capture the day: Click here

A rare sighting - a blue pole in its natural habitat

Declan's personality is really coming out. He is figuring out how to play alongside the others more fluidly and how to communicate more of his needs (which I think makes him think of more needs to have).You can see the mischievousness in his eyes above and his near escape in the video below!

Stella and Susan joined Seamus with Keela and Euan on the impressive Skywalk. Hooked to a cable with a harness, the adventurers had to step, climb, leap, and balance there way through an aerial obstacle course. Stella was brave enough to finish but did not provide a ringing endorsement - it can be scary when your stride is barely long enough to reach, even when you are attached.

Poor Ronan was not tall enough for the Skywalk adventure, so he and Daddy rushed over to the train ride and trampolines, where all that was missed was soon forgotten, possibly due to the trampoline shaking that organ in his skull (see video in the magisto movie above and inserted below*) . The fun associated with these contraptions comes from the interesting choice to have one of the teenage employees of the park walk around with a remote control that allows changes in the height and acceleration of the moving poles that are attached to ropes from which unsuspecting young children are initially casually gripping onto. I hope they have a sensible interview process. The operator seemed composed but I thought I saw a wee smile as he was making the mischievous young man next to Ronan flounder about.

*note we are still trying to determine how to upload the videos at higher quality on the blog site. Eventually we might just put a link to youtube.

It worked!