Stormont Castle and the Parliament Buildings!

[lifes_gifts]

Today there was a family fun charity day at Stormont!




Not only would we get to go inside the Parliament Building, (remember that Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland) and get to see Stormont Castle, but there would also be lots of fun booths as well!

If you would like to know more information about:

The Northern Ireland Assemly and the Parliament Buildings:
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/vtour/vtour_index.htm

Stormont Castle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormont_Castle

Now there was heavy rain predicted starting at 2pm so we left as early as we could, which was 10pm. (Hey...that's early in Belfast time!) We took two buses there, about 45 minutes, and were dropped off at the gate.




And started up the hill!



There were booths set up on both sides so we decided to walk up one side, at the top go inside the Parliament Building, swing over to see the Castle, and then go down the other side. There were nature boxes, games, and petting zoos on the way up.










At the top!




And inside! (Crowded and bad lighting...)
They had crafts, candy tasting, and a big bear inside.











































Now the cool part! At the castle they had a bouncy thing! And because it was way off the main path it was not crowded! There had been another small bouncy thing on the way up but there was an hour wait for that one and you only got 2 minutes! We were the only ones on this one until finally another family wandered over. lol The kids (and myself!) had so much fun on it! We stayed until 2pm letting them play, until the rain came.

First here are 2 quick videos.

Alex!

Click to view

Jarod & Rebecca!

Click to view

To the death!







The kids challenged me to a fight and I couldn't resist...it's not everyday you get to be a gladiator in front of a castle after all!












The rain was coming so we quick took some photos of the castle.



















And as soon as we started back down the hill it just started to pour down on us. But we had umbrellas so it wasn't bad. We didn't stop at any of the booths on the way down because of the rain but they didn't look as entertaining anyways, the rain has a way of doing that I think. lol

We made it to the bus stop and headed home.

Everyone agreed that it was a blast! Rebecca said she wished our government was this much fun. lol (Her trip to Washington DC did not include a bouncy castle.....)

This is Lord Edward Carson. It looks likes he's bowling to me.
"Strike!"