Beaver Tail anyone?

I had planned to stay at home today and enjoy the sunshine in the garden, but when I got an email from KP asking if we were doing anything and did we want to go to the Zoo, how could I refuse?

We skyped Grandma and Grandad at breakfast and had a catch up with them. Unfortunately Uncle Dermott has gone back into hospital but hopefully he won't be there for long and it's only for a minor complaint!

KP came here and we drove to Toronto Zoo. It was 16* and sunny. The amount of cars trying to park was huge. Luckily we were coming from a different direction and managed to get straight into the car park. I have never seen a bigger queue for any attraction in my life! It went on forever. I thought of turning back but we had already committed to the car park, so we just lined up with everyone else. The boys behaved brilliantly and were very patient.

It took forever to get in but once we did it was worth it.

The zoo is huge. Really nicely landscaped with lots of trees (always a bonus), windy paths leading to different areas of the zoo. There is a train which runs from one part to the other (it's THAT big) but we didn't use it today as we wanted to walk. There were parts we didn't get to today like the Canada section, but we thought we could go there next time when Huffle is with us.

First we saw a Rhino which was basking in the sun. Smallest was disappointed because he looked like a big rock and didn't do anything. We then saw the Tapirs (a favourite of mine because of their wibbly noses). One of them had four horns which I've never seen before, he looked a bit like a thin warthog!

We went into an aquarium and saw lots of colourful fishes and turtles.

There was a monkey that was swinging around and entertaining us and some orangutans cuddling (mother and baby we think).

We walked over to the elephant enclosure which was quite small for the size of the animals in there. There were three and they didn't seem to have much to do.

The queues for food were as bad as the queue to get in so we decided to have an ice cream and come back for food when the line had died down. We went to the penguins as feeding time was close for them. There was another huge queue to sit and watch them. We went and watched them underwater instead.

Loads more walking and we came across the giraffe (a big favourite of mine). Three gorgeously graceful creatures.

KP, Small and Smallest running

We saw Hyenas, one asleep and one prowling, not laughing!

There were lots of lovely colourful birds.

More monkies, funny ones, sticking their heads out of their boxes, hanging off trees, all looking very relaxed in their warm homes. Sloths sleeping, starfish sticking, prairie dogs peeking, lots more fish, sea horses, jelly fish.

KP saw a kiosk that sold Beaver Tail and she rushed to the 'not too long' queue. I thought Beaver tail was something meaty like a kebab but it turned out to be a kind of flat doughnut covered with Maple Butter, or Nutella, or Cinamon. Of course we had to try one. They are Canadian, called a weird name and we were at the Zoo with queues too long to get normal food, so we had to didn't we?

Ummmmmmmm, they were yummy. We queued once to pay for them and then queued again to get them. Then we queued in another long line to see the baby Polar Bear. Ahhhh but he was cute. Only five months old and raised in the zoo with the keepers. What a sweetie.

We went to watch the Big Polar Bears being fed. Hard to believe they can be nasty. They looked adorable. They sat in the water catching fish and then started eating carrots. One balanced a carrot on the top of his paw whilst eating it and another one ate a carrott with two hands like a baby eats a rusk.

We waited till they got out of the water and then went to see if we could see them swimming under the water.

There were keepers walking around with wild dogs, giant stick insects, parrots, owls. It was amazing.

We also saw wallabies, kangaroos, tigers and camels.

Thoroughly lovely day. thanks KP for suggesting it and coming with us.

My favourite animal of the day was the Polar Bears. I want one.

Everyone had tired feet and all were yawning on the way home.

I made a quick dinner for the boys and they had their pudding out on the porch in the last of the evening sun. When Huffle came home, he found me sitting on the porch again, this time with a cup of tea (hope that is more to your liking Yahoo!). He joined me while the boys went scooting off up and down the road outside of the house and bumped into some friends from school. We chatted with their mum for a while. She was nice and the children seemed nice too.

When I tucked Small up in bed he told me he had had a wonderful day at the zoo. Ahhh that's worth hearing.