Today we went to Toronto zoo as planned. The weather was perfect for a day at the zoo. Not too warm but enough sunshine to make it pleasant enough. Huffle managed to get us vouchers as it was their 40th anniversary weekend so the kids got in free. It still cost $28 each but we took a a small picnic for lunchtime.
Smallest has visited this zoo five times now (three times with school) and Small has been just once before with me and a friend when we first arrived. Huffle has never been. The zoo is split into different continents and none of us have ever seen the Canadian Domain. So after a long queue to get in, we started our long walk to see the Canadian animals. And it was indeed a long walk, right over the other side of the huge zoo (Huffle wondered if we had gone over the border into the States). Up and down a steep hill and seemingly tucked where no-one really wants to walk to. Even the train ($8 extra pp) didn't take you that far and it suggested you didn't take buggies or strollers. We understood why when we climbed back up the hill. It is an interesting concept to place the Canadian Domain so far away and inaccessible by the land train, or any wheeled device, considering that Canadians in general do not walk anywhere unless they are part of a 'fun run'. I think that this part may have been created first and maybe there was also a monorail in existence. These days however, there are people walking there (getting a sweat on) but we heard several people say "let's not walk there, it's too far!" Yes it is too far, but we enjoyed it because there were less people and no commercialness, plus we were desperate to see bears and moose.
In the Canadian Domain we saw Raccoons, Lynx, Cougar (this was scary seeing the cougars as we know they have released some very close to where we live and they look like they could easily eat Smallest) and Bald Eagle. My favourite in this area was definitely the Bears. One of them was lounging in the water lazily, occasionally playing with a ball. They looked very gentle but I am guessing they are not. One looked bored and was pacing plenty. We walked a bit further to see the Moose but they were too far away to properly see. It was disappointing that the viewing areas were so small for each animal. The last animal we saw was Wood Bison. These too were very far away as they were all huddled in the shade of the trees. There were a lot if you looked very carefully.
We had our picnic lunch at the top of the climb back and then visited Africa where we saw Warthogs, Hyenas, white Lion, Gorilla and Zebras. We stayed with the rhinos for a while as they were about to have a fight. Next was the Hippo. We could have stayed here all day, he was just swimming lazily under water (never breathing). I kept waiting for him to open his mouth near me but he didn't. My favourites have always been the giraffes so we went there next.
Inside we saw turtles, limas, chameleons, fish, crocodile, tigers and a rainforest.
Toronto Zoo have recently got Giant Pandas so we skipped the exhibition and went to see them. Two big pandas, separated as they only come together when they want to cuddle! They were very cute but as Smallest always says "they are not giant, just normal". We watched a puffa fish come to the glass towards my camera and he frightened me - I don't know what I thought he was going to do.
We were mesmerised by the jelly fish display. Huffle wants a tank of jelly fish in the house, maybe just a wall full!
The Polar Bears in Tundra Trek were just being fed and so we watched them. They are amazing. One was under water and Huffle went underground to watch them while we listened to the zoo keeper while she fed one. We also went underground and watched them. They are very fascinating to watch and HUGE!
We sat and ate our muffins in front the reindeer and saw a few more animals on our walk out. Our feet hurt. We had walked a long way. As we came out we were each given a cup cake to celebrate the Zoo's anniversary. Thank you very much.
The boys behaved impeccably and Small thanked us for taking them. Huffle wasn't keen to go originally but overall he enjoyed it. Unfortunately for us we went to the best zoo ever in Jersey (Gerald Durrell Zoo) and they really do focus on making the animals' lives as natural and interesting as possible so any other zoo will always be a poor second. Still, he really enjoyed the Polar Bears and the Jelly Fish. Small's favourite was the Kookaburra as it laughed very loudly (too loud for Smallest) while we were in Australasia. Smallest's favourite was the Pandas and Limas because they reminded him of himself and Huffle when they cuddle together. My favourites were the Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, Hippo, Giraffes. The only thing we didn't see was the penguins but we were too tired to go back.
What a lovely day.
The boys have also done a blog post today - click here - they haven't written one since December last year!
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6 comments:
Sounded a really good day. Better than Twycross then?
Come smd visit us! We have lots of kookaburras! They can be quite annoying actually, waking us up at the crack of dawn whenever we go camping.
I will always have a soft spot for twycross - lots of lovely memories there when the boys were very young. Toronto zoo is a big sprawling zoo. Beautiful gardens and well maintained. I guess it faces the same problems as most zoos, not enough space for the animals and some look a little bored and 'caged'. It was a good day xx
They are loud! They are really big too xx
You fibber! I really believed that polar bear was in your pool!!
xxx
I just wanted it to be true x
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