This weekend Luke’s parents were around so we ended up doing lots of new things, like joining the crowds at the Taste of the Danforth food festival, and teaching Elizabeth how to hit a golf ball at the driving range. The real highlight of the weekend, though, was our trip to Toronto Zoo.
Find the baby panda!
On Saturday morning, after loading up on a few crepes, Elizabeth’s aunt Vicki kindly picked us all up and drove us to the zoo. We arrived early in the afternoon, and were grateful for the few clouds that hid us from the blazing hot sun. Thankfully, the queue to get in wasn’t too big and before long we were on our way to visit some of the Zoo’s newest additions; a pair of giant panda cubs.
The line up to see that pandas was quite long, but it snaked through the panda interpretation centre, allowing us to learn a bit more about the animal and conservation while we waited. We also enjoyed a video showing the first 100 days of the new pandas’ lives, as they grew from tiny, pink, rat-like things into fluffy little bears. When we finally got to see them they were, of course, asleep.
The line up to see that pandas was quite long, but it snaked through the panda interpretation centre, allowing us to learn a bit more about the animal and conservation while we waited. We also enjoyed a video showing the first 100 days of the new pandas’ lives, as they grew from tiny, pink, rat-like things into fluffy little bears. When we finally got to see them they were, of course, asleep.
After seeing the pandas we picked up some ice cream and set of for a stroll through the huge grounds of the zoo, around the Eurasia and Tundra areas before stopping for lunch. A couple of highlights along the way were the snow leopard that had conveniently fallen asleep right next to the observation window, and a young polar bear who was just messing around in his enclosure, trying to bite/eat everything in sight.
We then grabbed a quick lunch, cooling off in an air-conditioned cafeteria, before taking on the African Savanna and Indo-Malaya zones.We were a bit pressed for time, so we missed out on a few areas of the zoo, such as the Canadian Domain and the Americas, but we still got to see a huge variety of animals, such as gorillas, lions, hyenas and penguins (always hilarious to watch). As a final treat before we left we stopped by the Indian Rhinos, who kindly made their way over from the other side of their large enclosure to hang out next to us.
It was a great day out, and there’s more than enough there to merit a return trip at some point. After we arrived back at the flat we headed straight back out again for a delicious meal together at Mideastro in Yorkville. Really delicious and highly recommended.
On Sunday, after some golf lessons for Elizabeth we had to say goodbye to Luke’s parents. We had an awesome time with them and were sad to see them go. Luckily, there’s still plenty that they didn’t manage to do in Toronto this time (including the CN Tower) so we’re sure they’ll be back.
Here are some more photos from our weekend.
On Sunday, after some golf lessons for Elizabeth we had to say goodbye to Luke’s parents. We had an awesome time with them and were sad to see them go. Luckily, there’s still plenty that they didn’t manage to do in Toronto this time (including the CN Tower) so we’re sure they’ll be back.
Here are some more photos from our weekend.
This time last year we were on an epic weekend adventure on the Northern Peninsula. Back in 2014 we were at a wooden boat museum.
