Day 4 Continued

Back at the pool this morning, looks like it might have rained overnight. It's brisk out, but the kids don't care. As for myself, mornings don't get much better than this... Lake Ontario to my left,the CN Tower to the right (did I mention the pool is located on the roof?), coffee in hand... Too bad it's the last day, not really looking forward to the six hour drive home!

We plan on visiting the Ontario Science Center today. This will be the fourth and final trip destination out of the City Pass attractions. Well worth the money. We ended up going back to the CN Tower to ride the motion simulator last night. It was included in the Pass but we didn't have time for it after the observation visit.

Anyways, back to the Zoo trip!

10:00 AM

We took our time getting ready and getting out of the city in the morning. The zoo opened at 10M, but hey, we are on vacation! The Garmin needs some new maps, as they have they changed the highway exits a little around downtown. We figured that out when got here, and stumbled a little more on this as we left for the zoo. The zoo was estimated to be about a 30 minute ride outside of town, but I am starting to understand why the famed 401 is famed. It's basically a 16 lane parking lot (that's 8 lanes each direction). Even out of the city, this road gives no pause for setting the cruise and relaxing. We made it to the zoo in about an hour. Did I mention I wasn't looking forward to he drive home??

11:00 AM

We quickly moved through the lines and were entered into the grand zoo. The kids swore they had been here before, but I just think all zoo's must use the same designer for their entrances.

We generally look for a way to escape the crowd when we visit zoo's, so we looked at the map, and found the best attractions at the back of the park. We all decided on the African Safari in the northwest corner. It was a trail map that looked to be a couple of kilometers in length, and stopped by many exhibition sites.

The first exhibit was some smaller monkeys, a rhino and the butterfly haven. Never being much impressed by butterflies, this was done quite nice! Hope you enjoyed the butterfly picture on last nights post, there are many more where that came from!

After that, we faced the tigers. I don't like shooting pictures through glass, and cages sometime give me fits. This one came out OK. It was photographed through its cage.



We paused again for a "fish face" pose (I don't think I blogged bout the others. Hmmm, I'll blog those all together later). Anyway, this tank was entitled Darwin's Dreampond. It was an astounding display of The Cichlids of Lake Malawi.






The gorillas were next. All outside and being lazy as usual. The Sliverback kept his grand back to us, and the females sprawled out an just stared.

The only thing Kierstyn really wanted to see today was the hippos. After doing an animal report on them this past school year, she is just enamoured by them. We small the Pygmy Hippos indoors earlier, but they were sleeping, and you couldn't see them very well. We picked a good time to stop by this exhibit, however,! The hippo was in its water hole, and then decided to get up for a rare walk on its small legs. Next time you see Kierstyn, ask her what the hippo did for us!



12:45 PM

Hungry again, imagine that! We stopped midway through the African Safari for lunch. Typical zoo food, cash only, and outdoors. Weather wise, this was the perfect day for visiting a zoo. We have been to many zoo's and its always smoldering hot, and after a couple of hours, we're sweating, cranky and ready to leave. At least for lunch, you want to go sit in air conditioning. Not today. Absolutely perfect!!

1:30 PM

We are back on the trail and we see Zebra's, Lions, Leopards, Giraffes, Oh My! Elisha got this great shot of the Lion walking.

This is truly a great zoo! I could post lots of pictures here, but will save the bulk of them for the Smug Mug site on our return.

We continued on the rest of the zoo, visiting the amphibians indoors, walking through the kangaroo habitat, and much, much more.

2:30 PM

We stopped to watch an animal show that featured goats, some type of sensitive hearing cat, a falcon, an alpaca (I got pictures for you Aaron) and best of all... a skunk. Kayla says this picture is for you Grandpa Larry!

Well, running out of time for this morning. We want to get packed up and head to the Science Center this morning. So, see you all soon, and thanks for sharing our vacation with us!