Monkeys observing monkeys, kids and kids...

So, we headed to Elmvale. The weather graphs indicated rain wouldn't start until just after the Zoo closed. We trust the weather graphs.

First we stopped at the famous flea/farmer's market. We saw no fleas worth mentioning (unless they were hidden under the vast quantities of cheap cowboy hats and "Egyptian" bedding), and we frankly doubted the authenticity of the farmers. Bought some yellow beans anyhow. Mostly we admired the dinosaurs. Though we somewhat doubted their authenticity as well (they were still cool).

So, to the zoo! The Elmvale Zoo, though small, is quite nice. You feel fairly close with the creatures, despite the omnipresent wire grilling.

(A lot of the pictures I took are "close up", so aren't optimal in small/thumbnail format. Faces and paws, especially; and other details. The journey works best as a nice fullscreen slideshow...)

The heavens opened and the deluge commenced mere minutes after we secured ourselves back into the car. And we had left about 15 minutes before closing time. We outsmarted those tricksy weather graphs!

Early Spring Animals

Gramma had some passes to the Toronto Zoo, which a friend had given her quite a while ago. Finally, last weekend, we used them. As usual, we got going later than planned, and things were a bit confused... but in the end it worked out to be probably the best Zoo visit yet.

One of the crucial elements to the trips success was bringing the scooters (which Grammie got them for Christmas), for the kids to scoot around on. This made traveling between exhibits a lot less of a drag, and kept the kids from tiring out very quickly. The scooters were perfect; light-weight and easy for us to carry when needed.

The gorillas were one of the biggest hits. We spent a lot of time with them. The antics of the littlest gorilla (seen here) were highly entertaining. At one point this little guy came and hung out on the ledge of a glass observation area, immediately right in front of the kids, much to everyone's excitement. (There are some pics of this in the album.)

Istra became strangely fascinated with this weird device at one of the exhibits (an example of an old African research station, or something). I asked her if she knew what the thing was. She did not. So, I spent a while explaining the concept of a typewriter, and how they came before computer keyboards. She wants to try one someday.

Emeth really wanted to find peacock feathers. If you follow them long enough, surely they'll drop some eventually?

Lots of things to see.

Click the lion to see more of what we saw....