Reflections in time

I am not sure what Civic Holiday is for. But probably 90% of Canadians are like me, they would not care what it is for but everyone welcomes this for long weekend. I had initially plans to go south to Washington DC but then at the end I finally could not make it. On Friday, I could not start because kids and Seema had not fully recovered from flu and now I had flu as well. I could not have driven for 6-7 hours but otherwise I could manage the activities. I rather resumed my work and requested for my one day off to be shifted to Tuesday instead.

I was all determined to start for my journey early morning on Saturday, but could not for the same problem, I was not feeling well! I could have made it but Seema was not that interested. For some reasons this time Seema was lacking the enthusiasm a lot and if there was an extra torque from her, I would have been behind the wheels early morning and off to the States! But that was not to be and so I continued watching the poor performance of Indians in cricket match and by that time it was noon. Rohit and Kajari had asked us to join for breakfast. We had a very good south Indian buffet breakfast at Sarvana Bhavan. I never had a buffet breakfast! It was very good and kids loved the mini Idlees. Now Yash can say Idlee instead of Iglee.

After this we reached home and had a talk with Pintoo. I told him vaguely about my plan. I had planned to start for Pittsburgh first and stayed overnight there. Then would have started for Maine next day after breakfast. They were also to fly on Sunday from DC and reach home by late evening. I was planning to go via New Hampshire, which I am told is very beautiful. But finally the plan did not fly and we were home until late afternoon. Kids were really kind of sad as they wanted to enjoy the trip more than us, now that we had DVD player in the car. But in any case over eleven hours of driving would have taken toll of everyone of us! So finally we dropped the idea for good.

I had taken annual membership for both Toronto Zoo and Ontario Science Centre long time back but never been to any of these places for long time. This was a good time to enjoy the both. I took them to Toronto zoo. Both boys were very excited now. We reached zoo around 2:30 PM and we had nearly three and half hours of time to enjoy.

As we entered the zoo, we figured out that it was very hot and humid day and with kids walking long distances will not be a good idea. We took the zoo-mobile service, which is free for the members. It was a hop and ride kind of service. We first got down at African pavilion. Yash was so delighted to see the giraffe. We went very close to the giraffes.     

It was very hot and so Hursh demanded for ice-cream. We took a long rest there for almost half an hour. Meanwhile I was studying the entire map of the zoo and what all we could cover. Toronto Zoo is the third largest in the world, I was told. I was thinking that the maximum animals of our interest could be in African Pavilion, so we started moving around. All the animals were hiding in shadows and were resting. That was not so much of fun for us as we wanted to see them in action.

We completed the Kelso Park, which is within the African pavilion. We saw some elephants, hippos and many other animals. Yash was very keen to see zebra but zebras were standing very far from us and he looked like a donkey from that far.  

We went back to the starting point and re-started as we had to get down at American pavilion to see the polar bear and flamingos. Hursh was very keen to see the polar bear. First we were watching from up and it was playing in the water.

Yash was very excited to see them. Suddenly it went into water and we ran to watch them from underwater. It was very interesting as it came as close as few inches but because of the wall we were safe. Even then Yash was scared and he was maintaining a safe distance.

We were almost done and wanted to go back home as zoo was to close anyway at 7:00 PM. As we were walking back, I saw a very interesting signboard. O am very scared of snakes and if I had found one it would have been a very eerie feeling for me!

At the end we did some shopping at the zoo and off we were for home. It was a good experience for the kids and since we did not have any pressure to complete the entire park in one day, since we have annual membership now, it was much relaxed and we are looking forward to go there again soon. What we will make sure next time is that we will keep in mind the zookeeper timing so that it will become more interesting for us and will have some more knowledge inputs for Hursh.

Next day was Sunday and since all my friends thought that we must have been in the States, no one called us and everyone had their own plans. So we were undecided until afternoon as where to go. One thought was to seat home and relax and in the evening we would have gone out for some food. But soon boys were getting restless and me too! We had membership of Ontario Science Centre as well and we started for that. I had already booked for IMAX movie Adrenaline Rush showing at 4:00 PM.

Once we reached there, we found that there are so much for kids to have fun with. We should bring them early morning next time and let them have fun for the whole day. It offers very clean, informative, exciting, healthy and new kind of entertainment to the kids. Kids were so thrilled that we had hard time to make it to the movie as they did not want to leave the games they were playing! We also went to a show called Changing Climate. It was a nice informative show with sheep animation movie highlighting the energy conservation.

The IMAX movie was good but not very interesting for Yash. Next time I will have to figure out something more interesting for the kids. At the end we went to the van de graf generator and Seema and Hursh both went up. Seema had all hairs going up but Hursh hardly had any since he has very short hairs. But it was funny to see people having all their hairs going up like crazy! Kids loved that. There was a sports section also there and there were lot to learn. We tried throwing base ball and see our throwing speeds instantly. Hursh recorded 36 mph and I did 48 maximum. We saw some others going as high as 56 mph. But Hursh was educating me that in the real game the pitchers throw as high as 90 mph with great ease.Conclusion is that I was nit, am not and can not be a baseball pitcher. QED.

Monday was Civic Holiday. I am not sure what is that for. Around 10:00 Am Rohit came to me and asked to go somewhere. I was in complete mood to relax. But considering the fact that summer is such a rarity in Toronto, I motivated myself enough to go “somewhere”! I figured out that Cullen Garden and Miniature Village could be a good choice. We headed for that.

As we entered there, we had ice-cream for all of us as it was very hot day. All we had asked for small and ice cream was huge one for all of us.  We were having difficulty in finishing it. Then we saw a funny mirror. We enjoyed that very much. I tried to capture some image but it was not that easy and watching the mirror itself was a great fun!

We proceeded further and as we entered the park, the first attraction was a nice peacock made of plants. It was very beautiful. I was reading about the history of the park and was surprised to read that it was a couple’s effort which made such a big tourist attraction. Their meticulous work were indeed reflected in more than one place!

Soon we were taken to a wildflower garden. If someone appreciates the nature he would love it. It is very nicely created and at times one feels that he is in the real deep forest. I particularly enjoyed it a lot. I had so many beautiful views all over. Hursh and Yash were having good time as they had whole jungle to run around.

There were many beautiful flowers and trees to watch. It was getting darker all of a sudden. The sky started looking cloudy and any time it was to rain.

We somehow completed the trip to the wildflower garden and down the hill was a wagon trip waiting for the forest view. But before we could take that, it started raining very heavily. Hursh and Yash were enjoying the slope and maze. We waited for the rain to stop but it lasted over half an hour. We abandoned the idea to take the forest view trip. We stopped for a while in the water slope area for Hursh and Yash to have some fun. Hursh was initially reluctant to go but Yash was ever ready to go in the after. But without Hursh, he was little subdued. He used to go on th top of the slope but could nit muster courage to slope down. Hursh if together with him, then he would imitate him and do whatever he did. Meanwhile as he was blocking the way for other kids, one of the kids just pushed him. He was not prepared and he just splashed in the water! He started crying. Hursh went immediately in water and took control of him very well then on. Hursh that way is a very caring brother. He would not express a lot of affection for him as Yash does very openly, but when it matters he is always there for him! 

We started back for the Miniature Village. But meanwhile rain started very heavily. We had nowhere to hide and we were waiting under the thick leaves of the trees. It was a very good experience. It reminded me of my school days when we used to come from school and if started raining, we would wait under the trees or  shops etc. The earthy smell coming from wet soil was making us feel so good. I enjoyed the rain a lot. The sound of rain water dropping on the leaves made me feel good too. I was capturing some of the images as there was not much to be done anyway! 

Finally the rain stopped. We visited the miniature village. It was an awesome experience. Hursh and Yash were very excited to see this village. I must say that for this alone, I may visit the place again. Yash wanted to lift one house and take home! There were many photographs (including the one below) were taken by Hursh. He has genuine interest developing in photography.

When we were about to leave, Hursh wanted to play the remote controlled car game. He enjoyed it a lot. We had coffee after this and overall we had quite a good day. Kids had lots of fun and we also had not a bad day overall.

At the end Hursh wanted to buy some gifts for himself . We went to gifts and souvenir shop and bought some magnet stones for Hursh and a book for Yash. Hursh also bought one magnetic dart for himself, which he promised that he will keep nicely. He has a habit of being careless with his toys, and I am trying for his improvement on that.

Seema wanted to have dinner in the restaurant at the park itself. I was not particularly hungry but kids too wanted to eat. We went to the restaurant . Grill and Grape is a very nice restaurant and the food were good. Seema ordered Chicken Madagascar (later on she was regretting to have eaten chicken as it was Savan Somvar). I am fine because now I am complete Shakahari (vegetarian) except the fact that I still eat everyone’s bheja!