Day 1

Had a so so night, both kids were up once. We got up and went down to breakfast in the hotel. They were none too speedy, but breakfast was good. Daddy had maple French toast, I had a poached egg, yogurt and fruit, and R had eggs and sausage. J just didn’t feel like eating much of anything. R was super eager to check out the little fake pond in the yard of the hotel, so we let her. She promptly stuck her feet in. After some time we walked down to the tourist office. They were super nice, and had some good ideas of things to do. There is a lovely path along the lake from the tourist office back to our hotel, so we walked along there. It has 2 main paths, one for bikes/rollerblades the other for walkers. It is really lovely. R watched people rollerblade along here, and now she thinks she’d like to try that as well.
We packed up, and headed for the zoo. For the most part it was overcast which was really nice as it was still pretty stinkin’ humid. We wandered through Africa. The best thing was that there was this tunnel kid (adults) could go in, and pop up to the surface. We didn’t realize until later while viewing the meerkats, that the tunnel actually popped up in the meerkat compound! It was hilarious to watch these people’s heads pop up beside the meerkat who was standing sentry!
A lot of ‘Africa” was a large open plain where giraffes, ostrich, zebra and a few other types of animals roamed. Again, they made lovely paths that circled this area. It went up at one point, and there was a large lookout, with a large picnic area. They hung the giraffe’s straw from the edges of this upper portion, so they’d take a bunch of food in their mouthes, then lift their heads and gaze at you over the railing. Too nice.

At this point the sun came out and it got hot. We stopped for snack/lunch and decided to head back to the hotel for naps.
Napping once everyone in our room was finally asleep was blissful! Getting up, another story. Back to the zoo we went, and straight to the waterpark. We had another quick snack, then went into the water. There was a big open wavepool, then up the hill, there were a few other pools. One with a fake Volcano near the edge, which “erupted” complete with sound and mist, and another wave pool behind that which had statues of Mayan-type Gods. These got ‘angry’ when the volcano blew, and started making ominous thunder noises, misting, and playing angry music, then of course, large waves. R loved the area, J did not. We left daddy and R up on this angry mountain, while the rest of us went down to a more tame wading pool area. J had a good time here with grandma. It was heavily overcast by this time, and sure enough before long we were chased out by the rain. Grandpa was a good sport, and even waited patiently while we checked out the gift shops on the way out. We had supper at a local diner in the downtown area. The service wasn’t great, very slow, slightly rude, but the food was ok. My lasagne was a little strange, noodles and cheese on one side of the plate, tomato/meat sauce on the other side. R had poutine, but said the poutine at Johnny Fresco’s at home was better. She happily helped me out with my lasagne. She has a good time making J laugh at the end of supper. Both kids were super tired (as am i!) Grandma and Grandpa came to our room to sit with them while they fell asleep, and daddy and I went on a ‘date’. Nothing too glamerous here, a trip to the drug store to get things we forgot, water and snacks. We did however check out the ice cream place across the road from us. It is pretty unique, trying to be all muskoka-y, large logs, rough tables etc. The whole back end of the place is a tree house which we didn’t feel up to climbing, we’ll go back with R, she can fill us in. Very good soft serve though! And here I sit writing this up now, but really longing for bed.