June 18, 2007 by Barbara.

I know that the saying is: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” but for Toronto, I think it should be: “When in Toronto, go to the zoo.” Okay, I’m a bit biased since Reid loves zoos and I’m pretty partial to them myself. We spent two great days at the Toronto Zoo, seeing all of the usual zoo animals, riding on camels and a pony, and even at the Dinosaurs Alive special exhibition. The zoo was much more crowded on Saturday than Sunday, though I’d expected the reverse, thinking that it would be a good Father’s Day destination. There is also a splash park with a zoo animal-theme. Reid was most interested in the mallard ducks and seals.  Once again we straggled out of the zoo after 7:00 (it closes at 7:30). On Saturday, we arrived about 2:00 and on Sunday, it was closer to 3:00. We were flat out tired at the end of each day, which is the way you should be at the end of a day “touristing”, I guess.

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June 18, 2007 by Barbara.

I hit a button on my Blackberry and ended up at the end of my messages. When I was rolling up, I found this entry that I wrote back on May 29th.

I wonder how long Reid will agree to be dragged hither and yon with me on Saturdays, or any day for that matter. I know that I should appreciate it while it lasts and I do. We started out with yard sale-ing, where we bought the bike, then headed to Kindermusik and afterwards to the library. Not “our library, our red library” but “our library, new library”, which is much bigger and has a better selection of both kids books and books on cd. We poked around there, listened to a bit of the story that the librarian was telling to the kids in the storytime circle without joining in because Reid has a phobia or something about the storytime and then read from The Broken Cat or something like that. It couldn’t wait until we were home.

Once in the car, I gave Reid her peanut-butter-on-a-hot-dog-bun sandwich (remember she’s overly familiar with McDonald’s) and went in search of a gas station. Reid piped up that she wanted a milkshake - where did that come from I wondered since we don’t usually get them, even when we go to McDonald’s. We found a gas station that took my loyalty card, sold water and had a bathroom. Perfect! Plus it had Crispy Creme doughnuts, delivered fresh each day, and so I took a glazed one for the road. It turned out that I also took the key to the bathroom with me, too, but I didn’t discover my perfidy until I got to Morrisburg. Now I wonder if I should go back to gas station next Saturday or whether they’ll have changed the lock already. I got Reid her milkshake, which proved tough to slurp for my impatient princess but waiting was even more difficult. Much further into the trip than I’d expected, Reid fell asleep and I enjoyed my newly borrowed book on cd for the sunny drive to Morrisburg.

At Upper Canada Village, I ponied up for a membership for me - cost the same as two visits but not for Reid since I’d have to bring her 8 times to save money. I was imagining us looking at a few of the houses, discussing the housewares and furnishing, that sort of thing. Reid was full of questions about the farm animals as we entered. I talked her into going into the broom makers cottage. I thought she loves to “fweep” it would be an easier sell than it was. I also carried her into one house despite her objections but otherwise we looked at the animals. There was a team of two horses pulling a guided tour wagon, a team of four horses pulling a stage coach, two horses pulling a farm wagon and one horse pulling a delivery cart wagon from the bakery to the store. We had some interesting conversations about why there was such a diversity of wagons and horses. The most important question in all cases was “What are the horses’ names?” Reid didn’t want to pet them or even get close to them but she did want to know what they were called. I showed her a couple of “bulls” we later learned were oxen. I looked for them again on the way out, since we had been looking for the oxen and since I had misinformed the poor kid but they were hiding at the far end of their pasture and we really couldn’t see them. We were Johnnies-on-the-Spot at milking time and though Reid sat on my lap while I milked the one cow, she didn’t want to touch it. She did, however, make the correct motions with her hands as she watched others do the milking. Maybe another time she’ll try to milk the cow directly. I’m sure there’ll be many opportunities.

We got supper from McDonalds on our way out of Morrisburg. Reid had enough energy to tell Ken about her day and beg for a couple stories before bed. It was a full day and, I hope Reid would agree, a fun one.

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