Celebrate the Small Things

Is Friday here again? Already? Well, time flies when you're on vacation. But before I get into that, let me thank our host, Lexa Cain, and her cohosts L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker.

This past week I was in Asheville, NC, visiting my parents and hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse, but I'll save that story for later. Today, I'd like to celebrate our trip earlier this August to the Toronto Zoo. It's a big place, and even though we had four hours to enjoy it, we didn't get to visit all the exhibits. 

First on our must-see list was the pair of kidlet pandas. I won't say baby, because they were half the size of their parents. Here's a nice shot of one of the youngsters:

Nom, nom, nom

We watched the two kids for about 15 minutes and they never stopped munching on their bamboo. There was a huge pile of bamboo behind them as well, kind of moving. Eventually we realized the mother was underneath her breakfast, slowly eating her way out. If one of the bears rolled on its back, it would still keep eating. Now that's dedication.

Dad panda was in another enclosure. I guess he stayed up late, eating.

This is the life.

After tearing ourselves away from the adorable, chomping pandas, we went to visit the polar bears. There were several. It's hard to get a good shot of a swimming bear, but here's a shot of one lounging in the grass. Yep, green grass plus polar bear (equals Lost flashback?)

All I need are ten penguins for bowling pins.

Continuing with the arctic theme, we have a white wolf, who looks a lot like the white spitz I grew up with, but this fellow has longer legs.

Paparazzi fatigue

Keen on seeing a grizzly, we headed off to the Canada domain, but first we met the sweetest little raccoon. I don't know why charities don't employ these little guys. How could you ever say no to this face?

Just drop one french fry. I won't tell a soul.

The grizzly was hanging out in the back of his enclosure, but his head was visible and impressively humongous, even from a distance:

Object behind log appears closer than it is

We found this colorful parrot on the way to see some panthers (who were sleeping behind glass, so those shots didn't turn out so great.)

There is no controversy here. I'm blue, black, white, and gold. Promise.

We enjoyed watching some white lions snooze, baboons by a beautiful waterfall, and a cheetah hiding among some trees. Luckily the zebra wasn't shy and came right up to the front to greet his visitors.

This is my best side.

Then we were off to see the hippos, a tiger, and two lovely giraffes, who long eyelashes would make any woman envious.

Even laying down, I'm taller than you.

It was a wonderful afternoon and I highly recommend a visit if you're in the Toronto area. 

Take a bow!

Have you been to Toronto? What did you do there?