Grandma took us to the Toronto Islands yesterday. And what a day it was. It was Jon’s first time, for the ferry and for any sort of ride.
It was so good that I’m still exhausted from it. So I’ll let the photos and captions do the talking.
A bit of trepidation on the ferry, but it quickly faded.
So then it was time for lunch. Whenever we go somewhere new, first thing is it’s time for lunch.
Jon with Franklin at the new Franklin Children’s Garden, a wonderfully gentle place. Not quite as wheelchair friendly as they think in places (wood chips are very hard, and soft sand is a no go).
The watering-can fountain at the garden, which provides small cans for the kids to fill up and then water a large assortment of vegetables, including eggplants (one of Jon’s favourites).
First ride ever, the antique merry-go-round. Waiting to start was hard, but we got the idea.
So this was our next quarry. Circa 1890-something.
He cackled with glee each time we dropped over the precipice.
We rode this three times over the afternoon. Becuase of the length of the ride, it even outranked…
The flume. In line, Jon noted a number of people were screaming and I asked him whether he was a laugher or a screamer. He said he was a screamer. He was wrong, from the moment we started to plunge, he laughed his head off.
A lovely dinner at The Rectory on Ward’s Island. Jon and I were to split a hazelnut coffee chocolate layer cake, but it had a very mature flavour and a heavy crumb, so the little bum ate way more than his share!
On the way home from the very perfect day. Jon is a little fazed because the evening ferry makes two stops before heading home.
The Island is damn near our favourite place in the city in the summer. Is Jon going on the Dragon Coaster next summer? If you feel like hanging out again at the Rectory Cafe, let us know.
-aiabx
btw, Ontario Place has an even better log flume ride. I don’t recommend going on the last weekend of the Ex, though.
How are the seats aligned at Ontario Place? The Centre Island benches have a padded centre with channels on each side for your legs, allowing Jon to straddle them, which was ideal. I’m not sure how he’d do in a traditional seat. At Wonderland, it was simply molded plastic benches with a steel bar to grab on to up front. I’ve always been afraid of how Jon would do on the those arrangements. Then again, so far I have underestimated him…
At Centreville we saw a woman selling mylar balloons, nice ones, mainly of licensed characters: SpongeBob, Dora, Mr. Incredible, Marlin and Nemo, etc. She informed us that the small ones were $6 and the large ones were $10. Highway robbery we sniffed to ourselves; when Jon indicated that he would like a balloon we got him a small one (Elmo from Sesame Street) as we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy an expensive one.
Well, Jon just loved Elmo, carrying it around the house, squeezing it, saying “goodnight” to it, making it talk and play video games (!!) with him.
Then, first day of school as I was getting Jon’s schoolbags ready, Elmo’s string snagged on Jon’s backpack unnoticed, and I carried it outside–whereupon it got loose and floated away. Being an indulgent parent (as well as feeling more than a tad guilty) I went to buy Jon a new balloon at the local party supplies store. No Elmo, alas, but I bought a SpongeBob, exactly like the ones at the Island, for $6.90 (incl. tax). The bigger balloons went from anywhere from $12 to $15!! Pretty amazing when you realize an amusement park isn’t ripping you off!
Peter: You know, I ashamed to say I didn’t actually notice how the seats were arranged at Ontario Place; I think they might be a set of 2 person side by side benches.
Laura: Those balloons are the biggest ripoff. I never bought them for Elspeth, on the grounds that the price of a balloon would cover the cost of a funnel cake. But I never paused to consider the power of Elmo over the souls of children.
-Andy
Mylar balloon ripoff: don’t get me wrong, they are for sure! But I was surprised that the amount of ripoff at the park was a lot less than the amount at a regular store; amusement parks being the usual dens of inflated prices and cons. This just cemented the warm fuzzies I got from our trip.
Jon likes his SpongeBob balloon, but not quite as much as the dear, departed Elmo, alas.