#African Rainforest Pavilion
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The Ultimate Guide to Hcity: Unveiling the Secrets of a Vibrant Metropolis
Introduction
Welcome to the ultimate guide to Hcity, a vibrant metropolis that captivates visitors with its rich history, cultural diversity, and modern attractions. In this comprehensive article, we will delve deep into the essence of Hcity, exploring its hidden gems, iconic landmarks, and the unique experiences it offers. Whether you're a seasoned traveller seeking new adventures or a curious individual planning your first visit, this guide will equip you with all the information you need to make the most of your time in Hcity.
Hcity: A Melting Pot of Cultures and Traditions
Hcity, also known as the "City of Wonders," is a melting pot of cultures and traditions. This cosmopolitan metropolis boasts a diverse population that hails from all corners of the globe, making it a true multicultural hub. From its bustling streets to its lively neighbourhoods, City buzzes with a vibrant energy that is both infectious and captivating.
Exploring the Neighbourhoods of Hcity
Hcity comprises several neighbourhoods, each with its own distinct character and charm. Let's take a closer look at some of the most notable neighbourhoods in the city.
1. Downtown District: The Heart of Hcity
At the centre of Hcity lies its downtown district, a bustling hub of activity and the heart of the city. Here, you'll find towering skyscrapers, luxurious shopping malls, and a myriad of dining options to satisfy even the most discerning palate. The downtown district is also home to Hcity's iconic landmarks, including the renowned Central Park and the stunning Hcity Tower.
2. Historic Quarter: Stepping Back in Time
For history enthusiasts, a visit to Hcity's historic quarter is a must. This charming neighbourhood is a testament to the city's rich heritage, with beautifully preserved colonial-era buildings, cobblestone streets, and picturesque squares. Take a leisurely stroll through the historic quarter and immerse yourself in the captivating stories of the past.
3. Artistic Enclave: Where Creativity Flourishes
Art lovers will be in awe of Hcity's artistic enclave, a vibrant neighbourhood brimming with galleries, studios, and creative spaces. Here, you can admire the works of local artists, attend captivating exhibitions, and even participate in hands-on workshops to unleash your own creativity.
The Top Attractions in Hcity
When visiting Hcity, you'll be spoiled for choice when it comes to attractions and must-see landmarks. Here are some of the top attractions that should be on every traveller's itinerary:
1. Hcity Museum of Art: Where Masterpieces Come to Life
Immerse yourself in the world of art at the Hcity Museum of Art, a prestigious institution that houses a vast collection of masterpieces from renowned artists around the world. From classical paintings to contemporary installations, this museum offers a journey through the evolution of artistic expression.
2. Hcity Zoo: A Wildlife Adventure
For a day of family fun, head to the Hcity Zoo, a sprawling sanctuary that is home to a diverse range of animal species. Explore the various exhibits, from the African Savannah to the Rainforest Pavilion, and get up close and personal with fascinating creatures from across the globe.
3. Hcity Botanical Gardens: A Serene Oasis
Escape the hustle and bustle of the city and find tranquillity in the Hcity Botanical Gardens. This lush oasis is a haven for nature lovers, featuring beautifully landscaped gardens, exotic flora, and peaceful walking trails. Take a leisurely stroll and soak in the natural beauty that surrounds you.
Frequently Asked Questions about Hcity
Q. What is the best time to visit Hcity?
Hcity experiences a mild climate throughout the year, but the best time to visit is during the spring or autumn seasons when the weather is pleasant and ideal for outdoor activities.
Q. How can I get around Hcity?
Hcity offers an efficient and extensive public transportation system, including buses, subways, and taxis. You can also opt to explore the city on foot or rent a bicycle to navigate the streets at your own pace.
Q. Are there any famous festivals in Hcity?
Absolutely! Hcity is known for its vibrant festivals, such as the Hcity International Film Festival, the Hcity Jazz Festival, and the Hcity Carnival. These events showcase the city's cultural richness and provide unforgettable experiences for attendees.
Q. What are some recommended local dishes to try in Hcity?
When in Hcity, be sure to indulge in local delicacies such as Hcity-style dumplings, Hcity roast duck, and Hcity hot pot. These dishes are renowned for their flavours and are sure to satisfy your taste buds.
Q. Can you recommend some hidden gems in Hcity?
Of course! For a unique experience, consider visiting the Hcity Underground Tunnels, a fascinating network of tunnels that offers a glimpse into the city's history. Another hidden gem is the Hcity Night Market, where you can savour delicious street food and browse through an array of stalls selling local handicrafts.
Q. Is Hcity a safe city for tourists?
Hcity is generally considered a safe city for tourists. However, it is always advisable to take basic precautions, such as being aware of your surroundings and keeping your belongings secure, to ensure a trouble-free visit.
Conclusion
Hcity is a city that captivates and inspires, offering a plethora of experiences that cater to every traveller's interests. From its diverse neighbourhoods to its iconic landmarks, this vibrant metropolis has something for everyone. Whether you're drawn to its rich history, cultural heritage, or contemporary attractions, Hcity is sure to leave an indelible mark on your heart. So pack your bags, immerse yourself in the energy of Hcity, and embark on an adventure of a lifetime.
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Family Fun in Canada: 6 Things to Do
As a traveler, whatever you fancy is possible in the world’s second largest country – Canada. With its many modern multi-cultural cities, each delightful for different reasons, a family vacation in Canada is super fun.
With so many experiences to choose from, which are also safe and accessible for all age groups, we have put together some of the best things to do with your family in Canada.
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Spend a Day at Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Vancouver
Vancouver is one of the most popular cities in Canada for fun family activities. Visit Beaty Biodiversity Museum – the singular natural history museum in Vancouver, located in the British Columbia campus. A treat for the young and inquisitive minds, this museum exhibits over 500 specimens, including Canada’s largest blue Whale Skelton.
Set Sail on the Hornblower Niagara Cruises
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This is a boat ride that you and your family will never forget! Departing after every 15 minutes, these huge catamarans take you as close to the magnificent falls as possible. With the cool wind blowing and the mist flying all around, this is a pretty intense yet safe experience. There is also a glass enclosed area for enhanced protection. As it’s going to be windy and wet, make sure you wear non-slippery shoes.
Head Out to Prince Edward Island
The most breathtakingly beautiful island in Canada, the time spent at Prince Edward Island would be etched in your memories forever! Dotted with innumerable picturesque beaches and wandering trails, there’s a plethora of activities you can indulge in here.
Play a round of golf at any of the 25 beautiful courses, visit the fun themed parks, get a taste of the history and culture by catching a show, shop for one-of-a-kind handicrafts – the list just goes on.
Visit the Black Creek Pioneer Village
Making for a perfect day with your family in Canada, enjoy a fascinating journey into the past at this ethnic working village, rich in rural heritage. It was established in South Central Ontario between 1790’s and 1860’s – a time at which going green wasn’t a movement but just a way of life.
You can participate as a family and learn how to reduce the carbon footprint and witness the art of recycling, reusing and reducing. Children will naturally love to get involved in the activities here, and would also learn to respect the environment.
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Have a Blast at Toronto Zoo
Set in the beautiful Rogue valley, the Toronto Zoo is an idyllic destination for the quintessential family fun in Canada. Housing a kids zoo, an interactive children’s wildlife experience, water rides and the Waterside Theatre – there’s a plethora of activities to indulge in here. There is also a state-of-the-art Wildlife Health Center where you can witness all the behind-the-scenes work that is done for the welfare of the animals. Also, visit the African Rainforest Pavilion, to get greeted by the pygmy hippos and ring tailed Lemurs, or take a walk through Indo-Malaya to come across elegant tigers, clouded leopards one-horned Rhinos and more.
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The Essential Guide to Breakfast at Disney World
At Walt Disney World, nearly everything qualifies as a breakfast. Hot dogs are slung by 10 a.m., last night’s desserts double as sugary morning fare, and the Dole Whip stand opens earlier than your usual workday begins. Truly, there are no rules.
But while the options are boundless, sitting down to a full meal of eggs, bacon, and toast here can be a merciless catch-22: You either cannibalize your early-morning park time (precious hours when ride lines are shorter than usual) with dining, or forego the serious sustenance required for the long day ahead.
There are, in fact, some fantastic eye-openers on the property, but you’ll have to know where to find them. Which is why we’ve highlighted the best breakfast tacos to scarf on the run, specialty foods worth taking a break for, and when you should just rely on the emergency granola bars in your backpack.
Desperate for caffeine? The most obvious options are called out below, but refer to Eater’s comprehensive guide to coffee and tea across the property for info on where to get hopped up throughout the day.
The famous Cat Tail pastry at the Cheshire Café
Magic Kingdom
With an updated park entry procedure, having a reservation no longer gets you into the park as early as it used to. Character dining options are either the Crystal Palace buffet with Winnie The Pooh & Friends (don’t knock it, Eeyore is a delight) or the iconic Cinderella’s Royal Table, with tableside princess visits inside the castle’s upper towers. The only other sit-down options are Plaza Restaurant, which just introduced breakfast, and Be Our Guest (more on that below).
Signature morning sweets include Cheshire Café’s eponymous “cat tail,” a pink and purple icing-drizzled Danish log, and the warm jumbo cinnamon roll at Gaston’s Tavern; both are fine, not great. If you prefer to start the day with a macaroni-and-cheese-topped hot dog, you’re in luck, because Cosmic Ray’s, Lunching Pad, and Casey’s Corner all start serving lunch fare bright ’n’ early at 10 a.m — with the frozen pineapple favorite, Dole Whip, up for grabs as early as 9 a.m.
Top Pick: Sleepy Hollow, whose freshly made sweet and savory waffle sandwiches hit the spot, unless you indulge in a Mickey-shaped one instead. (Late risers, take note: the ham, egg, and cheese waffle sammy is served ’till noon.)
Avoid: Be Our Guest. The hottest ticket in town is a travesty at breakfast time, when a chaotic pre-order format ruins its delightful Beauty and the Beast-themed interiors. The food isn’t terrible and comes out lightning quick, but it remains a pricey breakfast that’s not entirely worth it.
Coffee: The Main Street Bakery (halfway down the main drag, right-hand side) hides the park’s very own Starbucks, while a Joffrey’s Revive stand in Tomorrowland (by Space Mountain) serves solid coffee without the long lines.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Morning options are tough to come by inside this timeless take on Tinseltown, with most quick-service locations opening early with lunchtime foods in busy months, but grab-and-go eats, such as the whoopie pie-like carrot cake cookie, at the Trolley Car Café Starbucks are a reliable choice. That is, if you’re not eating omelets and Mickey waffles with familiar Disney Junior faces at Hollywood & Vine, the only spot in the park offering character dining.
Top Pick: Woody’s Lunch Box in Toy Story Land. The strange delights at this quick-service stand are worth stopping for, particularly the indulgent scrambled-egg bowl with smoked brisket, gravy-smothered tater tots, and a s’mores French toast breakfast sandwich with graham-crusted brioche. It’s less sweet than it sounds, and you can even use Disney’s mobile-ordering service to skip the line.
Avoid: ...eating lunch fare at 10 a.m. It won’t end well.
Coffee: Starbucks is located within the Trolley Car Café (at end of the entrance’s central stretch, right-hand side), but a Joffrey’s Coffee stand is conveniently lurking at the entrance of Toy Story Land.
Cheesy stuffed croissants at Les Halles Boulangerie
Epcot
Epcot’s World Showcase is the place to chow down on international cuisine within themed pavilions during the day, but only Mexico, Norway, and France are open pre-11 a.m. If you’re back there — most likely for a morning ride on Frozen Ever After — there are sweet Scandinavian pastries and a salmon-and-egg bagel at Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe, or Mexican specialties like chilaquiles and pambazo de chorizo con huevo at Cantina de San Angel.
You won’t totally destroy your plans by sitting down for breakfast, so munch on a family-sized platter of hearty staples with Chip ’n’ Dale, Pluto, and Mickey Mouse at Garden Grill or with a bevy of princesses at Norway’s part-buffet, part-restaurant Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, the park’s two character dining locations. If you’re just putzing around Future World between morning Fastpass reservations and need a quick bite, Sunshine Seasons, with its souffle, croissant egg sandwich, and healthy options like a tofu wrap and overnight oats, is your best bet.
Top Pick: Les Halles Boulangerie in the World Showcase’s France pavilion for a tempting bakery case of croissants and chocolate-filled pastries, along with ham- and cheese-stuffed croissants, quiches, and croque monsieurs.
Avoid: Waiting until World Showcase opens at 11 a.m. Have a little something, even if it’s a piece of fruit — you’ll want to pace yourself once the real eating begins.
Coffee: Here, Starbucks is called Fountain View; walk past Spaceship Earth and it’ll be on your right-hand side, across from the fountain. Can’t wait? There are Joffrey’s Coffee kiosks beneath the monorail station, over by Test Track, and within the World Showcase.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Given that your morning plans likely include waiting for the immensely popular Avatar: Flight of Passage ride, skip the sad pastries sold at pop-up stands nearby and send a family member to retrieve French toast sticks, sausage-and-egg biscuits, or sweet pineapple lumpia from Pandora’s nearby Pongu Pongu stand. (The line now snakes through an outdoor walkway between Pandora and Africa, alleviating any difficulty of shimmying through a proper queue to find them — a big Disney no-no.)
Your only true sit-down options are Tusker House, a character breakfast buffet with good food and a few African options (mealie pap, beef bobotie) or, gulp, Rainforest Cafe, so opt for the former if you’re inclined. It’s got the core characters — Mickey, Daisy, Donald, and Goofy — and some of the best grub, too.
Top Pick: Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe. The quick-service counter in Asia has an array of made-to-order sunrise sandwiches — bacon and egg on challah toast, sausage and egg on an English muffin — as well as a breakfast burrito and tacos, all served with herbed hash-brown bites.
Avoid: Kusafiri Coffee Shop, the kiosk in Africa whose oversized Mickey-shaped cinnamon roll is not as good as Instagram would have you believe.
Coffee: Creature Comforts houses the park’s Starbucks (take the left at the park’s emblematic Tree of Life; it’ll be on your left-hand side), but if you’re headed toward DinoLand U.S.A., Isle of Java is more convenient.
Tonga toast at the Polynesian Village
Around the Resort
All Disney Resort hotels offer breakfast, but only some are worth changing your plans for:
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort: Kona Cafe offers loco moco and macadamia-nut pancakes, but is most famously known for the cinnamon sugar-crusted, banana-stuffed sourdough loaf that is Tonga Toast. Reservations can be tough to nab, so you can also grab the toast to go (sans strawberry compote) at Capt. Cook’s.
Disney’s Yacht Club: Ale & Compass offers one of the best breakfast buffets in the park (they’ve even got whitefish salad!) as a small upcharge to its selection of inventive entrees that are, for the time being at least, priced competitively.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge: Sanaa’s limited but substantial breakfast menu, paired with up-close views of animals, makes it a top choice time and time again.
Disney’s BoardWalk Inn: If you’re looking to give your kids some princess magic and yourself a table-service breakfast (poached eggs with fennel sausage; sopressata-stuffed breakfast calzone) far superior to the character buffets, Trattoria al Forno is the spot.
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: 1900 Park Fare is the ol’ standard when it comes to character dining, but Grand Floridian Cafe not-so-secretly has one of the best breakfast menus (and calmest atmospheres) on property.
Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort: Fuel is the ideal lobby pit-stop, with a full espresso bar, egg sandwiches, and endless packaged snacks ideal for scarfing while waiting for the Magic Kingdom bus.
Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort: Ravello not only has a superior breakfast buffet, but hosts character dining a couple days a week, giving you quality time with Goofy, Mickey, and Minnie alongside a gourmet spread of charcuterie, house-made granola, and eggs made to order.
Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort: The perk of staying at a Disney hotel that recently underwent renovations is an updated quick-service menu that almost always includes unexpected surprises. Enjoy breakfast Cubans, coconut waffles, and a chorizo tostones Benedict at Centertown Market or try the cream cheese-guava French toast and yucca hash at the hotel’s Spyglass Grille.
Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter: Load up on breakfast po’ boys, baguette French toast, breakfast shrimp and grits bowls, and beignets from the quick-service counters at Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory.
Disney’s Art of Animation: Long heralded as the best quick-service food of all value-tier hotels, Landscape of Flavors delivers a strong and varied bounty, with breakfast sandwiches on naan bread, challah French toast, and vegan seitan scrambles.
Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/12/21/18138029/best-breakfast-restaurants-walt-disney-world-florida
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Travel Australia
Spotted with green parklands, aged galleries, notable structures, and perfectly manicured professional flowers, Adelaide is the cosmopolitan capital of South Cheap Holiday Australia. There is such a great amount to do in this beach that you could not get exhausted - you can taste probably the greatest Australian wines. And keeping in mind that you're grinding away, usually, do not miss the zoo in Adelaide, thought about the second the majority of the season in the place where there is Kangaroos.
About the Adelaide Zoo
The Adelaide Zoo is spread over eight acres regarding greenery and is an ideal home for more than 300 creatures and much more than 300 types of winged animals, creatures, and fish. It is 15 minutes from the city's focal point and is arranged properly by the professional flowerbed. The zoo is owned in addition to operated by the Royal Zoological Society of South Sydney is a non-benefit premise. Enter the zoo through the door of driving, which is one of the world's most beautiful places to live in the zoo.
Top Places to See in the Adelaide Zoo
There is this type of great amount in Adelaide that you get exhausted. Along these outlines, pursue the Adelaide zoo guide to abstain from getting lost plus capitalize on your day at the zoo.
1. Bamboo Woodland Pavilion: The Panda Enclosure
Goliath pandas of the wildlife, Funi, and Wang at the Bamboo Forest Pavilion. Both charming, yet heavyweight pandas came to Australia from the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center after their seismic tingling. This cute is a superstar.
2. The South-East Asiatische Wing (Immersion
Next, you can visit the South-East Asia section of the marvels of the district: the sun bear, the Sumatran tiger, the siamang, the Sumatran Orangutan, the Asian kitchenware Small-mauled Otters, the Asian ungulate, Binturong, the red-colored panda, and white-cheeked gibbon, among different creatures and even winged animals.
The African wing houses African Big cat, Black-and-white Colobus, Meerkats, Cheetahs, and other different creatures.
3. The Australian Wing and Other Enclosures
The local Australian animals include various types of Kangaroos, Wombat, Tammar Lullaby, and so forth.
However, that is not all. The other Adelaide zoo creatures feature unique species of Tamarin, Long-nosed Potoroo, Little Penguin, Maned wolf, Pygmy hippopotamus, Rhino Iguana, and so forth. Every one of the creatures tends to be kept in their nooks to give them space to move around.
We have a child's zoo for the kids to invest with in excess of a hundred and twenty creatures. Children are allowed to come to Kangaroo and have a good time with the hairy companions.
4. Stroll Through Aviaries
There is 3 stroll through aviaries in the Adelaide zoo where a visitor motivates the chance to get up, close and individual with a variety of feathered creatures in the aviaries. The fledgling shows efficiently reproduce the fate of natural surroundings in which the variety of00 winged animals live. The water winged animals are held in tidal ponds and a small lake, desert-abiding fowls are displayed in an average desert type condition, and also the flying creatures have a place of a rainforest. The accumulation involving winged animals is colossal and is a major opportunity. Click Here to get more information.
5. Nature's Playground
Relax in the wake of visiting the animal displays in the zoo's inclination's play area. This unique play area includes play gear that has been based on the play of Mother Nature which invigorates every one of the faculties of a human. It incorporates rising structures, water amusements, flying walkways, and a characteristic stream bed as well. It is suitable for individuals being equal. You will find a guardians' room and an incapacity cannot be missed within the play area as well.
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The Envirodome is an informative office which was opened in 2009.
6. Spots to Host Events together with Ceremonies
The Adelaide zoo likewise houses various locations, like a birthday party, and so on. The Bamboo Forest Pavilion is really a phenomenal place to feast with your cherished one, the Longhouse Immersion that is encompassed by the tiger and orang-utan shows is an amazing outside area to have an opportunity, The Sir Thomas Elder Rotunda is another great legacy site within the zoo to have your opportunity. The Adelaide Zoo, Fig Tree Function Center, and the Central Lawns. Click Here, to get more information.
There is a lot more than one can do at the zoo other than the general go to. The Adelaide zoo opportunities include a visit to the Insect Barn, the Nocturnal House, and the Reptile House. You are able to likewise read the news for the zookeeper's discussions, the outrageous encounters, the wild encounters, and the creature feedings pay a visit to.
7. Eateries and Cafes
In the interim, we're going to possess a chance to get your hands on your backyard and give you a chance to return to nature at the Playground, where you'll be able to drop in for the tidbit. There are different bistros like the Fig Tree Restaurant where you can drop by to get a snappy supper or breakfast. If you want to take a little keepsake back for home and buddies, there is a gift shop on the premises.
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Houston is home to many interesting activities and attractions.
The city offers things to do for outdoors enthusiasts (Buffalo Bayou), families (the Houston zoo and children's museum) and lovers of art (the unique Art Car Museum and superb Menil Collection). Shoppers will enjoy the massive Galleria and even have an impressive and sober Holocaust Museum Houston. Visitors can learn about the origins of "Houston, we've had a problem" and NASA's astronaut program at Space Center Houston or enjoy prehistoric exhibits and colorful butterflies at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. And we can't forget Tex-Mex: The city teems with superb Texas-Mexico fusion cuisine.
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1. Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
In Houston, there's no better place to see riders than the Houston and Rodeo Breeding Show. As the season begins (usually from late February to early March), crowds flock to the NRG Stadium to see the daily rodeo showing a variety of competitions, such as horse riding, bull riding, wrestling. steering wheel, ramps, barrel racing and more.
Breeding programs, which also take place during the rodeo season, have traditional events such as pet auctions, scrambles, and horse shows.
2. Hermann Park
Those who want to feel like a local should take a trip to Houston's Hermann Park. The park borders several different city neighborhoods, attractions, universities, and local institutions, meaning you'll find plenty of green spaces and amenities that will appeal to all ages.
Hermann Park boasts a playground, pavilion, picnic area, lake, garden, golf course, children's train, pedal boat, and trails. Moreover, the park is also home to the Houston Zoo.
Besides the zoo, the McGitas Perennial Garden and Miller Outdoor Amphitheater are among the most popular attractions in the park. The McGitas centennial garden covers 8 acres and has 50 different species of plants as well as lots of flowers, shrubs and other greenery, including a rose garden and forest garden.
The Miller Outdoor Theater is an entertainment venue that features year-round movies, plays, performing arts, cultural presentations, and musical performances.
3. Houston Museum District
The expanded Houston museum is by far the city's largest cultural property. This district features 19 museums, which include popular spots such as the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Located south of Downtown Houston, The Museum District stretches from the southern edge of Midtown and includes Hermann Park. The area garners about 7 million visitors per year thanks to its diverse array of offerings and the fact that admission to 11 of the 19 museums available is free, year-round.
4. Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston
The astronauts were exchanged with control at this NASA space center, about 25 miles southeast of downtown Houston.
Opened in 1963 as the NASA human space center, the center still acts as one of the country's major space centers for personnel training, research and more. Travelers interested in learning a little more about the space center's history can check out the visitors center adjacent to the facility, Space Center Houston.
5. Houston Museum of Natural Science
Located in the Museum Area near the Houston Zoo, Museum of Fine Arts and the Genocide Museum, the Houston Museum of Natural Science offers numerous permanent exhibits. Visitors can explore everything from dinosaur fossils in paleontological halls to emeralds, rubies, and sapphires in gem vaults to interactive exhibits in the chemistry room.
The museum's galleries cover a wide range of topics, which is why this attraction is a popular site in Houston - there is something for everyone. The building also has a few special exhibits, such as the Astronomical Center and Cockrell Butterfly Center, although these have additional costs.
If you have to pick one, travelers say the butterflies are pretty impressive. Cockrell Butterfly Center is home to a rainforest sanctuary surrounded by glass with exotic flora and hundreds of colorful butterflies.
6. Buffalo Bayou
So no mistake, the name "Buffalo Bayou" refers to the entire 52-mile waterway starting from Katy, Texas, and going to the River Oaks area of Houston. The 10-mile stretch from Sheperd Drive to the Port of Houston Turning Basin is a popular place for outdoor recreation.
Recently, the stretch of Buffalo Bayou from Sheperd Drive to Sabine Street underwent a complete restoration: $58 million was put in to revitalize the area by reintroducing natural landscapes, updating hiking and walking trails and more.
The park is also home to fascinating restored elements, such as The Water Works building, made from a 4-acre abandoned city water system. Today, it is a popular hub for outdoor events and concerts as well as food trucks.
It is also home to public toilets and bike rental facilities. You'll also find a water tank there: Houston's first underground drinking water reservoir has been transformed into an interesting public space.
7. Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park, home to Houston Astros of Major League Soccer, is another popular spot during the summer months in Houston. And, as most visitors will testify, you get much more than a ballgame when you buy tickets to the park.
Tourists say that after being hot outside in Texas, the air-conditioned stadium (and roof) is a great relief. Some people also suggested trying to catch a game during the night of the fireworks, because the show was impressive.
Those on the lookout for unique ballpark eats won't be disappointed either. The park offers a wide selection of classics from ballpark classics (like sausages and nachos) to healthy salad bars to Astros Melt (two grilled cheese sandwiches with SPAM and American cheese on Texas toast).
8. The Menil Collection
The Menil Collection is a 30-acre art collection gathered by Jean and Dominique de Menil. The permanent collection has 10,000 pieces of art collected by the couple from the 1940s to the late 90s. The exhibition covers everything from African and Byzantine artworks to a collection of works. Native American art from the Pacific Northwest.
The collection also houses an impressive collection of modern art, which the museum calls a "spiritual aspiration in the abstract ambition of modern art". Over decades of photography, impressions, surrealism, and sculpture this part of the collection is a repeat visitor's favorite.
Because of its emphasis on how art affects spirituality, The Menil seeks to provide a quiet and contemplative environment for people to view the collection. As such, photography is not allowed in galleries but is welcome in entertainment rooms and corridors (without flash).
9. Holocaust Museum Houston
If you're looking for an educational stop to add to your journey, consider the Houston Genocide Museum. The exhibits include everything from footage taken during World War II and inside concentration camps to a wagon in 1942 to transport victims.
But the museum also tells of resistance efforts, and in the end, exhibits a Danish fishing boat that has rescued more than 7,000 Danish Jews from their deaths.
Recent visitors said the museum was specially designed, adding that the exhibits are thought-provoking and informative.
10. Children's Museum of Houston
This museum, like its name, is all for the little ones. Exhibits include Tot * Spot, for children up to 35 months of age, complete with mirrors and ball holes and pillows.
Older children will enjoy exhibitions such as the Invention Conference, a small engineering workshop or EcoStation, an indoor/outdoor area where children can do everything, from collecting bugs to brushes rubbing leaves.
Then there's the FlowWorks interactive exhibit where kids can play water games and stand in the middle of an 18-foot Cauldron (perfect for those hot summer days). The museum's most popular exhibition is Kidtropolis: a small city for children, run by kids who imitate a real city. Children can get a job, get paid, sit in the city council, shop for goods and more.
More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Galveston
From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-houston-this-weekend-704139.html
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Design Milk Travels to… Zürich, Switzerland
Coming back down from the bucolic, “the hills are alive” splendor of my adventures in the Swiss Alps, expectations were tempered arriving in northern Switzerland’s most famous lakeside city. How would any urban experience match the alpine dreams of crystal clear glacial lakes and (literally) breathtaking altitude I had just woken up from? But Zürich has a way of steadily imparting its appeal, especially in summer, when the entire populace seems to glow with the conscious confidence they’re living their best life. Soon enough, the city famous for its extravagant and upscale shopping, medieval architecture, renowned chocolatiers, and glorious waterfront lifestyle will have you imagining what it might be like making a home in one of the world’s most liveable cities.
WHERE TO STAY
The lobby of the Hotel Helveti \\\. Photo: Hotel Helvetia
The Hotel Helvetia is our favorite type of place to stay at: casual and unfussy, yet appointed with enough details to make your time there feel like the exception, rather than the rule in life. The heart of the city is only a short walk from the hotel’s doors, with both the Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Old Botanical Garden just across the bridge, making it an easy jumping off point for days while acquainted with Zurich.
Photo: Hotel Helvetia
The hotel’s main rooms were designed by local interior designers Atelier Zurich, with the contemporary pastel painted interiors a collaborative effort between Leopold Weinberg and architect Nele Dechmann.
The Scandinavian vernacular makes the absence of things feel like an addition in service of comfort. \\\ Photo: Hotel Helvetia
Each of the rooms riff playfully off the hotel’s historic Art Nouveau facade, with 35 rooms and two luxury business apartments on the attic floor to choose from (ask for a room overlooking the nearby River Sihl if you like to people watch). The interior decor at first may seem just north of spartan, but you’ll then notice they furnished your room with a handcrafted Hästens Luxuria mattress.
Photo: Hotel Helvetia
Photo: Hotel Helvetia
The Atlantis by Giardino is situated a little further from the beaten path, and for that reason we wholeheartedly recommend this mountainside hotel adjacent to the Zurich’s Uetliberg for anyone who likes to return from days spent in the city to accommodations of luxe civility.
Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
That’s not to say the hotel is sleepy; with a history tied to the likes of guests like Grace Jones, Freddie Mercury, and Frank Zappa, you know this post-war modernist hotel operates within the realm where partying and privacy both hold court.
Downstairs the 2 Michelin stars awarded Ecco Zürich makes the promise of a memorable meal a surefire bet. \\\ Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
Photo: Atlantis by Giardino
The 92 rooms and suites of the Atlantis by Giardino do a convincing job of keeping guests willingly within their rooms. Decorated with an eye for the timeless by London-based hospitality design firm Gallery HBA, appointments include plush sofas custom-made by Molteni, with some rooms offering balcony views of the mountains in the distance, others of the cityscape just below. Comfort here is always appointed on the right side of class.
Design collective Monoplan is credited for updating the 1960s Hotel Atlantis architecture originally designed by architects Hans and Annemarie Hubacher and Peter Issler.
Notable mentions: Engimatt Hotel \\\ EMA House \\\ Hotel Zuri
WHERE TO SHOP
Zurich is a pleasantly walkable city, dotted with numerous opportunities for shopping along the famous luxury lane of Bahnhofstrasse and medieval Altstadt (Old Town). Perhaps indicative of the infamous high cost of living here, even the most touristy of spots are mostly free of cheap tchotchkes sellers.
Exploring the numerous narrow pedestrian cobblestone alleyways and stairs offers incentive to ditch the map and get yourself lost (the city center is easy to navigate thanks to the water and other architectural landmarks always offering a hint which way you should be going), and you’ll find yourself enjoying unplanned detours here and there for just a peek around the corner. One of our favorite shops in Zurich is also perhaps the smallest: Afrod’or, a sliver of a store dedicated to African designs.
Photo: Gregory Han
The Museum of Zurich University of the Arts was high on our list of design destinations in the city. With four collections representing Design, Graphics, Decorative Arts, and Poster composed of over 500,000 objects, it’s a designer’s paradise. Unfortunately, traveling for work rather than leisure meant our schedule dictated only the briefest of drop-in at the end of the day. Fortunately the museum’s gift shop was still open on our last evening, and any disappointment was washed away by the gift shop’s inspiring display of books and posters for sale.
Photo: Gregory Han
The Museum of Zurich University of the Arts \\\ Photo: Gregory Han
It’s nearly impossible to miss the towering container shop dedicated to all things Frietag – the perpetually popular purveyor of functional bags and accessories fashioned out of used truck tarps. Located in Zurich’s Industriequartier, you can see the assemblage of recycled shipping containers from a mile away. We recommend the flagship shop as a late afternoon destination; ascend up the tower of shipping containers and then come back down for a hearty communal meal with hundreds of locals in the adjoining outdoor dining garden.
Photo: Gregory Han
Photo: Frietag
Located in the heart of Zurich’s old town, at the Spiegelgasse near Neumarkt, LIMITED STOCK dedicates its selection to small batch, artisan crafted products with an emphasis placed upon functionality – everyday objects that aren’t merely coveted, but beloved because you’ll use them.
Photo: Limited Stock
Photo: Limited Stock
If your interests steer toward architecture, swing inside Hochparterre – Books on Architecture to check out both local and global publications and books dedicated to the field of architecture (just remember to consider the weight of any books you might purchase.)
Photo: Hochparterre
Photo: Fabrikat
Notable mentions: Fabrikat \\\ Soeder \\\ Viu Eyewear \\\ Im Viadukt
WHERE TO VISIT
During summer the inviting waters of Lake Zurich attract legions of locals to the waterfront where the handsome population bathe in both elements of water and light. As a tourist, it’s a great opportunity to promenade with a scoop of ice cream in hand, or drop into a lakeshore eatery for a bratwurst and beer before making way to several nearby sites.
We were taken aback by the retro-futuristic architecture near the shoreline of Lake Zurich. Locals explained it was merely a “medical office”. \\\ Photo: Gregory Han
With its colorful angularity parked upon a lawn of green, the Pavillon Le Corbusier gives all appearances of an enormous modernist dollhouse, and half the fun is journeying upward by the building’s center staircase and outdoor ramp. The final building designed by Le Corbusier, the exhibition pavilion was designed entirely according to the Modulor system, an anthropometric scale of proportions devised by Le Corbusier based on the human body and the golden ratio. The rooftop deck is an especially comfortable vantage point to take in many of the structural and site specific details of the pavilion, a shaded architectural oasis.
Tourists converge at the Pavillon Le Corbusier in waves during the middle of the day, so get here early or late in the day to enjoy the exhibitions and tour the building without the crowds. \\\ Photo: Gregory Han
The most memorable trips are painted by reminiscence of places and faces met unexpectedly. And so it was during a walk into the adjoining suburban neighborhood across the waters of Lake Zurich when we spotted a flora-lined path leading upward into the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich, the home to 7,000 different plant species and a trio of dome-shaped greenhouses hosting the ecosystems of tropical mountain forests, tropical lowland rainforest, and tropical drylands within.
A trio of greenhouses at the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich \\\ Photo: Gregory Han
Photo: Swiss National Museum
Notable mentions: Museum für Gestaltung \\\ Swiss National Museum \\\ Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO Park)\\\ Enea Tree Museum
FINAL THOUGHTS
Photo: Gregory Han
Zürich has a reputation as an expensive cosmopolitan destination, but it’s also dotted with a multitude of affordable museums, parks, and other public spaces interconnected by walkways, buses, and trains. Life here seems to unfold as fast or as slow as you want, with the city’s historic landscape living harmoniously with its contemporary attractions. It is expensive here, but the price of admission to a life less ordinary – even if for just a few days – seems reasonable once there.
If you’re fortunate enough to be making your way to Zürich soon, note the second annual Design Biennale Zurich opens this week. This year’s biennale focuses on the theme play, with the entirety of Switzerland represented as a design playground, with design projects and installations representing various disciplines, including: algorithmic music, analog scientific models, digital craftsmanship, intelligent textiles, interactive everyday products, collaborative design, material experiments, urban utopias, and virtual reality.
If you’ve traveled to Zürich, Switzerland and have any additional favorite spots or recommendations for first time visitors, let us know below so we can share (and also check it out ourselves the next time we’re there).
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9 wilderness retreats to experience the real Australia
Did you know that Australia is the third least-densely populated countries in the world after Namibia and Mongolia? With about 1.1 million square miles of interior land (or the Outback) mostly unchanged and uninhabited, the country offers an almost endless array of wildlife and wilderness adventures you can include during your visit.
To help you along, we’ve listed 9 luxury retreats that put you smack, bang in the middle of the Australian wilderness. Here, you’ll discover the pleasures of getting out of the city and onto the road less travelled.
The Berkeley River Lodge
Nestled along a 65-metre sand dune in one of the last true wilderness areas on Earth, is the luxurious Berkeley River Lodge. Accessible only by air or by boat, this completely secluded retreat offers an indulgent outback experience with breathtaking views of the Kimberley Coast. With just 20 luxury villas, this private retreat is the ultimate couples hideaway. Boasting 180-degree views of the rugged outback and the sparkling sea, open-air ensuite bathrooms with tubs, delectable cuisine at the restaurant, a swimming pool, and helicopter tours – this is barefoot luxury at its best.
Truly isolated, there is no road access to the Lodge. Guests need to fly from either Kununurra or Darwin Airport, or take a 4-hour boat ride from Wyndham.
Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef
This luxury beachside safari camp in the picturesque and remote location of Western Australia’s Cape Range National Park boasts 16 wilderness tents amid a stunning coastal bush setting. Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef is a secluded escape fringed by the inviting warm waters of the Indian Ocean. It is designed to expose you to the great outdoors via its array of activities, including swimming with whale sharks and humpback whales. Unique and luxurious in every way, this retreat offers chef-prepared meals, access to the beach, snorkelling equipment, and well-appointed accommodation. This is one of Australia’s best-kept secrets and makes for a perfect holiday spot for a romantic couples escape or a memorable honeymoon.
The best way to get here is to take an hour and 45-minute flight from Perth to Learmonth Airport in Exmouth. From here, Sal Salis can pick you up and drive you about an hour and a half to the camp. You can also take a scenic flight over gorges and mountains from Exmouth Airport if you prefer.
Longitude 131°
One of the most iconic luxury lodges in Australia, Longitude 131° is a dream holiday destination you shouldn’t miss. Located at the World Heritage-listed site of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, this remarkable boutique resort provides you with a memorable experience that won’t be easily forgotten. The lodge only has 15 individual Luxury Tents and one Dune Pavilion, all well-appointed and surrounded by the rugged beauty of the desert and wilderness. Absorb this peaceful and magical destination from the moment you arrive, and discover the spirited land of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Or relax with a spa treatment and dinner under the stars, if that’s more your pace.
Longitude 131° offers complimentary transfers connecting with all Ayers Rock Airport flights. Helicopter transfers are available from Ayers Rock Airport to Longitude 131° helipad. From Ayers Rock Airport it’s a 15-minute drive to the resort.
Arkaba
The rugged beauty of the Australian Outback is best enjoyed at a place that puts you within reach of its treasures. And at Arkaba, a luxurious 5-bedroom homestead set on 60,000 acres of private conservancy in the heart of the Flinders Ranges, you’ll certainly have it. Explore the area via bushwalking, scenic flight, or on an open-top safari drive. Or enjoy a gourmet dinner with fellow guests or a refreshing dip in the pool. At night, retire to your luxurious suite, savour the fresh breeze from your verandah, then stretch out on your comfy bed as you gaze out at the starry skies.
To get to Arkaba, you can drive about 5 hours north of Adelaide. A quicker option is to take an hour’s flight from Adelaide to Port Augusta then drive from there. You could also charter a private plane from Adelaide to Hawker airstrip and be picked up by your Arkaba hosts for the 20-minute drive to the homestead.
Bamurru Plains
Nestled inside a 70,000-hectare buffalo farm in Australia’s Top End, Bamurru Plains is a luxury safari lodge adored by nature-lovers. It’s as close to a safari experience as you can get in Australia. Featuring nine luxurious safari bungalows and one spacious suite, the lodge allows you to immerse in nature while sipping a bubbly in your cabin, relaxing by the pool, or enjoying a host of outdoor activities. Each tent is set on a timber platform that overlooks the floodplain. Walls made of a mesh fabric allows fresh air to circulate and provides you with unobstructed views of the wildlife that inhabits the area.
Bamurru Plains, on the outskirts of Kakadu National Park, is a three-hour drive east of Darwin. From the lodge gates, a guide will take you to the entrance in a four-wheel drive. Charter air transfers from Darwin are also available.
El Questro Homestead
El Questro Homestead in The Kimberleys not only offers luxury and comfort at every turn, but it also places you in one of Australia’s most dramatic locations. With nine elegant suites built on the edge of the Chamberlain River, some with outdoor bathtubs, you’re afforded privacy and a most impressive view of the landscape. El Questro also provides access to 700,000 acres of wilderness, an impressive array of indoor and outdoor amenities, and tailored itineraries, making it the perfect adventure destination for couples, families and friends.
To get here, take an hour flight from Darwin to Kununurra Airport with Qantas. From Kununurra Airport, rent a 4WD to drive to the Homestead, which will take about two hours. Part of the road is unsealed and unsuitable for regular vehicles, so a 4WD vehicle is a must.
Wildman Wilderness Lodge
If you want to take a breather from your hectic lifestyle without sacrificing comfort and convenience, then Wildman Wilderness Lodge in the remote Mary River National Park Wetlands of the Northern Territory is perfect. It has the formula for the ultimate escape: luxurious African-style safari tents, outdoor lounge areas, swimming pool with superb views, an array of tours, and fantastic food. And because Wildman provides access to both the harsh Northern Territory outback and the lush wetlands, you’ll also spot a variety of wildlife that lives in the area. And if for a moment you forget, yes, you’re still in Australia.
Wildman can be reached via a three-hour drive from Darwin, along the Arnhem Highway. Follow the signs to Kakadu National Park to reach the lodge.
Cicada Lodge
Situated above the Katherine River, within the Nitmiluk National Park, Cicada Lodge is an 18 room luxury eco-resort that provides guests with unparalleled service and world-class accommodation in the most breathtaking of locations. Each room features modern amenities interspersed with indigenous furnishings and artworks, air-conditioning, private balconies, and ensuite bathrooms. While here, you can take a private tour to explore the hidden gems of this incredible region. Fly to remote locations via a helicopter, take a refreshing dip in your very own clear waterfall, and discover historic rock art sites.
From the city of Darwin, drive south along the Stuart Highway for about 4 hours (roughly 300km). Cicada Lodge is about 30 minutes by car from Katherine Town Centre.
Mt Mulligan Lodge
We’re sure you’ll be impressed with Mount Mulligan Lodge. With a vast 28,000 hectares of land and only eight rooms, you’ll have access to as much of the outback as you can take. The lodge features an infinity pool with a sunset bar and a pavilion for dining and relaxation. Enjoy gourmet dining, kayaking, fishing, and helicopter tours. For the history buffs, there’s an old deserted mining town that you can explore. What makes staying here even more enticing is that each room — aside from containing every convenience and comfort you’d want — comes with its own ATV if you want to tour on your own.
Access to Mt Mulligan Lodge is via a 35-minute scenic helicopter ride from Cairns, passing over the Daintree Rainforest, Atherton Tablelands, and the majestic Mount Mulligan itself.
From the remote and rugged beauty of the Kimberleys and the Red Centre to the vast blue ocean of the Great Barrier Reef and lush environs of the Daintree Rainforest, these wilderness retreats provide you with the means to experience Australia’s diverse flora and fauna and extraordinary landscapes. If there’s a good time to get off your haunches and sling on that backpack, it’s definitely now.
Mat Lewis is Co-Founder & CEO of View Retreats. View Retreats is a boutique travel agency featuring handpicked, luxury accommodation across Australia & New Zealand.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
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Handsome giant checking out his reflection
Me and my buddy
I haven’t featured too many reptiles on my calendar over the years, but ever since these guys returned to the Toronto Zoo in 2018, they have captured my heart. The three Aldabra tortoises – Queenie, Malila, and Rasputin – were first featured at our Zoo in 1975, moving on to the Forth Worth Zoo in 1999. Obviously, I must have seen them a few times in the first quarter-century they were here, but I don’t really recall. For one thing, I didn’t tend to spend a lot of time in the pavilions when I visited the Zoo before I met Sarah. I would often visit in small groups of friends and hit the “big-ticket” animals; I’ve only really been the “Zen traveller” I am now for the past decade or so. If I had understood the impact just visiting an animal and being present in the moment would have on my life when I was a younger man, there is very little doubt my path would have been entirely different. But I didn’t, it wasn’t, and I am where I am now, which is fine with me because at least I got here eventually.
Well, this is starting out so melancholy. I apologize. It’s clearly the pandemic talking.
Rasputin and Keeper
Speaking of that, I’m afraid I don’t have nearly as much information to give you about the history of these giants at the Toronto Zoo as I would have liked. Ordinarily, when preparing for a post like this, I would visit the animals and their Keepers and see what I could draw out of them to pass along to all of you. Not being able to do that right at the moment, I have had to rely on some online digging, which has proven to be not quite as rewarding. I did manage to find a post on the Zoo’s Facebook page from April of 2018: a “Throwback Thursday” piece on when the Aldabras were first at the Zoo. If you click on the photo above (I don’t know when that was taken, but I swear I know the Keeper in it… with a lot less hair now) it will take you to that post. My “Name Book” lists their DOBs as “unknown,” so I cannot tell you with certainty how old they are, other than they are obviously at least 45. I believe the estimate is early-to-mid-50s for all of them, which means they likely are only about 1/3 of the way through their lives!
Malila (L) and Queenie
So let’s move on to some things I can tell you! Currently there are two living species of giant tortoises: the Aldabra and the Galápagos. (The fact of the matter is it’s a bit more complicated, what with subspecies and such; check the Wiki page for “Giant tortoise” to cover this in more detail.) The Galápagos species is slightly larger than the Aldabra and can be found distributed among the various islands of the Galápagos archipelago in Ecuador. The Aldabras live mainly on the Aldabra atoll, which is found in the Seychelles island group in the Indian Ocean. This coral atoll was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, which significantly improved this species’ chances for survival, and the IUCN has listed them as Vulnerable.
Malila (L) and Queenie and friend
During the winter, the tortoises share a huge exhibit in the African Rainforest Pavilion with the ring-tailed lemurs and a grey-necked crown crane. It’s a wonderful mixed-species exhibit, something I hope we create more of down the road, and I have been trying for over two years to catch a lemur riding a tortoise, to no avail. I’ve heard it has happened , but not that I have seen. Not giving up hope, though: it sure looked imminent on one or two occasions! The temperature in the exhibit is very carefully monitored as the tortoises, being reptiles, are ectotherms (cold-blooded) and cannot regulate their own body temperatures like the lemurs and crane can. There are a couple of hot zones, several heaters (which the lemurs also like to take advantage of, often in a “lemur ball”), and a shallow pond at the southeast corner that a tortoise will occasionally amble over to and then sit in for hours.
Rasputin, Queenie, and Malila
Outside, they have a spectacular exhibit just south of the main entrance to the pavilion. There is a sun shelter (the cave you see in this photo), a pond, some interesting nooks and crannies to explore, and lots and lots of very tasty grass! This is an awesome place to view these amazing creatures, as the railing around the exhibit is very comfortable to lean on and quite close to the tortoises. As for the reptiles themselves, they can be quite precocious and will very often interact with their visitors – especially when called by name. As with virtually every animal I encounter at our Zoo and others, they are considerably smarter than we would think to give them credit for. They also – Rasputin in particular – can emit a sound that reminds me very much of an elderly person who has discovered something disappointing in their food. Now, I cannot for the life of me find a video to let you hear that sound, even though I am completely certain that one exists and I have seen it. I’ve checked every source I can think of but have come up empty. So if you run into me in the future, please ask me to do my impression. It’s actually not bad! Or, if you come across a video where any of the Aldabras is making the sound, please let me know. In the meantime, I do hope you enjoy this alternative video!
Sarah and I with Malila
The Aldabra tortoises were one of the featured animals of the Zoo’s very-well-received Wild Encounters which premiered last summer. Sarah and I waited until it was warm enough for the tortoises to be out in their summer home before we booked our visit and it was an amazing experience. In the first photo on this page below Rasputin’s calendar shot, I am in the outdoor cave with him, rubbing his shell. In the shot at left, Sarah and I are taking turns interacting with Malila in the same way and, as you can see by her stance, she is loving it. Turtles and tortoises have surprisingly sensitive shells; well, I say “surprisingly” because many people probably think of those shells as if they are surrounding armour, but they are fused directly to the animals and grow with them from hatching, so they have as complex a network of nerves as really any land animal’s back. So when we “skritched” Malila on her shell near her tail, she immediately raised herself off the ground, swayed a little bit, and made very contented noises. We were able to do this for quite a while before she finally tired of it and toddler off in the general direction of the nearby pond. When the Zoo is once again at a point where they are offering the Wild Encounters, I highly recommend this one. They are all terrific, but there is something a little extra-special for me in interacting directly with the amazing creatures at the Zoo.
Sarah and Rasputin: Then and Now
Sarah, for her part, remembers the tortoises very well from their first years in Toronto. At left is a photo of her visiting them at the age of 12 (Rasputin is in the foreground behind the glass), coupled with a shot of her patting Rasputin last summer on the Wild Encounter, which I would guess is not something she imagined happening in the first picture! He, Queenie, and Malila would all be similar sizes and weights today as they were back then, with Rasputin weighing in at over 186 kg, Queenie at 75.8 kg, and Malila at 69.3 kg. Actually, I imagine they are a bit bigger now than in that first shot, as they would only have been in their early 20s then and they don’t reach sexual maturity until about 30 years old.
Well, long-time followers will realize we’ve reached the part in my blog post where I ordinarily will post a collage of other photos and say goodbye, but I’m going to add a couple of extra treats this time. I have uncovered a few more videos of these guys – some are mine, some are from the Zoo, and one is from another source – and I will embed them all here now for you to view, or not, as you see fit. The very last one will show how the Keepers (in this case, Jenn) target train the tortoises; after that I will tell you something cool about the transport of them last summer.
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Jenn, Malila, Rasputin
Last summer, when I saw the Aldabras outside for their first time that year, I also happened to encounter their Keeper, Jenn. She was practically beaming with pride as she filled me in on how the transfer went between the indoor and outdoor exhibits for the three of them. Apparently, they had some success with Queenie and Rasputin… to be honest, I don’t remember the specific details much more than that because it was the next part that was the real story: Jenn was able to lead Malila with the target ball all the way from the indoor exhibit, outside along the walking path, and into the outdoor exhibit! Those of you who are familiar with the layout of the African Rainforest Pavilion will realize what a distance that is; for the rest of you, all I can say is that is an incredible feat for only the second year they worked together. I was very much looking forward to trying to watch that parade this summer, but I don’t know if they’ll already be moved by the time we are allowed to walk around the Zoo again as visitors. On the grand scale of disappointments during the pandemic – even just from a Zoo perspective – it doesn’t rank particularly high, but it does add to the load. If I do get to see it, you better believe there’ll be video which I will prominently display on YouTube and my Grumpy Penguin page on Facebook.
Nictitating membrane in full view!
Speaking of my Grumpy Penguin Facebook page: I realize that there might be quite a few people reading this post who have never visited my website before, and are here because they found my FB page when I posted photos of a Scenic Safari trip at the Zoo on a Toronto Zoo “fan page” on Facebook. If this includes you, thank you for coming! I have been making these posts once or twice a month for the past few years (always on or very close to the first of the month) as kind of a “value added” feature for a calendar I have sold. I invite you to go back through my older posts on here and, if you like any of the subjects, please take a look at them. Some of them have a little more in-depth information; as I mentioned earlier, it’s been a bit tougher to create the material I really want with much of my access to the Zoo cut off for the time being. And, frankly, some of the animals I’ve featured I just happen to have had more experience with over the years and will have more stories to tell. In any event, no matter whether you are a first-timer or an early adopter, thanks for reading along with me today! Please “tune in again” next month for an extremely cute little guy who really only began to make his appearance around the same time last summer. See you there, and please: stay safe and healthy.
Oh, all right, Sarah! Here you go. Geez…. 😉
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2020 “HANGING OUT WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – June Story I haven't featured too many reptiles on my calendar over the years, but ever since these guys returned to the Toronto Zoo in 2018, they have captured my heart.
#Africa#African Rainforest Pavilion#Aldabra#Aldabra tortoise#Animals#Calendar#June#Rasputin#Reptile#Toronto#Tortoise
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A Snob’s Guide to Finding Good Drinks in Disney World
Anyone who ever aspired to drink with intergalactic droids will soon be in luck: Disney Parks is set to debut a new bar, Oga’s Cantina, a “hotly anticipated” Star Wars attraction, in Florida’s Disney World and California’s Disneyland later this year.
Oga’s Cantina marks the first Disneyland bar serving alcohol to the general public (provided they are over 21, of course). Disney World, on the other hand, actually has a number of places to have a pint, cocktail, or glass of vino.
This may come as a surprise to those who envision both Walt Disney and his eponymous theme parks as wholesomely teetotaling affairs. But Walt was not a prohibitionist. Despite what countless people on the internet claim, Walt Disney was a man who boozed it up quite a bit—usually starting with a Scotch cocktail at 5 o’clock sharp. He simply wanted his theme parks and public persona to be a little more, ahem, dry than he actually was.
“Walt Disney doesn’t drink,” he once told a friend. “I drink.”
Well, we drink, too.
Luckily, it’s become easier and easier over the years to drink pretty well in Disney World — if you know where to look. The entire property is a massive 40 square miles divided into four unique theme parks (plus resort accommodations). Consider this your guide to finding the top beer, wine, booze, and cocktails throughout Disney World.
Cinderella’s Royal Table at the Magic Kingdom serves top-shelf Champagne. Credit: Disneyworld.disney.go.com
Magic Kingdom Park
The main theme park was dry until Be Our Guest, a Beauty & the Beast-themed restaurant, opened in 2012. In 2015 four more restaurants with alcohol opened. Today it’s up to eight, meaning every single sit-down restaurant in the park serves booze. All require advanced reservations, so plan your dipsomania accordingly. We have loosely ranked them in order of quality:
Cinderella’s Royal Table
Your children can dine with princesses while you get blotto on $320 bottles of Dom. Bottle service has never felt so… baller.
Be Our Guest Restaurant
Look for an adequate selection of wine and Champagne like Veuve Clicquot at this faux-opulent spot. Beers lean toward Belgian classics, like Saison Dupont and Chimay Blue. (There is also an app, Beers and Ears, that helps you locate specific ales and lagers in the park.)
Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen
This fairly problematic “jungle-themed” restaurant serves a mishmash of Asian, South American, and African beverages. You’ll find everything from Kenyan lagers to Argentinian Malbec to Sangria to, uh, Michelob Ultra.
The Diamond Horseshoe
There’s a small selection of beer and wine at this rootin’ tootin’ Old West hall, but it does have the solid Cigar City Jai Alai IPA, which hails from nearby Tampa, Fla.
The Crystal Palace
Blue Moon, J.Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon, some solid Columbia Valley sparkling wine, and Cigar City Jai Alai IPA are available at this The Winnie the Pooh-themed restaurant. There’s also costumed characters roaming about. (Come on, Eeyore, my drinking buddies back home are depressing enough!)
Liberty Tree Tavern
The selections at this early-America-inspired inn are classic if a bit uninspired, and include Mimosas and Napa Valley Cab, just like ol’ George Washington used to drink.
Tony’s Town Square Restaurant
There are no red-checkered tablecloths at this spot modeled after the place where Lady and the Tramp had their first kiss, but there is a sizable selection of “vino” and “birra.” Both lists only play the hits, pouring Peroni and Stella Artois plus Banfi Chianti. Surprisingly, the restaurant is not dog-friendly.
The Plaza Restaurant
This heavily-mirrored restaurant has some of the most bland booze options in the entire park. Think Bellinis and Mich Ultra.
Skip the sugary cocktails and sip sparkling wines at Epcot’s China pavilion. Credit: Disneyworld.disney.go.com.
Epcot
There are 11 pavilions styled after different countries at this “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” All offer alcoholic beverages with varying degrees of authenticity, cultural sensitivity, and drinkability. Here are the most interesting options in each “country.”
United States of America
Look for craft beers like Founders Rubaeus at the Block & Hans kiosk.
Japan
There’s sake, obvi, plus frozen Ichiban beer, available at the Kabuki Cafe.
Morocco
Although the actual Morocco is home to winelands that some American somms feel have international potential, Epcot’s Morocco focuses on cocktails like The Casablanca Sunset (a gross combination of apricot brandy and peach schnapps) and the frozen Sultan’s Colada.
France
Les Vins des Chefs de France, a counter-service wine bar, has a decent selection of wines by the glass, including Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone and Nicolas Feuillate Champagne. If that sounds too rich for your blood, there’s also a silly frozen drink, the Grand Marnier-based Orange Slush.
United Kingdom
The pub Rose & Crown serves pints of Boddingtons and Guinness, flights of single malts, and one extremely curious cocktail. The Leaping Leprechaun features Jameson (sure), rum (OK), vodka (wha?), as well as melon liqueur, sour mix, and Sprite.
Canada
Our neighbors to the north might actually offer Epcot’s best beers at Le Cellier, which serves a full menu of boozy Unibroue options. There’s also Molsons, Labatts, and one of the world’s premier drunk foods, poutine!
Tony’s Town Square is modeled after the fictional restaurant where Lady and the Tramp had their first kiss. Surprisingly, it is not dog-friendly. Credit: Disneyworld.disney.go.com.
Mexico
Bypass the sugar-bomb Margs at stands throughout the pavillion, and head to La Cava de Tequila. It offers a quality selection of sipping tequilas and legitimately interesting Margaritas, included a frozen avocado one.
Norway
Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe’s shot of Linie Aquavit is surely one of the most esoteric and, quite frankly, quality offerings in the entire Epcot complex.
China
Nine Dragons restaurant serves Chinese-American fare like General Tso’s Chicken with an array of aggressively sweet cocktails like frozen mango Daiquiris and the South Sea Breeze, a blend of pineapple and orange juices spiked with coconut rum and grenadine. However, there’s also a lengthy wine list with some surprisingly solid options, like Mumm Brut Prestige sparkling wine and Valkenberg Gewurtzraminer.
Germany
Expect to see knuckleheads aplenty hoisting steins of, unfortunately, humdrum Deutschland beer like Beck’s. Where’s the Weihenstephaner?! Your better bet is to opt for a spate of adequate, easy-drinking Riesling, like Valckenberg Madonna. Or maybe just get $9 shots of Jager.
Italy
A surprisingly cozy place to drink, The Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar touts over 200 bottles of wine—and some aren’t bad! Look for Greco di Tufo Mastroberardino, Vermentino Guado al Tasso and Fiano Avellino Mastroberardino.
Animal Kingdom Park
The drinking options at this zoologically themed park skirt a fine line between esoteric and nonsensical. Beers and wines are mostly sourced directly from across Africa —Bellingham Chenin Blanc from South Africa, for instance—but the cocktails lean that direction in name only. Additionally, far too many primate puns abound.
The Rainforest Cafe
Part of the same 1990s tide that brought Planet Hollywoods to tourist destinations worldwide, this theme restaurant is located near the entrance to Animal Kingdom. The beer and wine is fairly pedestrian, featuring Bud Light and Rodney Strong Chardonnay but the sugary and “tropical” cocktails, like the Mongoose Mai Tai, come in souvenir glasses worth take a walk with.
Jiko – The Cooking Place
This upscale restaurant offers over one-hundred South African wines, with solid staples from Raats and DeMorgenzon and higher-end bottlings from Philip Jonker and Sadie Family. On Wednesdays there are $30 tasting flights, which sounds more fun than riding the Teacups.
Dawa Bar
One of Disney World’s more intriguing international beer selections is at this so-called “bamboo bar” in Harambe village. Most of the beers, such as Tusker Lager, are industrial beers not as available in the U.S., and thus more interesting than a Bud Light in name only. Opt for a Hakim Stout from Ethiopia, or Dawa’s takes on classic cocktails, like a Margarita made with Van der Hum, South Africa’s tangerine-flavored liqueur.
Nomad Lounge
Numerous craft cocktails are available at this lounge on Discovery Island and, though many have African-inspired names, few use any sort of ingredients sourced on the continent.
There are $30 tasting flights Wednesdays at Jiko, an upscale restaurant in Animal Kingdom. Credit: Disneyworld.disney.go.com.
Hollywood Studios
When was the last time you saw Buzz Lightyear getting buzzed? Probably the last time you came here. Disney World’s least-visited theme park doesn’t have many drinking destinations, but there are a few solid options.
Tune-In Lounge
The lobby to the Prime Time Café acts as a retro ’50s bar showing TV from the era and, thankfully, offering drinks from this era. Craft beers include mainstream bottles like New Belgium Fat Tire, wile cocktails are kicked up a notch for the distressed parent, like in the Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea. Hopefully your kids knows what hotel you’re staying in.
The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge
A wannabe facsimile of the see-and-be-seen Hollywood haunt of yore, Golden Age-era cocktails are the name of the game here—opt for a Manhattan or Martini.
Top Picks in Resort Areas Outside the Parks
Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto and Tiki Bar (Magic Kingdom Resort Area / Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort)
The best drinking destination in all of Disney World is this surprisingly legit tiki bar. Of course the traditionally kitschy, high seas aesthetic is a perfect fit for the pirate-friendly theme park—but the drinks, in highly-collectable mugs, will please tikiphiles too.
Located outside the park and opened in 2015 after the immense success of a Disneyland version, it becomes adult-only after 8PM, though the wait to get in often stretches into hours. Drinks like the Polynesian Pearl and the Tahitian Torch are well-made if a tad sweet; there’s also tiki-ish “no-booze brews” for the kiddos. Drinks are prepared by actors, not bartenders (no jokes here), and animatronic effects (such as an exploding volcano) are triggered when certain drinks are ordered. That’s admittedly a little Chuck E. Cheese-esque, but, you know, you’re drinking in a theme park bar that’s technically classified as a “ride,” not Smuggler’s Cove.
Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar (Disney Springs)
This 1940s dive bar claims to be where Indiana Jones’ sidekick used to hang his pilot’s hat. Turns out he was drinking pretty well then! There’s a decent single malt selection and massive cocktail list, including long drinks like Singapore Slings and Mojitos.
Raglan Road Irish Pub (Disney Springs)
This Emerald Isle pub is pretty plain Jane. Guinness abounds in this Emerald Isle-inspired pub, with a few other Irish and American draughts. There is, of course, Bailey’s and Jameson in many of the mixed drinks.
AbracadaBar (Disney World’s Boardwalk)
This so-called “speakeasy” (with a gigantic marquee loudly announcing its location) is meant to resemble a 1940’s magicians’ hangout. Alrighty. More like an airport Ruby Tuesday, the bar offers $12.50 “handcrafted” cocktails, which are more of a rarity in this area of the park than you’d think. Many of the drinks are vodka and Bacardi heavy, and though the ice is not the kind of crystal clear stuff a pretentious cocktailian expects, you will find some pretty solid offerings. Try the Coney Negroni, which is made with Eagle Rare Bourbon instead of gin, and resembles a Boulevardier. The Collins Double is a Tom Collins variant actually made with freshly-squeezed juices.
A totally solid tiki bar lies in the resort area beyond the parks. Credit: Disneyworld.disney.go.com.
Jellyrolls (Disney World’s Boardwalk)
This 21-and-over dueling piano bar is perhaps the most fun bar in the entire park. The alcohol selection is purely straightforward, though good for aiding your heartfelt rendition of “A Whole New World.”
Ample Hills Creamery (Disney World’s Boardwalk)
One of the park’s best boozing secrets is this Brooklyn-based ice cream shop with an outpost in Orlando. While the kiddos grab a cone, adults can snag a alcoholic floats made with Coney Island Hard Root Beer.
Club 33 (Four locations in Disney World Resort)
If you have a spare $25,000, you can become a member of these newly opened, invite-only private clubs. There’s one in each of the four parks. With yearly dues of $15,000, they’ll surely have something better than light beer.
The post A Snob’s Guide to Finding Good Drinks in Disney World appeared first on VinePair.
source https://vinepair.com/articles/disney-world-best-drinks-travel-guide/
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Toronto Zoo Attractions
Looking for something fun to do this weekend within Toronto? Are you fond of animals? These two questions are so random but if you answered Yes for both, then you are on the right page! If you are living (or travelling) in Toronto and you already have too much of theme parks, and beaches and trails, you might want to consider going to a zoo.
Toronto has one of the most respected and largest zoos in North America. In fact it is the largest zoo in Canada and it houses over 5,000 species. Founded by industrialist Hugh A. Crothers, the Toronto Zoo was opened on August 15, 1974. The Toronto Zoo is exactly located at 361A Old Finch Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and it is open all-year long except Christmas day.
From an article written in Wikipedia.com:
“It is divided into seven zoogeographic regions: Indo-Malaya, Africa, Americas, Tundra Trek, Australasia, Eurasia, and the Canadian Domain. Some animals are displayed indoors in tropical pavilions and outdoors in what would be their naturalistic environments, with viewing at many levels. It also has areas such as the Kids Zoo, Waterside Theatre, and Splash Island. It has one of the most taxonomically diverse collection of animals on display of any zoo; it is currently home to over 5,000 animals (including invertebrates and fish) representing over 500 species.”
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Zoo
According the Toronto Zoo’s official website Toronto.com, must-see attractions include the following:
- Visit the Giant Panda Experience to explore the state-of-the-art Panda Interpretive Centre and to meet Canada's only giant panda cubs! Meet Er Shun and her cubs, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue, plus our male giant panda, Da Mao.
- Check out our 10-acre Tundra Trek featuring our 5-acre polar bear habitat and underwater viewing area.
- See the Gorilla Rainforest, home to our Western Lowland Gorilla troop including young Nneka, our juvenile (and exceptionally cute) female gorilla born January 10, 2014.
- Take a walk through Indomalaya, home to tigers, orangutans, clouded leopards, Indian rhinos and more! Plus, meet our adorable new Indian rhino calf, Nandu, born February 17, 2016.
- Explore the African Savanna, home to rhinos, hippos, giraffes, white lions and more!
- Join us for daily informative animal Keeper Talks and feedings where you will see the animals up-close and learn interesting facts about our animals here at the Zoo.
- With over 100 species of fish throughout the Zoo, explore the Zoo's Great Barrier Reef exhibit in the Australasia pavilion, filled with moon jellies, seahorses and more.
- Explore our Discovery Zone* featuring:
Kids Zoo: learn, laugh and play with the little ones
Splash Island: our 2 acre splash pad, perfect for a cool down on hot summer days
Waterside Theatre: daily animal shows, free with Zoo admission
For more details such as admission, direction, working hours, etc., visit their official website: http://www.torontozoo.com/
So there you go, another fun thing to do in the weekend, even weekdays work too! Experience the company of animals in Toronto Zoo and have fun!
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Popular Kansas City Tourist Attractions - The Kansas City Zoo
The article Popular Kansas City Tourist Attractions - The Kansas City Zoo originally appeared on Armor Roofing Kansas City.
Animal lovers who visit the Kansas City area should definitely check out the Kansas City zoo. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and is rated one of the top zoos in the United States, particularly if you want to get a taste of exotic African wildlife (one of the most extensive collections of such animals outside of Africa).
What is there to do in the zoo? VisitKC describes just a few activites you and your family might enjoy:
More Zoo for you to explore with more than 200 acres of adventure filled with more than 1,700 animals. See penguins like never before at Helzberg Penguin Plaza. Watch king and gentoo penguins torpedo through the water in their 100,000 gallon cool pool and see the Humboldt penguins bask in the sun and get their flippers wet in the 25,000 gallon warm water pool. Journey to the Polar Bear Passage and marvel at our polar bears' beauty and strength. Swing into the Orangutan Canopy and get nose to nose with these orange apes. Take a walk-about through a mob of kangaroos.
There are a variety of exihibits in the zoo. Some of the most popular are the Polar Bear Plunge, the Africa section (including species from Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Congolese Rainforest), Australia, the Tiger Trail, the KidZone, the Discovery Barn, the Great Ape House, and the Orangutan Canopy. The park was selected as one of the United States' best zoos in 2008 coming in first for its African exhibits, chimpanzees, and kangaroos. The zoo's chimpanzee exhibit was even highly praised by noted chimp enthusiast Jane Goodall.
The zoo has also continued to invest in expanding the facilities over the last decade:
Extensive renovations of the zoo began in late 2005. The Discovery Barn opened in 2006, formerly the Red Barn. It contains many exhibits, and slides for children. Outside, there is a Peek-a-Boo Tree, that is fun for children to play in and get a sky-high view at the top of the tree, and like the Discovery Barn, it also contains a slide. The Promenade was also added in 2006, which is a wide path straight to the African elephants exhibit, which allows guests to reach Africa much faster. The new entrance admission gates opened in May 2008, with an educational center and a North American river otter and trumpeter swan exhibits. In early 2009, the Tropics House opened behind the Sea Lion pavilion in the 1909 Building, and the polar bear exhibit opened in August 2010, located near the entrance, in the location formerly occupied by stroller rental. In October 2013, the Helzberg Penguin Plaza opened, funded by an ongoing series of fundraising events as well as a 1/8th cent sales tax collected from the 2 county Zoological District.
Source: Wikipedia
Your kids can even find Dory and Nemo (well, fish that look just like them...) at the Kansas City Zoo as described in the video below.
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To get to Armor Roofing after visiting the Kansas City zoo, simply follow the directions on the map below.
The post Popular Kansas City Tourist Attractions - The Kansas City Zoo appeared first on Armor Roofing Kansas City.
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convergence by Marc McDermott This is a section of the African Rainforest Pavilion at the Toronto Zoo. More background on the building is below. Thanks for viewing! Architect: Morden Yolles Engineers: Douglas Wright, Roly Bergmann. The structure is supported on cast-in-place concrete tripods from which hollow-section steel beams extend at various angles to the peak of each roof area. Between the main steel members, the hyperbolic paraboloid surfaces are formed by a Triodetic grid system of aluminum tubes and nodes, formed of either equal-sided squares or pentagons, intersected with diagonals which carry the roof load in pure tension. This allowed members to be relatively small and light, helping to keep the overall roof sections as thin as possible. The Triodetic structure is topped by 2″x 6″ cedar joists and tongue-and-groove cedar decking. The original cedar shingle roof surface was recently replaced with copper sheathing. http://flic.kr/p/TsfeCq
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Mama and her girls
Philip (front) and Tisa
This is a love story, albeit one that did not exactly begin “at first sight.” I’m not sure when Philip (full name: “Sir Philip Pigglesworth III”) arrived at the Toronto Zoo; I believe he was already on site when I started Volunteer training in the fall of 2012 and the first record I can find of him in our semi-regular issues of the daily Keeper Notes is on May 17, 2014 when he is being trained to step on the scale. From those same notes, I can tell you that Tisa’s first day in exhibit holding after being released from quarantine was August 7, 2015. (Quarantine of at least 30 days is mandatory for any animal that has been transferred in from any other facility.) She was given access to the outdoor enclosure (alone) for the first time on the 31st of that same month. (Fun fact: Tisa was born exactly one day before Philip, on April 1, 2011!)
Philip in a moment of calm
In mid-September, they were introduced to each other on exhibit and it all went well… at first. A couple of weeks later, at the beginning of October, Philip suddenly began to show aggression toward Tisa and she sustained a couple of minor cuts. They were separated for s short time and then reintroduced, but every time they looked to be getting along, Philip would become aggressive and charge at Tisa. After a few more attempts at putting them together, the Keepers reluctantly shelved the plans for the short term and let them go out on exhibit alone for a few months. The next summer, in August of 2016, they were put back in the outdoor exhibit together again. This time, it was Tisa’s turn to show displeasure: Philip had no aggression towards her but she would snort at him and move away every time he got close. This quickly escalated into Tisa regularly jumping through or over the hotwire at the back of the exhibit, having to be coaxed back onto the “right” side over and over again. Eventually, the two were separated again and I can’t tell from the notes if they were put back together at any point for the rest of 2016 or all of 2017.
Dinner time!
But then it was 2018 and a lot of water had passed under the bridge. Each had been assertive in their own way; time was passing by quickly and Tisa’s biological clock was ticking. So the incredibly patient Keepers tried, once again, to put them together. And that’s when the magic happened. At the very end of May, Philip and Tisa were “re-re-re-introduced” to each other and they began to breed the very same day. They bred again the next day, too; and when they went out on exhibit together on Day Three Tisa had had enough of Philip’s advances, but no problem: they just lay down a few feet apart, rooting and nibbling on whatever they dug up. To the best of my knowledge, they never again needed to be split up for any length of time, and I can remember quite clearly seeing them together outside that summer and marvelling at just how cuddly they seemed with each other, especially after all the angst of previous years. They bred a few more times unsuccessfully – although there was some suspicion in the fall that Tisa was pregnant, which was unfounded – until (apparently) sometime around Thanksgiving (Canadian) or so. They were probably spending their days on the inside exhibit by this time; perhaps that was just more comfortable for them. But for whatever reason, something finally “clicked” for them.
Hazel (R) and Ginger
On February 17, 2019 (which I had no trouble remembering as it was the third birthday for Nandu), Tisa gave birth to her first litter of l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶i̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶a̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶a̶t̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶l̶e̶g̶s̶ two tiny female hoglets. They made their first public appearance just under three weeks later, on March 8; incredibly. even though I have taken, quite literally, thousands of photos of them since then, the one I used for this month’s calendar feature was taken in the very first moments that I ever set eyes on these gorgeous little creatures. I returned to see them once or twice (Narrator: every second day, approximately) for the rest of March and early April; I saw them myriad more times throughout the summer, too. Those adorable stripes fade away very quickly, and there weren’t a lot of other babies to visit until the wolf cubs arrived in May. I’ll post a collage of shots at the end, and I already know trying to keep that gallery reasonably small in size is going to be the single most difficult thing about this month’s post. Seriously, hoglets are just about the most adorable babies in the animal kingdom, and I will fight you on that opinion!
Papa Philip and Hazel
When the babies first came out to play with us, they had only Tisa to accompany them. Within a week, however, Philip joined his new family and quickly showed that he was an amazing and patient daddy (check out the photo at left). Then, on March 29, after a brief naming contest, the Zoo settled on “Hazel” and “Ginger” as the names for the two little girls. This contest was notable in that it was the very first time a name or names that I had voted for had ever been chosen by the Zoo, so naturally I was very excited. I learned very quickly from the Keepers that Ginger was the name given to the lighter-coloured of the two; as they lost their stripes and became much closer in hue I kept a close eye on the ridge of fur on their backs and, to this point, at least, Ginger has the more-pronounced tuft of white fur along her spine. When they reach full size, I imagine it will be a lot tougher to tell them apart from each other – and from their mom – so we’ll see how long I can manage it. For now, coming up on their first birthday, it’s still relatively easy to know which is which.
Here are a couple of YouTube videos I uploaded of the girls: one from the first day I saw them and one from the outside exhibit in the summer, when they had a case of the zoomies.
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But wait. There’s more.
Two boys join the family!
On November 4, 2019 – before Hazel and Ginger were ever nine months old – Tisa gave birth to another litter of two babies. Red river hogs have a gestation of ~ 4 months, meaning Tisa was already halfway there in the second video above! I had watched them cuddle and snuggle away from the girls quite often during the summer, especially as Tisa weaned them off the teats, but I had no idea they had also been “canoodling!” In any event, the announcement came as quite a surprise to me and I was very excited to once again see a couple of l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶i̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶a̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶a̶t̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶l̶e̶g̶s̶ tiny hoglets in the exhibit. The first week or so that they were out of the back room, the area around the exhibit was off-limits to the public so I had to stand patiently at the top of the stairs beside the pygmy hippos and grab a couple of long shots when they popped briefly into view. The photo here was taken on the first day they were out; when I went home to look at it enlarged on the computer, I immediately noticed something different about these two babies from the shots I had taken of Hazel and Ginger when they were brand-new. Can you spot it? Look closely just below their eyes at the top of their muzzles. (You might have to click on the photo and zoom in.) See the tiny bumps there on each of them? Their two sisters didn’t (and won’t) have those bumps, but Philip does. That’s right: these two are boys! it was pretty exciting to work that out from just the first picture I took.
I saw them from a distance a couple of times and then it was time for me to get up close and personal. At a day shy of five weeks old, the boys came out into an exhibit that no longer had barriers around the walkways leading up to it, and I made sure to be there. The very first hog I saw was this proud parent:
Sir Philip Pigglesworth the III, proud Papa
Shortly after that, Tisa led out her newest brood:
Mama and the boys
The latest developments among the river hogs
I stood and watched them for a while, happily snapping away, when all of a sudden I spied something out of the corner of my eye:
Papa about to be joined by Ginger
What’s this? Another red river hog arriving on the scene? All six of the family members were going to be living together?? Well, apparently yes: these animals live in large family groups and it was not unusual at all to see the children of different ages getting along with each other, helping the family find cohesion:
Not my best shot of all six together, but my first shot.
Here is one last video of the whole family together, taken that first day (the first scene you see is Ginger playing with her two brothers):
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Tisa (L), Ginger (R), and the bros
They’ve been getting along famously ever since. Sometimes the boys play together; sometimes they play with their mom or dad; sometimes they play with their sister(s) with no ill effects. And don’t forget their sisters are not exactly adults yet; sometimes they like to approach mom or dad for some extra nuzzles of their own. And in case all of this isn’t adorable enough already: I’ve heard that Tisa and Philip have been breeding again. The way things have been going the past couple of weeks, this could turn out to be a very interesting spring at the Toronto Zoo – and that’s not even including the arrival of the walruses, whenever that turns out to be.
Oh, there’s just one more thing:
Mama and the boys meet Kindia
The “Howdy Door” between their exhibit and the pygmy hippos next door has been open most (if not all) of the time, so all six of them have gotten to know Kindia and Penelope quite well. Which is just heart-meltingly cute to watch.
Ok, that’s it for this month – unless the boys get names very early in February, in which case I will edit this post and let everyone know. Next month: a long-time resident of the Toronto Zoo who, while not exactly reclusive, is rather hard to spot unless you are specifically looking for him. Please come on back for that, one day later than normal… because 2020 is a Leap Year! And, as always, thanks for reading. Here are the promised shots of the hog family.
2020 “HANGING OUT WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – February Story This is a love story, albeit one that did not exactly begin "at first sight." I'm not sure when Philip (full name: "Sir Philip Pigglesworth III") arrived at the Toronto Zoo; I believe he was already on site when I started Volunteer training in the fall of 2012 and the first record I can find of him in our semi-regular issues of the daily Keeper Notes is on May 17, 2014 when he is being trained to step on the scale.
#Africa#African Rainforest Pavilion#Animals#Baby#February#Ginger#Hazel#Hogs#Philip#Rainforest#Red River Hogs#Tisa#Toronto#Toronto Zoo#Zoo
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2019 “VISITING WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – February Story
2019 “VISITING WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – February Story
Such a handsome bird!!
Can Homer read English??
In the African Rainforest Pavilion of the Toronto Zoo there lives a handsome young man who is kind of a “hidden gem:” a hamerkop named “Homer.” (Truth be told, there is a second hamerkop who is harder to see; I’ll get to him a bit later.) He makes his home in an open-fly aviary which is situated halfway between the two prime viewing areas for…
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Look at those beautiful eyes!!
The other “finalist” shot
Back in the early days of my annual calendar, it was a given that a tiger would be featured in one of the 13 (including the cover) photos appearing in each year’s edition. Because I had used up all of my best shots in the stories for Kemala (2016) and Hari (2017), I decided not to put either of them in last year’s calendar. I was hoping to go with one of the new Amurs this year, but a long delay in access to their exhibits for the viewing public meant any great shots of them would be snapped too late for my publishing deadline, so it looked as if I’d be “tigerless” for one more year. But at the 11th Hour – while my friend, Lynda, and I were at the Zoo hoping to finally catch a glimpse of the huge cats – lightning struck. Realizing the Amurs were not yet on view, we headed to the opposite end of the Zoo and up the wooden path to the African Rainforest Pavilion. As we passed the Sumatran Tiger House, we saw Kemala lounging on the platform in the “training area”, very close to the fence.
Sunny beauty
As you can see from the photo on the right here, which was taken with the same kit but 18 months earlier, when the subject is very close to their side of a fence, no amount of zoom is ordinarily enough to remove all of the “ghosting” from that fence, no matter how wide an aperture I use. Focus on the area from Kemala’s muzzle to the bottom of the frame to see what I mean. But, for some reason, on this particular day – as Kemala turned her head to slow blink for Lynda and then casually shifted her piercing gaze toward me – no ghosting appeared on the final product. A trick of the light? A bolt from the blue? Kemala just really wanted to be in the calendar? I don’t know the answer, but when I put the pieces together and sent the 2019 edition in to be published less than a week later, this very last-minute shot was in it. And, amazingly, this may prove over the years to be my very favourite shot I ever take of her, because I know she’s stunningly beautiful, but I’ve never captured it so perfectly.
It was a very hot summer
However, using up the majority of my best photos for the two previous posts is not the only issue. In the first post, I told pretty much all of my good stories about both of the Sumatrans: Hari and Kemala. So when I featured Hari in his own photo just a few months later, I was forced to branch out and relate some tales about all of the other tigers I had encountered over the past several years, in various different locations. I would now talk about the Amurs that I had hoped to feature in this very spot, but I fully expect to use a shot of one or the other of them in 2020 (providing I produce a calendar next year; I’ll talk more about that when I have more details to share) so I can’t very well “rob Kira to pay Kemala.” Which means that the rest of this post would almost certainly have had to devolve into simply a photo gallery of this year’s best shots of the Sumatrans… were it not for a few weeks in the late spring when Kemala decided to latch on (literally) to her Best. Toy. Ever.
What is in that barrel??
Kemala has always played with the plastic barrels in her enclosure – especially when she’s in the north exhibit. She likes to drag them around and seems to especially enjoy pushing them into the front area of the den and then lying behind it (provided she’s still being hit by the sun). Most of the time, like any other big cat, you will find Kemala or Hari sleeping; to be fair, though, tigers are generally more active than the rest of the felines. However, from mid-May to mid-June there wasn’t one single time that I ventured over to see the Sumatran tigers when Kemala was not only awake but latched onto her favourite white barrel like she was taking down a rather stubborn Malayan tapir. In fact, the only time in that whole month that I saw her release her hold on the barrel and walk away for a moment was when she had (apparently inadvertently) dragged it into her pond and was trying to work out how best to get it back onto dry land. The shot above right was taken on May 18. Here is one from May 26:
And one from June 8:
And finally, June 18:
BTW, here is generally what Hari was doing while Kemala was working up a sweat all of these days:
Hari remains unconvinced
I’d say that sums up his attitude rather succinctly.
I’ll leave you, as I often do, with a few random shots of the two beautiful Sumatran cats at the Toronto Zoo and tell you that the animal featured next month was also a last-minute decision (for an entirely different reason). I’ve never featured him before – in fact, I rarely have featured his class of animal – and it’s highly unlikely he’ll show up again: this is kind of a one-in-a-million shot given his location in the Zoo. And, hopefully, by the time I create the blog post I will find out his name! Wishing you all a wonderful September.
2019 “VISITING WITH ANIMALS” Calendar – September Story Back in the early days of my annual calendar, it was a given that a tiger would be featured in one of the 13 (including the cover) photos appearing in each year's edition.
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