Ahh father’s day weekend where it’s just like every other weekend thanks to covid lol.  Kidding, we had a very fun and eventful weekend and it all started with a bike ride to Colonel Danforth park.  Brandon and I rode there last year with the Cub scouts, it was nice so we took Maggie with us and rode along the Port Union waterfront park too.

There was a nice cool breeze coming off lake Ontario and we stopped off on a few beaches so Brandon could play.  For lunch we went to Vietnam Noodle Star at Finch & Midland and it was nice to see everyone again.  I’m not sure why we didn’t get take out from them the last year, but in any case the pho was so good!!!  Man I want to eat it again like right now!

We went home for the afternoon when it was hottest and then after dinner, Brandon and I went to Tommy Thompson park to visit the foxes and found out some sad news.

There was a city volunteer there and she mentioned that only 2 of the 6 kits survived up to this point & that the mother also passed away.  Sigh that’s nature I guess but yeah we were pretty devastated to hear that.  At least the young ones still have the father, she mentioned that the kits have outgrown this den and will probably be moving soon.  I’m not sure if we’ll see them again in the future but am glad that both Brandon and I were able to catch them when we did.  Hopefully it’ll be a memory that he keeps forever but yeah nature can be a tough reality.

I’m trying to play with the drone a bit more and thought the shots of the boats looked pretty neat.

This morning we went to the Cheltenham badlands, it’s a place we tried to go to twice last year (first time it was closed, second we found out we needed a reservation) and was finally able to make it happen.  The hike from the parking lot to the badlands was very short, maybe 10 minutes and unfortunately you can’t walk on the badlands themselves anymore but it was still very neat to see.

Had I known the hike was so short, we would have walked a bit on the bruce trail first…  I again played with the drone and only noticed the no drones sign when landing.  Had I seen it earlier I wouldn’t have put it up but to be fair when I flew it, I was the road’s side walk so technically off the property, that technically is important because while a lot of parks do not allow drones, you can fly over it if you’re on public property. 😉

Had some Korean food for lunch and yeah now that patios are open we’ll be eating out a bit more now I suspect.

A great weekend overall, Brandon makes being a dad so enjoyable and fun, I don’t know how I got so lucky to have him and Maggie.  Back to the grind next week and I’m really looking forward to getting my second vaccine on Thursday! 😀

With Ontario starting to open up, today I took Brandon to the Toronto Zoo (open to members only for now) in the late afternoon and it was nice to see the animals again!  The pavilions and anything indoor (except food services) is closed and that makes sense.  Since it’s only open to members & not the general public yet, it’s not too busy either.

Man looking at those photos of him taking pictures, he looks so mature! 🙁  I’m not ready for him to be so big  yet, I really wish he’d grow slower…  Since we went to the zoo after 5pm, most of the animals were sleeping but it was just nice to get back out there and walk around.

So this weekend was pretty low key, it started with Brandon and I going to High Park.  I heard there were wood duck chicks around so we searched high and low but was unable to find any. 🙁  That’s alright there are a ton of other birds and animals and the boy had a good time.  He particularly enjoyed feeding the chipmunks and remarked that their fur is very soft.

We hung around till just before lunch time then went home.  In the afternoon we went to the new house with our contractor, it doesn’t close till tomorrow but we wanted to get a head start and show them what needs to be done.  Late afternoon, we met up with our lawyer to sign the documents and get everything ready (still have to go to the bank tomorrow to deposit the down), I’m hoping I can get the keys early so I can go over, inspect the place and change the locks.  The house was still a mess on Saturday so those guys have a lot of work to do still…

Today we went for a hike at Balls falls and it was fun.  A nice easy hike to start the outdoor season and everyone had a good time.

There are two falls on the conservation area and I saw someone on FB say they went here and took some pictures behind the falls…  They must have been mistaken because that’s not possible here, too bad because it definitely would have looked cool.

Didn’t do anything in the afternoon and we just finished a BBQ dinner which was very filling.  Ready to fall asleep, sigh weekends are way too fast and it’s going to be busy next week.  Ahh well enjoying the last hours while I can.

Well I certainly had a busy May long weekend & I hope everyone else’s was enjoyable.  Friday I went to pick up a Canon RF 2x Extender from near Peterborough and since I was in the area decided to take pictures of Osprey to test out the extender on the Canon RF 100-500.  Framing flying birds at 1,000mm is quite difficult and I need to increase my shutter speed further to account for the focal length.

Haha as luck would have it, I was able to capture a picture of an osprey flying with a turkey vulture!  They weren’t flying together but they just happen to cross paths and I thought it looked cool.  That was at 1,000mm and the image quality is still decent.  I didn’t use the extender that much, you can get pretty close to the birds and the 100-500’s native range is sufficient to fill the frame.

Went home in the early afternoon and after dinner I took Brandon to Tommy Thompson so he could see the fox family. WARNING THE LATTER PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC!

We lucked out, when we got there the mother fox brought back a large rabbit for dinner and boy did the little pups fight furiously to eat!  I like rabbits so it was kind of sad but it’s nature and well the fox & her family need to eat right.  Brandon really enjoyed seeing the animals and asked me if he could pet one of the pups, lol I said no, I don’t want him chasing them around and who knows he could get bit right.  Oh and now I know what a fox says. 😉

Saturday we went to the St. Jacobs farmers market near Waterloo, Maggie wanted to go and well I had nothing better to do.

Hmm I just noticed that Brandon wore the same shirt as the previous day, ahh well he’s a kid.  We bought some fresh groceries and picked up lunch while we were there.  Didn’t do much in the afternoon, just hung around the house really.

Sunday morning I watched the F1 Monaco GP and it’s one race that I absolutely hate.  I understand the history and stuff but this track is too short and narrow for the the fast large modern F1 cars and it’s simply a procession with no actual racing.  I wish they’d drop the race from the calendar, I know for some that’s F1 blasphemy but the race sucks!

Earlier in the month I subscribed to KiwiCo and Brandon did the Spin Art machine kit which was great!  To set it up, Brandon needed to wire a motor to a circuit board, add some resistors and a battery power pack, which spins a platform for him to drop paint into.

The instructions are super clear and I made him do all the work and he loved it!  We’ll be getting a kit per month and look forward to watching him explore more and more STEM projects.

Since Maggie had to do some work & Brandon was playing games with his friends online, I decided to meet Mario at Colonel Samuel Smith park to try and find that damn Kingfisher and well mission failed but still had a good time.

We did see a green heron, a yellow crowned night heron, some turtles, another bird that I’m not familiar with (and one chick on the back) and gulls fishing!  Weather was perfect too, nice and sunny but cool enough that you didn’t sweat.  We stuck around for about 2 1/2 hours then went our separate ways.

Now we’re just chilling, back to the grind tomorrow so trying to enjoy the last of my free time while I can hey at least it’s a short week. 🙂