A Day With William on Center Island

As we like to say, "A day without William is a day without sunshine," and so, by contrast, a day with William is full of sunshine.  We decided to spend the sunny day in Toronto by taking the ferry to Center Island.  On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Weina, William, Weina's father Yulian (whom we call Laoye), the little dog Bubu, and Kathy and David made the trip.

We met William, Weina, Laoye and Bubu at the Ferry Terminal.  William glommed onto Kathy, who promptly rushed him up to the top deck at the front of the boat so he could experience his "Titanic" moment.  Here he is being the King of the World:

The ferry ride was short but interesting.  We hopped off and headed immediately through the amusement park toward the animal farm.  The amusement park rides were not running yet, but David stopped just to make sure whether he could ride some of them.  It seems he was too tall for this ride:

Not much further along, William spotted this colorful moose, and he wanted us to take a photo of it.  Here's your moose, Young William:

The farm animals are always fun for young kids, and William enjoyed them.  Here he is with Laoye and Weina, talking with the animals:

And what farm is complete without a tractor?  William loves tractors, and when he saw this one, he had to drive it.  We must have enjoyed a tractor ride for at least a half hour!

The only thing that could separate William from the tractor was the amusement rides.  As soon as they opened, we wandered over to them and purchased our tickets.  William wanted Kathy to take him on the ferris wheel.  We were a little worried he would be scared, but, once he got used to it, he enjoyed being higher than the trees, and looking down on little Laoye, little Mommy and little Yeye:

Next was the requisite train ride.  Weina let the rest of us ride, and David snapped this photo of Laoye, Kathy and William as they waited for the whistle to blow and the engine to start chuffing:

For her part, Weina had always wanted to ride on the Log Flume ride.  William was game, so the two of them took a crack at it.  Here, you can see that Weina had a wonderful time - although she admitted she was a little scared by the splashdown:

William, however, was NOT scared, and he insisted on going another round, so David volunteered to take him.  Here the boys are satisfied with their splashy ride:

One last ride.  This was in the classic auto.  Weina, Laoye, Kathy and William took a spin while David photographed:

Being William on an outing is hard work, and he was very hungry (so were the rest of us), so we headed over to the Carousel Cafe for lunch.  Young boys need entertaining while the order is being cooked, so William found some paper napkin rings to display on his fingers ("one-two-three-four-five" - "uno-dos-tres-quatro-cinqo" - "yi-er-san-si-wu"):

The park was very reminiscent of a park we visited with Weina and William in Nantong when we visited Weina's sister, Haini, and of a park we visited in Lijian with Laoye and Matt as well. David was inspired to ask Laoye and Weina to pose for a photo at lunch:

Lunch is good, that is true, but no lunch is complete without ice cream ("bisi").  Below, William demonstrates the proper way to eat bisi just before we returned on the ferry and walked home: