Gabi On The Go: Playground day after almost 5 months of Covid!

This summer Thursday started with a typical Canadian breakfast at the AirBnB.

Lots of protein to face the outdoor play day.

We started walking along the Avon River, by the tourism information centre - closed at the moment.

The trio in the morning: full of energy.

This place is so beautiful and peaceful.

Perhaps it is a bit calmer than normal due to Covid, since the theatre festival was cancelled this year.

We walked along Lakeside Drive, enjoying the presence of many ducks, geese and swans on Lake Victoria.

It's absolutely gorgeous!

The houses are unbelievably beautiful and canoes make the place even more magical.

Ducks parking lot.

We were incredibly lucky to encounter this mama - or papa? - swan with FOUR baby swans.

Simply adorable.

The highlight of the day was definitely the playground!

After walking for about a hour, the girls could see it from across the lake and went bananas.

It's been almost five months since they been allowed to play in play structures - they were simply not opened in Toronto. But Stratford has been in phase three for a while.

They were absolutely in heaven!

PARK GOSSIP ABOUT JUSTIN BIEBER

Funny gossip from the park...

While the girls made friends at the park, I talked to another mom.

I was curious to hear what locals thought about their most notorious celebrity: Justin Bieber.

This mom - who I have no idea what her name is - wasn't too impressed to hear about Bieber.

She said: "oh yeah, I used to babysit him." And continued: "he was a hand full as a child."

She assured me that he is "a very talented person," but made sure to say too that locals in Stratford are not THAT impressed with his stardom.

The girls were just happy to know they were hanging out with Justin Bieber's former babysitter's daughters. hahahaha.

It didn't take us that long to find our six degrees of separation! :)

After a couple of hours, we left the playground and walked back to downtown on the other side of the lake, through this beautiful trail. We got to see huge and gorgeous houses.

And bunnies happily hopping around.

From downtown we headed back to the other side of the river to the Upper Queens Park - another extension of the park, with a different "orange playground."

Again, the kids were extremely happy and played there for hours.

Right beside the park is the Stratford Festival Theatre.

The festival was canceled this year, but here is the website: https://www.stratfordfestival.ca for video performances during Covid.

WILLIAN SHAKESPEARE Statue

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

The festival's primary focus is to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays, but it also runs a wide variety of theatre from Greek tragedy to Broadway-style musicals and contemporary works. In the early years of the festival, Shakespeare's works typically represented about a third of the offerings in the largest venue, the Festival Theatre. By 2017, however, only three of the 14 productions were Shakespeare's works.

The success of the festival changed Stratford into a city where arts and tourism play important roles in the economy. The festival attracts many tourists from outside Canada, most notably British and American visitors.