Our plan to snoop on the National Love Day at Petřín on May 1 was ditched because there was a little disaster that happened in our house that morning which forced us to make some changes in our work/play room (I’ll write about that in another post).  We ended up cleaning the house, organizing our things and throwing unwanted stuff like magazines on sales training, real estate, etc.  It  kept us occupied till the afternoon which completely wore us out.

We went to Petřín Hill the next day anyway and there we met these walking cherry trees:

Love Day or not, there were still plenty of people in Petřín!  Maybe it was the bright and scorching day that charmed them to vist the place.  It’s location near the centre makes it a convenient escape for tourists and Czechs alike who wants to enjoy a relaxing time with nature in Prague without needing to travel far.

We spent the afternoon under the sizzling sun just watching our little girl having a good time in the playground.  When she’s happy, we’re happy too!

The family went to the Dendrological Garden at the municipality of Průhonice yesterday. Fortunately, this garden is only 8 kilometers away from our place. It can be 3 kilometers less if we use the highway, but we should have a sticker for that (which we didn’t have).

Little C chasing the ducks with M running after her.

The idea was to bring little C to a wide open space where she can run freely. With 73 hectares of land area, this garden was an ideal location for that purpose. In fact if you have little children, it’s a perfect place for the whole family to unwind. The kids can exercise their tiny muscles by exploring and running around the area or sweat it out in the playground near the entrance while the adults can sit in the bench or on the meadow watching the lovely panorama before them. That’s what we did. We basked under the sun on top of a hilly slope overlooking the magnificent view of the lake while our daughter was playing within our view range.

This shot was taken from our resting spot.  Beautiful view, right?

But most of the time, little C loved exploring the bushes and what’s behind them.

Gathering woods… =)

There are also lots of quite and private spots for a family picnic, either in a grassy land, under the trees or beside a pond. What I love about this place is that bicycles and dogs aren’t allowed so you don’t have to worry about your children being hit by cyclists or stepping into poops.

Sitting by the pretty lake all day can be a good stress-reliever.

Awesome!

An added treat for your eyes…. beautiful tulips!

Happy Easter everyone!

We went to the zoo yesterday as a treat for our little girl. She’s fond of animals and I know she’ll really be happy to see (the rest of) them in real. She has been seeing them only in videos and books; it was time she meets the creatures personally!

Colorful flamingos.

As expected, the little girl had the grandest time. She was delighted to see the animals especially the monkeys, the bears and the giraffes.

Little C and a new friend, with the tall giraffes behind them.

Polar bears!

She had the most fun in the children’s zoo where it is allowed to go inside the fenced yard and interact with the domesticated animals such as chickens, pigs and rabbits. She enjoyed fondling and chasing the goats there. The other children had fun feeding the goats with low-calorie granules which they bought at the slot machines. We could have stayed there longer but the zoo closes at 6pm and we even went out past closing time.

The Prague Zoo or Zoo Praha is one of the best places parents can bring their kids for a day of fun – with the children’s play area, the children’s zoo and the various animals around, they’ll never run out of things to see and do. It houses 5,345 animals with 674 species as of December 31, 2008 and it was named as the 7th best zoo in the world by Forbes Magazine in February 2008.

Crocodile.

Antilopes.

We celebrated mom’s birthday at Mambukal Resort.  It was a bold and risky wish she had because it has been raining for days, weeks and months!  With storm after storm brewing non-stop, it was almost impossible to have a favorable weather much more a sunny day.

So there we were with some friends. As mom happily related to all, she prayed for a good weather and fortunately, heaven heard her and gifted her with little sun in the morning and a slight drizzle in the afternoon which was just enough for us to stroll on foot around the resort.  We were forbidden to go up to the falls (series of 7 in all) because the rain would have probably made the road slippery and moistened the soil which might cause some landslides. No amount of begging could give us the much sought permission to trek up the falls. We were a bit disappointed coz we had a guest who was flying back to Manila on Sunday.

It was a working day and I bet the rainy days had discouraged people to even plan on going there, so we almost had the resort all to ourselves except for a group of Koreans and a family. It was great coz there are always flock of people and tourists every time we go there especially during summer and christmas seasons. So the atmosphere was serene with all the towering trees, verdant lush vegetation and slight drizzle,  making it a nice moment to be with nature.

Aside from hiking to the 7th falls, other attractions are boating lagoon, wall climbing, dipping pool (in sulfur), swimming pool, bath house, hanging bridge, butterfly garden, vegetable farm and stalls offering a variety of food.

Raging water beside us, a view from our hut.

There was a grilling and washing station very near our hut, so it was convenient to cook there. Don’t you just love grilled foods? We marinated the chicken and pork meat overnight which we plan to grill there but instead we had it fried at home before leaving lest the rain will pour and we’ll have a hard time making fire there.

Hot sulfur spring. You can actually see the smoke!

The boating lagoon.

Let it flow!

That’s about it! While on our way home, that’s the time rain poured like crazy. Indeed it was mom’s birthday wish come true.