Hanami @ High Park

Hello~! It's May already! *_* The weather here has been really lovely lately. I wanted to go see the cherry blossoms at High Park and heard that they were blossoming...since it was it so nice this weekend, I thought it was a great idea to go. Unfortunately... so did the rest of Toronto, lol. There were SO many people. I mean, I knew it was going to be crowded but I didn't know the blossoms were -that- popular..

Originally my mother and I were going to bus downtown to see them since High Park is so close to the subway station itself. But then the rest of the family wanted to tag along so we ended up driving there. The roads were closed due to marathons and we weren't clear on that before we left, so we ended up wasting quite a bit of time driving around downtown...urgh =_=

We arrived at around 11:30am, which was around the time when EVERYONE started arriving...but the blossoms were beautiful and I managed to get some nice pics :D

But let me tell, you...so many people!! @__@ Lots of strollers, dogs, and cyclists! Of course we couldn't find any parking so we parked in a residential area near by and just walked to the park... The weather was beyond perfect, not a cloud in the sky. I wish I had a parasol handy, though!

I don't think I've seen that many cherry blossom trees in once place before, in full bloom like this. It was worth the trip to see!!

A couple years ago I visited High Park with friends, but it was too cold and the trees hadn't bloomed yet. I think they only bloom for about two weeks before everything is gone (and I heard last year it was ruined by heavy rains) so I guess that's why there's so many visitors this year...

High Park also has a really neat zoo and a really nice pond and Japanese flower gardens too, which I all saw on my first trip... so after snapping some photos we just left. I really hate dealing with crowds lol. >_<" (Not to mention... there was a line up to use the portable toilets too) Aside from the lack of toilets...it's a really nice place to have a picnic, that is, if you bring your own food of course.

 So pretty..

Those cars on the side of the road...a lot of them got ticketed. o.o If I were to go again next year I'd definitely wake up early and bus down here to avoid the crowds!

















I took this photo in the car on the drive down there...you can see the CN Tower a little. Afterwards we went to Yorkdale to grab a late lunch and shop around since I haven't been there since last year. I left my camera in the car since it was too heavy but I regretted it since I wanted to take a photo of my lunch, lol. I never ate at the food court at Yorkdale but it was really nice, even though I had fast food, they gave you these white dishes that looked ceramic and made it look like you were eating from a real restaurant instead of cheap fast food. XD.. I also wanted to browse Top Shop... they have some really nice socks, very suitable for lolita outfits! I also did some window shopping at the AllSaints store, I went to a store while I was in New York and fell in love with their clothes there. It's way too pricey for me but I love feeling all the interesting garments they have lol *_* Sometimes I wonder why I love cute/frilly things like lolita fashion and at the same time, love dark/edgy yet simplistic all-black looks.. xD;

Ahem... I really wanted to bring Yukio with me, I even packed him up in the bear traveling suit (I had wanted these types of carrying cases for a while, but was too cheap to get them off of the Rosen Lied site so I got this one from Taobao instead lol >_<;;) but I'm glad I didn't bring him... Not sure if I'd have time to fiddle with taking proper pics of him, and I wanted to bring Myles too but I only had one bear suit. :'D

In other news! I applied to yet another convention in August so the next couple months are going to be busy!! I am so excited for Anime North this year, but I still have so much to do and prepare...gotta stop being so lazy. >__< I've been watching and reading lots of anime/manga to catch up and get back into the loop but I shall save that for another post! I will also be spamming previews of what I'll be bringing to this year's AN on my tumblr and DeviantArt so please stay tuned :D
Thanks for reading~!