LEAH'S ELEPHANT RIDE

This is the story of how Timo surprised Leah by fulfilling one of her life's dreams: to ride an elephant.

During our courtship, I learned that Leah had a great fondness for elephants. She has plush elephants, pictures of elephants, figurines of elephants, movies about elephants, you name it. I also learned that she was very eager to ride one. It was one of her life ambitions; however, she thought that you needed to go to Africa in order to do something like that.

I decided that it would be a great gift if I could surprise her with an elephant ride. I did some research on the internet and discovered a private zoo just outside of Toronto that gave elephant rides. I made my plans for the surprise, should we ever make our way down near Toronto.

That summer, we planned a visit to Leah's mom in Southern Ontario. This gave me a perfect opportunity to surprise Leah with the event.

On the drive down the 401, Leah was resting while I was driving. As I pulled off the highway at the appropriate exit, she asked where I was going (in her half-sleepy state). When I didn't respond, she said "I don't need any Tim Hortons" and "I don't have to go to the bathroom." I denied those reasons and also other queries such as a gas stop or a visit to a friend.

Leah: Suddenly, Timo braked along the road. This caused me to sit up and what I saw in front of me was a large sign with an elephant on it. I then looked beside the sign to see the word "zoo" in big, bold letters. My mind raced as I put these pieces together: elephant... zoo... ELEPHANT RIDE!!! Sure enough, that was exactly why we were here.

As we parked and got out of the car, I was surprised to see how excited Leah was. She was bouncing around. We paid the entry fee and made our way towards the elephants. I could barely keep up with her. We started to attend an animal show at the zoo before the ride but Leah couldn't wait and so we left the show in order to be first in line for the elephant ride.

On our way to the ride's location, we stopped by the elephant enclosure to see some of them. I took some pictures of her with the elephants and we talked a bit while looking at them. After a moment, I turned to Leah only to see her already far down the road making her way quickly to the stand where the elephant ride would occur. She was so hyper!

At the stand, she made me wait there to reserve her spot (even though there was nobody else there yet!) while she ran back to the elephant enclosure, so that she could watch the elephants some more. She then raced back to me at the stand. After a few moments, she raced back to the elephant enclosure. This continued for about ten minutes.

When the trainer arrived with the elephant, she hurried to her spot in the line and asked the assistant if she could ride up front on the elephant. I joined her as did two other little kids (I let them sit in the middle just so that they could have a good time).

During the ride, Leah took my cell phone and called her mother to share the good news and explain why we were going to be a little late. Since no one was home, she left a voicemail message (her mom's co-workers who also heard the message later on thought it was an excited twelve year old kid on the phone, not a twenty-six year old woman).

After the ride, we finished our time by watching the elephant (his name was "Caesar") take a bath in a river. Leah's excitement with the elephant was noticed by the trainer. He gave us free passes to return, stating "anyone who loves elephants that much should come back". He also allowed her to stand right beside the elephant for a special picture. We then stopped by the gift shop on our way out and I bought her a small plush elephant to commemorate the event. She named the doll "Caesar". (Caesar would come in handy later; read the engagement story for details.)

It was a very memorable experience and Leah was very surprised and happy to be able to fulfil a life's dream without having to leave Canada.