Lufkin Zoo

We headed to the zoo in Lufkin yesterday! I was a little skeptical since it's a tiny zoo, but it was actually really awesome and we had so much fun. In fact, we were told it would take about an hour to see everything, but I think we spent almost three!

The zoo was beautifully maintained and full of shady spots and running water, perfect for keeping cool in our sweltering temperatures! Since it was a weekday, we got to see the keepers at work, feeding the animals and checking cages and that was a definite treat. Even though the zoo is tiny, it was obvious that each animal received excellent care, and that is a major reason we'll be going back. I like to know our money (even though it wasn't a lot) is going to a good zoo.

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(okay, little side note. There is a park across from the zoo with a big lake and these are the signs in the lake:

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I love it. Unfortunately, we didn't see any alligators. I was really disappointed.)

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Like I said, for a small zoo, they had a huge variety of animals and birds and they were all displayed beautifully and humanely. It was so much fun to see them, especially since we've been watching a David Attenburough documentary series on mammals lately.

Here's our own little mammal, chewing on a peacock tailfeather. There were tons of peacocks and peahens running around and the tailfeathers were everywhere since I think they were molting. Jed loved waving this one around and (yeah, I know, not sanitary) chewing on it. Don't worry, he had his hands washed afterward. :)

We stayed forever watching the hippos. They had an observation window where you could see them swimming and it was really fun to guess where they were going to show up next.

Jed loves to see our teeth lately. Here we were checking out eachothers'.

yeah, it was hhhooooooottttt.

Jed had to bring his Petey dog along to see the animals. But then Petey got neglected and spent most of the day riding under the stroller so he didn't fall out. Poor Petey!

African porcupines! I love these guys!

I think my favorite part of the day was watching Jed learn about all the animals. He loved looking at them and would try to get right up close. Also, we kept seeing a mom and her son who looked like he was about Jed's age. We ran into them at the otter display and Jed and the other little boy kept acting like they wanted to be friends but didn't really know how. We talked to the mom for a little while and said that her son doesn't see many other kids his age, and he doesn't really speak english. She said they work in Kazakstan, so he hears Russian, a crazy native dialect and English. Poor guy, I'd be confused too!

It kinda grosses me out to think of all the nasties Jed could have picked up running barefoot there. But his poor feet were so hot!

Besides all the animals, the zoo also had really great birds from all over the world. It was so fun to see them.

baby peacock!

The zoo also had beautiful flowers all around. We really enjoyed looking at them.

Hanna, these are for you:

so yeah, we had a fun day yesterday. We are slowly building up a list of attractions in the area, so if anyone's looking for a WARM spot to vacation, come see us and we'll show you the sights. The Lufkin zoo has been added to the list.