October Staycation Part 2

Dad's staycation kept rolling along and before we knew it Thursday was here and that brought with it a full agenda for the girls.  We were traveling for the day to two great animal friendly places.  The first stop was an amazing place called the Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge.  The kind organization takes in troubled Tigers from all over the country.  We got a great tour which provided up close access to the cats along with their story.  Our famous Kalmar picnic lunch rounded out the trip and we were suddenly heading down the road to see more animals!

 

Mom and girls are ready to enter the refuge

Gorgeous Tiger



 

This Albino jumped right up when the girls ran by stimulated by their energy!

 

Tigers mostly live in isolation, but these two lived together

The girls pose in a solemn place - a memorial area for fallen Tigers of the refuge

This Panther was named 8-Ball and used to be the front door guard of a pool hall

 

 Cool statue

 

Girls pose as an anxious feline paces in the background

The biggest & oldest cat in the place - Katrina weighed in at 475lbs.  Ironically from New Orleans, but at 17 yrs old not named after the Hurricane of '05

So we quickly arrived at the Caldwell Zoo of Tyler, TX and did not know what to expect.  We were excited to see a great layout and wide variety of attractions for all ages.  Our timing all afternoon was spot on as we got to see several demonstrations.  The zoo kept us busy the rest of the day and before we knew it we were snacking in the car on the way back to Frisco.  What a great family day!

  We initially hit the children's zoo where Jordan made nice with some goats

 

Great view of this Vulture

 

 This Anteater may have been the most active animal of the day!  He was all over the enclosure!

 

Lucky timing put us at the Elephant area right at feeding time - here comes a truck of bamboo!

Mom & girls wait patiently for the Elephants.  Jordan asked me to keep the girl to her right (viewer left) in the picture because they chatted and she was nice!  Taylor - look at the camera!

Feeding time!

 

 

Jordan with Elephants still eating in the background

 

We got to see the Penguin feeding too - the girls get a great look at a swimmer

 

Hey - no taunting the animals or touching the glass!