A Day at the Zoo

Today we met Evan, Katie and Ethan at the Scoville Childrens Zoo in Decatur.  It's really a nice little zoo with the animals up close and personal.

We saw several peacocks and peahens and boy were they noisy today.  This guy let loose with a call and gave Ethan a scare.  He wasn't too sure about them the rest of the time we were there.

We were able to get real close to this little Eastern Screech-owl.  There were several others inside the cage.  He didn't do any screeching for us though.

We saw this lovable Angora bunny and he didn't even mind being petted by an 18 month old.

We saw camels, monkeys, parrots, lemurs,zebras, chickens, cheetahs, and other animals but the most fun was in the petting zoo with the goats.

Of course the goats are always looking for a handout and they aren't bashful about it either!

Ethan wasn't afraid of the goats and enjoyed feeding them.  Here he has a few goats vying for his attention....well, actually his food.

And then they invited a few more friends and a party broke out!

They ate all the feed we had, twice, and then this little guy decided to have a little of Evan's shirt for dessert!  As soon as we walked into the pen one of them grabbed my shoelace and untied my shoe!  They thought our pants were quite tasty too as several of them tried a nibble or two.

After the zoo we headed to the playground and Ethan had himself a grand old time.  He did some swinging and lots of climbing on things and in things.  He loves the tunnels if you couldn't tell.

After clearing the tunnel you have to go down the slide that follows it and that's lots of fun.

Of course we have to stop and do a little driving!

While climbing through another tunnel I tapped on one of the holes and he popped his little face out.  How cute!

He had to have a little assistance getting up the rock wall but he scrambled up it fairly quickly.

He got to come down this tunnel slide by himself. The look on his face is priceless! Pure joy! Of course he had to do this slide a couple more times.

Since he had done some practice driving earlier today, Ethan told Grandpa he would drive home.

Mexican Flea Market

We took in a Mexican flea market just down the road from us and it was quite an experience.  It was huge...stall after stall, row after row.  Felt like we were at the State Fair, sort of.

Lots of produce stalls with such a variety of fruits and vegetables.  Cantalope, watermelon, apples, oranges, grapefruit, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, avocado, cabbage, all kinds of chilies, things that we didn't know what they were.

Stalls of used things...clothes, tools, tires, electrical equipment, TV's, stereos and speakers, toys, you name it and they had it.

Stalls of new things...clothes, shoes, sunglasses, jewelry, hair bows and ties, toys, pinatas, all sorts of things even all kinds of birds.  Lots of leather...belts, holsters, saddles and what would a Mexican flea market be without Cowboy hats.

The sights and sounds were amazing.  The mix of Mexican music coming from both boom boxes and a live band, with the mingling of the rapid Spanish language floating through and the occassional English snippet heard. Our senses were bombarded with the cacophony of sound.

Across the street was a different type of market. This one had all types of animals for sale. Horses, ponies, chickens, roosters, chicks, ducks, geese, pigeons, doves, puppies, goats and sheep. They were either tied out or in cages.  Also along this market they had hay and straw for sale and from the looks of it some of the hay had just been cut.

At the flea market, as with any carnival or fair, they had tons of food stalls. Packaged snacks as well as freshly prepared food.  Huge big plastic kegs of many different kinds of fruit punch, bottled water or sodas. So many things were offered to eat...but, not being sure whether it had been prepared on this side of the border or the Mexican side of the border, we didn't partake of anything edible.

Oh, and as a side note, we stayed away from the $5 colored contacts!

Click here for Flea Market Sounds

Mexican Flea Market

We took in a Mexican flea market just down the road from us and it was quite an experience.  It was huge...stall after stall, row after row.  Felt like we were at the State Fair, sort of.

Lots of produce stalls with such a variety of fruits and vegetables.  Cantalope, watermelon, apples, oranges, grapefruit, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, avocado, cabbage, all kinds of chilies, things that we didn't know what they were.

Stalls of used things...clothes, tools, tires, electrical equipment, TV's, stereos and speakers, toys, you name it and they had it.

Stalls of new things...clothes, shoes, sunglasses, jewelry, hair bows and ties, toys, pinatas, all sorts of things even all kinds of birds.  Lots of leather...belts, holsters, saddles and what would a Mexican flea market be without Cowboy hats.

The sights and sounds were amazing.  The mix of Mexican music coming from both boom boxes and a live band, with the mingling of the rapid Spanish language floating through and the occassional English snippet heard. Our senses were bombarded with the cacophony of sound.

Across the street was a different type of market. This one had all types of animals for sale. Horses, ponies, chickens, roosters, chicks, ducks, geese, pigeons, doves, puppies, goats and sheep. They were either tied out or in cages.  Also along this market they had hay and straw for sale and from the looks of it some of the hay had just been cut.

At the flea market, as with any carnival or fair, they had tons of food stalls. Packaged snacks as well as freshly prepared food.  Huge big plastic kegs of many different kinds of fruit punch, bottled water or sodas. So many things were offered to eat...but, not being sure whether it had been prepared on this side of the border or the Mexican side of the border, we didn't partake of anything edible.

Oh, and as a side note, we stayed away from the $5 colored contacts!

Flea Market Sounds

South Padre Island

Took a trip to South Padre Island and ate in this little place on the water called Dirty Al's.  Not much to the place, just mismatched tables and chairs with a bait shop on the premises, but the food was fabulous. Nice and fresh, just out of the water.

We shared this basket of "crab fingers".  Small claws of crab deep fried with a tangy dipping sauce.  Very good!

Gene had fried oysters (of course!) with fries.  He said they were the best he'd ever had.  I'll take his word for it since I don't "do" oysters!

I had the fried shrimp that were DELICIOUS, so fresh, and fried fish.  I'm not a big fish eater unless it's catfish or buffalo, but this white fish was SO good.  Gene helped me finish it so we didn't leave any behind.

Outside of Dirty Al's was a charter fishing boat slip.  While we were eating, a charter came in and proceeded to clean the catch of the customers. Pelicans and some gulls showed up for the free meal of fish scraps.

At one point there were probably 7 or 8 pelicans vying for the free meal.  By the time we finished lunch and got around to take pictures lunch was just about over and just a few pelicans remained.

We payed $4 to park our car in a lot so we could get to the beach area of the Gulf of Mexico.

The sand was so fine and soft.  Felt good between the toes!

The water was beautiful although a little cold.  Would have loved to get in for a bit but will have to wait on that I guess.  Don't know if it ever gets warm enough to get into during the winter months.  Beautiful anyway!

Old Hidalgo Pumphouse

On Monday we visited another one of the World Birding Center parks, the Old Hidalgo Pump House.  This pump house along with others, was important in the irrigation of the Rio Grande Valley to help change the land from being used only as cattle grazing to the food producing area that it is now.

We didn't get to go through most of the park because it is blocked off by the "border fence". It was close enough to the border that the border patrol was there and when asked they said, "we can't stop you from going through, but we advise you not to go south of the fence." Needless to say, we didn't go south of the fence!

We did walk down the road on the north side of the fence and although we didn't see many birds we did find this cast off blanket. Gene's theory is that someone from the south of the border used it for warmth during the night and as morning came they got hot and discarded it. Whether that is true or not it did seem strange to find a blanket laying on the ground just north of the border.

We didn't see any birds to talk about but we did see this National Guard soldier doing border patrol. He is a member of the Army-Texas National Guard in the 38th Infantry Division.