Abilene Zoo and BBQ!

My son-in-law and I made the drive from San Angelo to Abilene with the two grandkids to check out the zoo. First though, we stopped at Harold's BBQ which had the highest ratings of any BBQ joint in Abilene on several sites.

The rub was a little too spicy for my taste and I have to admit I didn't care much for the beans, but the meat was super tender and my sil liked what he ordered a lot. My oldest grandson only ate corn bread and I think a couple of french fries. He's turned into a bit of a picky eater. He used to eat pretty much anything.

Harold's does a great business with what appeared to be a very loyal clientele. The staff was very friendly and accommodating, but I wished I could have heard Harold sing, which he apparently does sometimes.

Then it was on to the zoo!

It was a really hot day, which was not surprising of course considering where we were. I'm a little limited here as my daughter and her husband prefer not to have pictures of their kids put online, although there are exceptions to that, such as when a picture doesn't show their faces.

But anyway, we saw a lot of snakes, which my oldest grandson loves. More snakes than I needed to see, but they also had some cool frogs and lizards. They even had a Tokay, which we used to have living in our house in West Java Indonesia. I told my grandson that, but he didn't get the whole Grandma is ok to have a lizard live in her house thing

Outside the reptile house there were some flamingos, pretty cool I think!

We had bought some hard crackers to feed the animals when we bought our tickets, note to self, next time, stop at the store and buy your own hard crackers! They had a little platform over a lake there, and we fed the fish soon after we arrived and then shortly before we left. This is the fish frenzy that ensued when I crumbled up a cracker in my hands and sprinkled a whole handful where the fish were waiting. They were jumping on top of each other to get some and their big mouths were wide open like they were begging!

Here is a picture of a prairie dog that was just chilling out. It just amused me. I thought it might be fun to photo shop it and put a sombrero on it's head, but as you can see, I didn't do that. Mostly because I don't know how and don't feel like taking the time to learn right now.

My favorite part of the zoo was the giraffe bridge, which is unlike anything I have ever seen. A bridge goes over the giraffe enclosure and from it, you can feed them. Boy, do they have long tongues. Both kids enjoyed seeing them up close and personal. The older of the two, who is almost four thought it was cool to feed one of them crackers, although he was obviously a little worried about it too. The youngest who just turned one, was enthralled.

This is a nice sized zoo, especially for small children. I think summertime may be the worst time to visit however, since so many animals were hiding away from the heat. Spring and Fall are probably ideal.