We decided to stay away from the huge crowds at the Dallas and Ft. Worth zoos and headed to the Gainesville Zoo (Frank Buck Zoo). I remember visiting there when I was young (we lived in Gainesville when I was in the 1st or 2nd grade). I had a beloved t-shirt about an elephant that survived a huge flood by hanging onto tree limbs with her trunk. I looked her up on wikipedia and found her story. I copied it here because it was so bizarre:
Another flood brought Gainesville into the national spotlight when, on September 21, 1981, the Trinity River flooded much of the town, including the local zoo. The Frank Buck Zoo, named for famed zookeeper Frank Buck, lost more than forty animals that day. The one that garnered the attention and love of the world was Gerry the elephant. Named Gerry II after the zoo's original elephant, Gerry managed to survive the flood, after being swept down river, by hanging on to tree limbs with her trunk for 36 hours. At the worst of the flood, the only part of her body that was not submerged was her trunk. Since the flood Gerry (now known as Sissy) has remained in the spotlight off and on. Completely afraid of water (and who wouldn't be after that) there was an attempt to breed her at the Fort Worth Zoo in the 1980s, but that didn't work out. In 1997, she crushed a zookeeper against the doorway of her barn enclosure at the Frank Buck zoo. While details around the death are still shrouded in mystery, zoo officials labeled her as a problem animal and shipped her off in the middle of the night to avoid protests from the community that had come to love her over the years. After leaving Gainesville, she was sent to Houston Zoo and then El Paso. She made headlines again when video footage of her arrival at El Paso was leaked to media outlets. The footage showed zookeepers beating Gerry with clubs for over an hour. The zookeepers never really explained why they did what they did to her. Thankfully, Gerry/Sissy was sent to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, where she resides at the present time. Gerry turned 40 on Dec. 1, 2008
Anyways, I digress. The Frank Buck Zoo was really good. It's just the right size to see in about an hour and has a great park next door with a train ride. We spent Wednesday night with Bunny (it was her spring break, too) and then headed to Gainesville on Thursday after lunch at Chic-fil-a. I thought C-man would nap on the way there, but of course he didn't. I was worried this would make for a grumpy trip, but he did great!
Colton looking at the goats and ducks in the petting area. We "unleashed" him here since it was contained, but the monkey backpack turned out to be a great thing as he enjoyed walking most of the way! I think he would have stayed in his stroller, but all the exhibits were hard for him to see way down there, so we kept having to get him out anyways to see the animals.
Mommy and her monkey-boy! I don't love this picture of me - but I do want to have a few pictures of me prego with number 2. This is me at nearly 27 weeks.
These giraffes were so funny. They kept wrapping their necks around each other like they were hugging.
Bunny and Colton!
Can you tell that Colton is running in this picture? He really has one speed... and that's fast! We had to speed walk to keep up with the leash 0r we were afraid we would drag him down. The zoo had this great wooden bridge overlooking the giraffes, camels, ostriches and zebras.
He really enjoyed the goats.
Looking at the bear.
Playing at the park after the zoo. Bunny got Colton an elephant shirt to wear to the zoo. He loved it and kept looking down at it and saying "el-phant"? I've got to get him on video making his elephant sound. It is really cute!
Having a snack and a rest after walking over the huge bridge.
It was a great outing and Colton was a trooper! He did finally fall asleep on the way home and had a 30 minute nap. I'm glad to know he can survive missing naptime. We just don't plan to make that a habit. Thanks Bunny for such a fun day!
