March 2, 2004
Having not been to a zoo in many years, I didn't know quite what to expect, besides the obvious--viewing animals in cages. I am pleased to say that Waco's version of this spectacular activity was very entertaining.
So we made our rounds, visiting the many and varied species, some good (squirrel monkeys), some bad (sloths), and some ugly (Dave). Which brings us to the real highlight of the afternoon...
We visited the elephant pen. The two elephants were in the far back eating, but we persuaded one (he actually believed I was the real Mr. Peanut) to come closer so we could take some pictures. So he begins lumbering towards us, flapping his ears in the warm afternoon sunshine. How cute!
As he gets to the edge of the pond that separates us, we wonder if he will get a drink or try to spray us with water. Instead, he picks up a rock with his trunk and proceeds to fling it directly at us! And incredibly, it hits Dave square in the arm, to the delight of many. Now I know this sounds too good to be true, but I have video proof...
As if that weren't good enough, we also had some excitement at the tiger cage. You see, this tiger was incredibly cool, but the problem is that he realized this himself, causing him to prowl the cage slowly in order to maintain his cool image. Yeah, that got boring after about 20 seconds. So Emmalie took matters into her own hands. And by matters I mean a 12-foot bamboo tree...So to wrap up: the Cameron Park Zoo is fun, elephants have surprisingly good aim, and monkeys remain the most marvelous animals on the planet.