Karen and I took this past weekend as a chance to get away and spend some quiet time together.  Okay, well maybe not so quiet.  It seems that every time we go away like this we end up having to come back home to get some rest!  We spend a lot of time driving this past weekend, but we got to see several really neat places and witness some of God’s wonderful creation.

Our first stop was at the Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge near Hawkins TX.  They have several big cats and they are a sight to see.  Unfortunately, from a photo perspective, they are all behind wire fences which makes is very hard to get a clear shot.  This is probably the one decent shot I got there.

Later that day, we found our way to the Mineola Nature Preserve, which of course is near Mineola TX.  This is billed as a bird watchers paradise, but since we are pretty early in the season, we didn’t get to see much here.  They do have a very nice trail system which covers some old train tracks though and we had a nice walk here.

The next day we made our way into Tyler TX to the Caldwell Zoo.  This was a much nicer zoo than what I expected.  They have a wide variety of animals, and of course, several of our favorites, the big cats!  Lots of other animals and brightly colored birds.  If you are going through Tyler, I would recommend stopping here.

After the zoo, we made our way further south to the Cherokee Trace Drive-Thru Safari.  This is the typical Texas drive through animal park with lots of different varieties of deer and such animals.  Still very neat to drive through and interact with them, even though you aren’t supposed to touch them or feed them by hand.  Lots of good photo opportunities here, but beware, they will expect payment in the form of food once they pose for you.  🙂

And before we left our for the weekend, I stopped by the Veterans War Memorial in Hawkins Texas. Here they have a wall with the names of all their local folks who have died in numerous wars.  A very touching and proper memorial for those who have fallen in the defense of our nation.

All in all, it was a very nice extended weekend, but after all the miles, we were glad to be home again.

Until next time…