Well, since this past weekend was cold, wet, cloudy, and a general sleepy day, I stayed inside and spent more time going through the shots from the past weekend in East Texas.  Here are a few more that caught my eye.

Here was a very Texan bird posing with the flag at the entrance to the Caldwell Zoo.

I just happened to catch this cat as he framed himself with the low branch of the tree, also at the Caldwell zoo.

One more from the zoo was this giraffe showing his true personality.  I figured it was a guy because there was another one sitting on the ground nearby ignoring everything he did, which I assumed was the female.  🙂

As we drove through the Cherokee Trace Wildlife Preserve, I noticed this lone beast standing majestically on the hill-top.  Quite a sight to see for sure.

And finally, near the cabin where we stayed was a hiking trail which gave me a chance to play with some B&W and contrasting.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.

Until next time, just remember Who created all this cool stuff we get to look at!

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…