Eat and/or Be Eaten

As you can imagine, the "East Texas Gators and Wildlife Park" in Grand Saline is packed with various wildlife but the main event is definitely the gators.  And the best part of watching gators is: feeding time!  Each day at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM a park employee will bring out the feeding bucket the frenzy begins!

The gators' menu seems to consist of (at least during scheduled feeding times) chopped up chicken parts.  When a piece hits the ground it doesn't take long to end up inside a gator's belly.  Here's a little glimpse at supper time:

 If watching that makes you work up an appetite then the Park has a way to turn the tables and put you in the role of predator by offering a small selection of dishes with alligator meat at the Park's Grill (bottom left):

Behold the Gator Kabob!!

A little small for the price but the gator meat was fantastic.  It was perfectly seasoned and well textured.  The old cliche is that it "tastes like chicken" but this had more of a red meat vibe, probably since it was grilled with similar spices that would be used on a steak.  It wasn't gamey at all.  The veggies were good too!

So whether you're interested in gators eating or eating gators, this place is definitely worth a stop!

Of Goats and Spoons

A lot can be said about Tyler's Caldwell Zoo.  What is most often said is that it's a great "smaller zoo."  Which means you can see it all in a couple of hours.  So if you are chasing around a couple of young kids (like I was) then it's perfect.

Like most zoos there are a ton of educational opportunities.  Snakes and rhinos and tigers and many others are on display but I learned something about a more common type of animal and their predilection for a particular kitchen utensil.  What's up with goats and spoons?

               

 So as it turns out there were several spoons along the fence of the petting zoo and they must have gotten tons of questions about them and their relationship to the goats.  So many questions, in fact, that they put up a preemptive sign explaining the phenomena:

So goats and spoons, huh?  Who knew?  Also worth noting, but not particularly relevant, is the awesome hand washing station right outside the petting zoo.  I can't imagine a more worthy entry into the East Texas Hand Washing Station Hall of Fame: