Yes, we have a zoo here in town.

Its a very nice little zoo.

But we’ve been here 172,468 times in the past 8 years, and well, we’ve seen it.

With my kiddos being the animal fanatics they are, we try to hit the local zoo wherever we are when we travel anywhere.

Because, you know, when you see one monkey you haven’t necessarily seen them all.

(Yawn).

So once, for some weird reason ~ I think we were traveling to Houston, and Lufkin is about halfway….a good place to stop and take a break from driving with small children ~ we stopped and checked out the Lufkin zoo once upon a time.

And we were hooked and now make it a point to go visit the zoo a couple of times a year.

They have a hippo tank where you can gawk at the hippos through a piece of glass, and they can gawk at you with their very large eyeballs.

And tigers.

We don’t have those particular animals in Tyler.

Nor do we have this jungle/rainforest vibe with low overhanging trees.

At the Lufkin zoo, you are THISCLOSE to the animals; sort of dangerous, if you ask me, especially with only a 3-foot-tall concrete wall separating your toddlers from the more ferocious of the man-eating animals.

But, still, that’s part of the ambience and what makes the Lufkin zoo such an experience.

And then there are the real, live peacocks roaming the grounds.

They are everywhere.

Its the coolest thing! They hop the fences, roam the sidewalks, and nestle on top of the rooftops of all the little animal huts.

We even spotted an albino peacock!

The Lufkin zoo also has a cool little train that encircles the zoo, crossing over a lake and through the trees.

The same 172-year-old gentleman has engineered this train for over twenty-five years, he said. Or maybe he said thirty? I’m not good at remembering trivial things like numbers. But ask him yourself if you have the opportunity; He will definitely be your friend and explain to you all the ins and outs of the railroad situation through the generations.

We love the train.

We love the whole zoo, actually.

Definitely worth the 90-mile drive for a day of fun in the summertime!

We swung by to visit my grandmother in Nacogdoches on our way home from our day at the zoo. And sadly I didn’t get a picture.

So I’ll just include this picture of my grandmother with her eyes closed and me at my wedding 11 years ago.

Because its relevant to this story somehow, I just know it.