{Cameron Park Zoo // Waco TX}

A couple of weekends ago we woke up to grey skies and rain in the forecast. But, I didn't want that to keep us from enjoying a nice Saturday afternoon. I checked the weather for Waco, TX and found only a 15% chance for a span of 3 hours all day. It was much better than the percentage of rain near home. So, on a whim we were able to check an item off our fall 2016 bucketlist by visiting Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX. We had always heard great things about it, but have never made it over. It's about an hour and 10 minutes from our house, but worth the drive.
Cameron Park Zoo is very nice, spacious and it wasn't crowded at all. Maybe it was because of the cloudy skies, or maybe because everyone that visits Waco goes to Magnolia Silos, or maybe because Baylor had a home game. Either way, I'll take it. It's much smaller than the Fort Worth Zoo or the Dallas Zoo, but it was very enjoyable.

There were many times that we had a whole exhibit to ourselves! We didn't hate it. Even though Mason acted like we were in a race and wanted to run from exhibit to exhibit! Boys!

We were there about an hour before a downpour came. It last a good 15 minutes or so. We hid out under the porch of a reptile/rodent type house because I had my big camera and I didn't want to ruin it. Mason would have been fine proceeding in the rain. Once it let up we carried on. And then it started raining pretty good again! We ran for a another covered area and that's when Mason found the playground. There were 3 kids playing on the playground and were soaking wet and muddy from head to toe. Mason wanted to join them, but we didn't bring him any extra clothes and we were an hour away from home. He played in the treehouse above the playground instead.

Funny story... we were walking and heard this crazy loud and weird sound. So we kind of ran up to see what it was. It was two tortoises totally getting it on. It was hilarious! Luckily Mason was mad at us for not letting him play in the mud that he didn't pay much attention to them or ask any questions! Whew!! There were people cracking up and videoing them. I felt so wrong even taking a picture! But, I couldn't not take a picture. haha

And then we found the giraffes! They are my favorite at any zoo. I only saw three at Cameron Park. They had a place where you could feed them, but there was not anyone there to work the food. So we were bummed we didn't get to feed them. They were still fun to watch!

Mason got a couple of souvenirs and then we were good to go! We walked the whole zoo in 3 hours, even with the storm. Mason's favorite part was the slide that went through the middle of the sea otter exhibit. He did it over and over. It was hard to get a picture because the exit of the slide was in a dark shaded area. It was really neat, though!

When we left the zoo I looked up the Magnolia Market at the Silos and saw that it was less than 2 miles away! We tried to go...but there was no parking in site and there was a line a mile long. We are going to have to go back during the week when it's not so crowded. I did snag a few pictures when we were looking for parking!

Glorious, right? Chip and Joanna Gaines have my farmhouse-loving heart!

2016 Bucketlist Update:

What is your favorite zoo to visit?