Look, zoos are complicated. They are not simply entertainment, and plenty of them have a history of negligence and needless captivity. But many care for animals which are injured in such a way as they could not survive on their own in the wild. Rationalizing? No, but it’s not always as black and white as “zoos are bad”. So anyway, we spent almost 4 hours in gorgeous weather at the Fort Worth Zoo. It was spectacular. I’m not made of stone. Most of my photos were (more than usually) pedestrian, but I did like a pic I liked of the macaw at the top of this post. The kids had a blast and never complained about how much walking we did. If you’re on the east coast, I’d say the scale is comparable to the DC Zoo.
Today was our last whole day in The Lone Star State, and after another lazy coffee hour at Crude, we finally put ourselves near the head of the line at Panther City BBQ. Ho-leeeeee crow, this was some serious smoked meat. I feel like this is what people mean when they talk about the quality of Texas barbecue. The whole family loved it, and agree the standouts were (of course) the brisket and the pork ribs. I was also in love with the pork belly burnt ends which tasted like meat candy. We walked all of that off during our time at the zoo, starting slowly as we recovered from our gluttony.
Dinner tonight was okay, but one more stop in the Near Southside was a nice way to wrap up our time in Fort Worth. The Bearded Lady has okay food, but a great beer selection, and enough atmosphere for almost anyone. Their patio (likely a former parking lot) was capacious and felt a lot like a nice beer garden, while the interior was comfortable with plenty of light. One final stop at Melt for ice cream (it is vacation, after all) and we’re all back at the hotel.
Tomorrow’s eclipse forecast here in East Texas still looks really cloudy, but we’re not giving up yet. We’ll leave the hotel early enough to get out to Clarksville, TX, hopefully by lunch time, and we’ll wait as long as it makes sense to see whether the cloud cover is improved before moving on.
Fingers crossed!