11.29.2009

Waco

During our Girl's Week together, Lucy and I took a road trip up to Waco (an hour north of us). Like most Americans, you're probably thinking of David Koresh and some cuckoo cult. But Waco is also home to the Dr. Pepper museum! And a very cool zoo. So we checked them both out.
Guess who took this picture? Yep. Lucy.
It may not seem like such a feat. But just picture the little girl, holding my large SLR camera, having to look through the eye piece (you can't see what you're shooting on the LCD screen like point-and-shoot cameras), and pushing the proper "click"! button. Oh, and adding a nice angle WITH the Pepper word in it. Good job Luce!

The museum was actually ho-hum. Casey always jokes that my blog posts sometimes make the outing look way cooler than it was. And that's exactly what this was. But there were tons of old retro cans and bottles:
Vintage coolers and vending machines:
and we got to watch a medley of old Dr. Pepper commercials. "Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? Be a Pepper...Drink Dr. Pepper...."
Next up, the Cameron Park Zoo.
This zoo was much cooler than the LA Zoo. For some reason the LA zoo has been under construction for the past 6 years. Hmmm....sounds kind of like the 5 freeway. This place was clean, colorful, and actually had animals!
Lucy's favorite, always:
One of my favorites....especially because it was African, with cool ears. The other ones look so circus-y.
And this guy kind of freaked me out. He stared right at us for minutes. That wire is pretty strong, right?
We found some cool exhibits near the monkey cages, where Lucy could ride,
jump on chimes:
and swing from ropes. She figured this one out all on her own and loved it:
Overall, a very fun day. But my assessment of Waco: it's exactly the place I would expect a weird cult to well, cultivate. The city is very strange. It feels, forgotten. But not in a cool ghost town way. It's a strange forgotten town, still sporting the not-so-cool aspects of 80s life. And there's no one there. No one walking around downtown. No one in the restaurants. And just a few people at the zoo. Weird. You can all check Waco off your list! We've seen it for you.

10 comments:

lyndsey said...

hmm. waco sounds a little creepy. but awesome! dr pepper museum?? fun trip to the zoo. you are a cool momma.

Leslie said...

Waco is a little odd, I think I have only ever been to there Sonic... don't they have that weird circle drive... or else that somewhere else...

but was totally giggling over your assesment of LA Zoo.. so so true..

p.s. love her story of cinderella.. so cute to hear her little voice... as my hubs walking by said.. SHE IS ADORABLE

Jean said...

Hahaha!! I like your assessment of Waco. But even if it's a little "off," it sounds like you guys had a fun time at the museum and the zoo. (And in response to Casey, I think all of us bloggers end up - intentionally or not - making our outings sound more exciting than they actually are. At least for me, I'm not going to spend an entire day lugging my camera and snapping pictures and then NOT blog about whatever it is that I did. Haha!) :-)

Suman Family said...

fun zoo and cool little trip for the girls even though it was so so. i'll be sure to let eric know to check this post for some cool dr pepper pics!

dietcokegrrl said...

Dr. Pepper museum?? Sign me up! I loved all the pics of the memorabilia! Looks very cool.

That zoo did look really fun though..and yes, the LA Zoo DOES suck. I've thought that since the first time I went there more than 5 years ago. Excellent analogy to the I-5 though.

Glad you had a fun little outing--and now I don't ever have to go there. That reminds me, one time while we lived in Dallas, we were looking for some particular town that Sam wanted to go to, and somehow we missed the exit for it and next thing we knew, we were about an hour away from Waco. We joked about going, but ended up turning around and going home. If I'd known about the Dr. Pepper museum, I maybe would have kept going.

Forever You said...

Love the zoo!! My daughter also love to go to the zoo a lot!

Saunja said...

Okay, good. Thanks for checking that off the list for me. Can you believe we never made it to the Dr. Pepper museum? But I thought it was in Dublin, Texas? Hmmm, maybe there's two museums. Glad you had a fun day together. Did they give you free Dr. Peppers at the museum?

Saunja said...

Ah, I just looked it up. Dublin TX has the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant in the world. And they use the original Dr. Pepper formula- with Imperial Pure Cane sugar.

Sara said...

bummer the dr pepper museum was lame. But the zoo looks like it was a blast, and bonus that it wasn't crowded! Glad you guys had such a fun girls week!

Jenna said...

Hi there! Somehow I came across your blog a few months ago and have gotten a big kick out of it, as well as the Made blog. Timing was perfect when I discovered it, as my husband and I had just moved out of Texas as you guys were moving into Texas. You moved from the West coast and we moved to the East coast. While we were in Texas for 5 years, we whined and wanted to go somewhere different and now that we are somewhere different, we miss many parts our old life in the Lone Star State. I've gotten a kick out of your references to HEB and Chuy's among other things... because we were in the same boat a few years ago exploring, enjoying and adjusting to the same things. I am sad, however, that your Waco trip was a bust, because Waco is the unexpected town we came to love and call home. I confess that we did criticize the city (but just as much as we ended up defending it) so we're right beside you in saying it is a quirky strange place. But that's what makes it great. Baylor University, Cameron Park and the history of Dr. Pepper are a few of the city's crown jewels, but if need be, one can learn to love a lot more about Waco. I'm glad you girls got a chance to go. Maybe your next stop there will be slightly more enjoyable... we never knew it could be so missed :o)