We have company in town from Wisconsin. My friend Lynn is also a fan of “Fixer Upper”, so she wanted to take a trip to visit their store/venue know as “The Silos” aka “Magnolia Market. We went there this week. Since we were bringing all three of my kids with us and her adult son Elijah, we thought it would nice to find something else to do while we in Waco. I looked on Trip Advisor, as their website ranks all the top attractions for a city/location. The number one attraction for Waco, TX is actually their zoo! I read up on the reviews and decided it would be the perfect place to go after visiting Magnolia. It is only about a mile from Magnolia which made it even better! We spend two hours at Magnolia and then we went to the zoo for about three and a half hours.
Here are some of the photos we took while at Magnolia:
We ate lunch while at Magnolia Market. They have all sorts of covered outdoor seating and a variety of food trucks. I ordered crepes from the Crepe truck. I was quite impressed. I ordered the Club Crepe and the Turkey Crepe for my kids and I. They were both fabulous! It got me thinking about using my crepe maker to make things other than desserts with it. They were delicious!
The zoo was the highlight of my kids’ trip to Waco. It is called the Cameron Park Zoo. http://www.cameronparkzoo.com. The zoo has a shaded walking path that goes in a loop where you are able to stop and visit various exhibits. I loved the fact that it was shaded with large trees, as you could walk their loop in the middle of June and not die. They also had a variety of indoor exhibit including two small aquariums. It was nice to go and sit down in the air conditioned exhibits after walking outside for a bit. It made the time even more enjoyable and relaxing. We were there during the middle of the week, so it was not crowded. The crowds were much worse inside Magnolia Market. We had to leave the market to find some peace and quiet at the zoo.
The zoo has some great animals. I was surprised with how much they had at this zoo including Elephants, Giraffe, Sumatran Tiger, African Lion, White Rhino, Lemur, Orangutans, Bald Eagles, Meerkats, African Kudu, and more. My two favorite exhibits were the Galapagos Turtles and the Otters. At the Otter exhibit they have a slide that goes through their tank so that the kids can slide through the exhibit! Its pretty neat, because the Sea Otters would swim all around the tube slide while the kids would go down it. My three kids wanted to go on the slide endlessly. They had a great time.
This is a great zoo for its size. It is well worth the visit if you are in town visiting Magnolia Market. They have great ticket entrance prices too! Adults are $10 and kids are $7. The twins were free because they are age two. The parking is free too! We had a great afternoon of fun, entertainment, and learning for a very small cost.